Ormiston Venture Academy
Oriel Avenue, Great Yarmouth, Gorleston, NR31 7JJ
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy sponsor led
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Trust
- ORMISTON ACADEMIES TRUST
- Principal
- Mr Simon Gilbert-Barnham
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Religious ethos
- None
- Sponsor
- Ormiston Academies Trust
- Constituency
- Great Yarmouth
- Setting
- Urban: Further from a major town or city
- Capacity
- 900
- Pupils on roll
- 889
- URN
- 136187
- Local authority
- Norfolk
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01493662966
About this school
Ormiston Venture Academy is a secondary academy in Gorleston. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 889 pupils on roll.
Ofsted has inspected Ormiston Venture Academy, and its latest judgement is set out below. Where the Department for Education has published them, its results and pupil characteristics appear below. Numbers and a report only go so far, so visit in person before you apply.
Ofsted judgement
Ofsted did not give an overall grade. Between September 2024 and September 2025 inspections graded each area of a school's work without a single overall judgement, ahead of the move to report cards. How Ofsted report cards work
- Quality of education
- Outstanding
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Outstanding
- Personal development
- Outstanding
- Leadership and management
- Outstanding
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 176 | 167 | 177 |
| Attainment 8 score | 43.6 | 47.6 | 47.3 |
| Progress 8 score | +0.09 -0.12 to +0.30 | +0.51 +0.30 to +0.73 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 39% | 49.1% | 44.6% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 59% | 71.9% | 67.2% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 24% | 27.5% | 29.4% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 3.6 | 4.1 | 4.0 |
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 Ormiston Venture Academy has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Norfolk average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 43.6 | 38.8 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 47.6 | 39.2 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 47.3 | 38.6 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 8.8% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 8.9% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 10.5% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 887 |
| 2023/24 | 887 |
| 2024/25 | 902 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Ormiston Venture Academy compares
Ormiston Venture Academy ranked 16th of 53 secondary schools in Norfolk for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 67% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 6% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 47.3 | 10.5% | 40.5% | 889 | — |
| Cliff Park Ormiston Academy | 35.9 | 11.8% | 41.1% | 812 | 0.8 miles |
| Lynn Grove Academy | 44.2 | 9.7% | 33.6% | 1,113 | 1.1 miles |
| Great Yarmouth Charter Academy | 38.6 | 11.5% | 55.4% | 882 | 3.7 miles |
| Benjamin Britten Academy of Music and Mathematics | 44.9 | 9.9% | 32% | 1,263 | 5.0 miles |
| Ormiston Denes Academy | 40.5 | 9.9% | 57.4% | 711 | 5.7 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.
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 40.47%
- English as an additional language
- 6.5%
- Overall absence
- 10.49%
- Persistent absence
- 28.49%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Cliff Park Ormiston Academy0.8 miles
Secondary · Great Yarmouth
-
Lynn Grove Academy1.1 miles
Secondary · Great Yarmouth
-
Great Yarmouth Charter Academy3.7 miles
Secondary · Great Yarmouth
-
Benjamin Britten Academy of Music and Mathematics5.0 miles
Secondary · Lowestoft
-
Ormiston Denes Academy5.7 miles
Secondary · Lowestoft
Common questions
- What ages does Ormiston Venture Academy teach?
- Ormiston Venture Academy teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Gorleston.
- Who is the principal of Ormiston Venture Academy?
- The principal of Ormiston Venture Academy is Mr Simon Gilbert-Barnham, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- Has Ormiston Venture Academy been inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Ormiston Venture Academy, and its latest judgement is set out in the inspection section on this page, with the framework and the date it was made.
- How many pupils are at Ormiston Venture Academy?
- Ormiston Venture Academy has 889 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Ormiston Venture Academy full?
- Ormiston Venture Academy has capacity for 900 pupils and 889 on roll (99%), so it is close to full. Places are allocated through the local authority's admissions process, so capacity alone does not tell you whether a place is available.
- Is Ormiston Venture Academy a faith school?
- No. Ormiston Venture Academy has no designated religious character.
- Is Ormiston Venture Academy a selective school?
- No. Ormiston Venture Academy is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Is Ormiston Venture Academy part of an academy trust?
- Ormiston Venture Academy is part of ORMISTON ACADEMIES TRUST. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have Ormiston Venture Academy's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 43.6 in 2022/23 and 47.3 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Ormiston Venture Academy compare with other schools in Norfolk?
- Ormiston Venture Academy ranked 16th of 53 secondary schools in Norfolk for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 67% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 6% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Ormiston Venture Academy's absence rate?
- Ormiston Venture Academy's overall absence rate is 10.5% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Ormiston Venture Academy's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Ormiston Venture Academy'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.