Lift Maltings
Spinks Lane, Witham, CM8 1EP
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy sponsor led
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Trust
- LIFT SCHOOLS
- Head of Academy
- Ms Leanne Abbott-Jones
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Religious ethos
- None
- Sponsor
- Lift Schools
- Constituency
- Witham
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,100
- Pupils on roll
- 787
- URN
- 135653
- Local authority
- Essex
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01376512911
About this school
Lift Maltings is a secondary academy in Witham. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 787 pupils on roll.
You can read Ofsted's latest judgement for the school below. Where the Department for Education has published them, its results and pupil characteristics appear below. Seeing a school for yourself shows what no page can, so arrange a visit before you apply.
Ofsted judgement
Ofsted no longer gives schools a single overall grade. Each area of the school's work is graded on a five-point scale, and safeguarding is judged separately.
- Inclusion
- Needs attention
- Curriculum and teaching
- Expected standard
- Achievement
- Needs attention
- Attendance and behaviour
- Expected standard
- Personal development and wellbeing
- Expected standard
- Leadership and governance
- Expected standard
- Safeguarding
- Met
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 170 | 171 | 166 |
| Attainment 8 score | 43.3 | 39.0 | 39.9 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.36 -0.57 to -0.14 | -0.64 -0.86 to -0.43 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 39% | 36.8% | 42.2% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 66% | 59.1% | 63.9% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 30% | 20.5% | 19.3% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 3.8 | 3.4 | 3.3 |
Progress 8 is paused nationally for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 school years. Those pupils sat no key stage 2 tests during the Covid pandemic, so there is no starting point to measure progress from. A blank figure here is not missing school data.
Trends over time
How Lift Maltings has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Essex average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 43.3 | 43.8 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 39 | 41.6 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 39.9 | 42.2 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 10.3% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 12.8% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 12.8% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 891 |
| 2023/24 | 891 |
| 2024/25 | 841 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Lift Maltings compares
Lift Maltings ranked 56th of 78 secondary schools in Essex for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 38% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 3% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 39.9 | 12.8% | 25.8% | 787 | — |
| Lift New Rickstones | 40.6 | 9.2% | 31.3% | 1,221 | 1.5 miles |
| Plume School | 42.9 | 8% | 26.4% | 1,789 | 5.0 miles |
| Thurstable School | 41.9 | 9.2% | 19% | 932 | 5.2 miles |
| Alec Hunter Academy | 45.7 | 6.2% | 20.1% | 1,058 | 5.8 miles |
| Notley High School and Braintree Sixth Form | 44.9 | 9.6% | 19.8% | 1,210 | 6.0 miles |
Results reflect each school's cohort as much as its teaching, and free school meals share is context, not a judgement. Small gaps between neighbouring schools are rarely meaningful on their own.
Inspection history
-
Graded inspection report24 March 2026
- 19 September 2023
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 25.8%
- English as an additional language
- 6.5%
- Overall absence
- 12.75%
- Persistent absence
- 32.84%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Lift New Rickstones1.5 miles
Secondary · Witham
-
Plume School5.0 miles
Secondary · Maldon
-
Thurstable School5.2 miles
Secondary · Colchester
-
Alec Hunter Academy5.8 miles
Secondary · Braintree
-
Notley High School and Braintree Sixth Form6.0 miles
Secondary · Braintree
Other schools in Witham
- Lift New Rickstones Secondary
- Acorn Academy Primary
- Chipping Hill Primary School Primary
- Elm Hall Primary School Primary
- Holy Family Catholic Primary School Primary
- Howbridge Church of England Junior School Primary
- Howbridge Infant School Primary
- Rivenhall Church of England Primary School Primary
- Silver End Academy Primary
- Templars Academy Primary
- White Notley Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Primary
- Witham Oaks Academy Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does Lift Maltings teach?
- Lift Maltings teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Witham.
- Who is the head of academy of Lift Maltings?
- The head of academy of Lift Maltings is Ms Leanne Abbott-Jones, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Lift Maltings last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Lift Maltings, and its latest judgement is set out in the inspection section on this page, with the framework and the date it was made.
- How big is Lift Maltings?
- Lift Maltings has 787 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Lift Maltings full?
- Lift Maltings has capacity for 1,100 pupils and 787 on roll (72%), so it has space against its published capacity. Places are allocated through the local authority's admissions process, so capacity alone does not tell you whether a place is available.
- Is Lift Maltings a faith school?
- No. Lift Maltings has no designated religious character.
- Is Lift Maltings a selective school?
- No. Lift Maltings is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs Lift Maltings?
- Lift Maltings is part of LIFT SCHOOLS. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have Lift Maltings's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 43.3 in 2022/23 and 39.9 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Lift Maltings rank locally?
- Lift Maltings ranked 56th of 78 secondary schools in Essex for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 38% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 3% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Lift Maltings's absence rate?
- Lift Maltings's overall absence rate is 12.8% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Lift Maltings's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Lift Maltings's key stage results are shown in the results section on this page, with the last three years so you can see the trend rather than a single year.
School details come from the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register. Inspection outcomes come from Ofsted, and exam results from the Department for Education's school performance service. This page was last updated on 1 July 2026.