Stour Valley Community School
Cavendish Road, Clare, Sudbury, CO10 8PJ
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Free schools
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Trust
- ANGLIAN LEARNING
- Principal
- Mrs Rachel Kelly
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Sponsor
- Anglian Learning
- Constituency
- West Suffolk
- Setting
- Smaller rural: Further from a major town or city
- Capacity
- 575
- Pupils on roll
- 569
- URN
- 136757
- Local authority
- Suffolk
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01787279342
About this school
Stour Valley Community School is a secondary academy in Sudbury. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 569 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
Overall judgement at the last full inspection
This inspection took place under the previous framework, which gave a single overall grade. Ofsted now publishes report cards instead, so newer inspections of other schools will look different. How Ofsted report cards work
- Quality of education
- Good
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 118 | 115 | 113 |
| Attainment 8 score | 47.6 | 47.4 | 44.5 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.05 -0.30 to +0.21 | -0.14 -0.40 to +0.13 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 43% | 48.7% | 42.5% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 60% | 68.7% | 60.2% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 6% | 5.2% | 15.9% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.7 |
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 Stour Valley Community School has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Suffolk average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 47.6 | 37.4 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 47.4 | 37.3 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 44.5 | 36 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 8.7% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 10.8% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 10.1% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 586 |
| 2023/24 | 579 |
| 2024/25 | 569 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Stour Valley Community School compares
Stour Valley Community School ranked 19th of 43 secondary schools in Suffolk for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 55% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 8% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 44.5 | 10.1% | 19.3% | 569 | — |
| Samuel Ward Academy | 43.8 | 10.1% | 18.9% | 1,076 | 6.1 miles |
| Ormiston Sudbury Academy | 39.6 | 8.3% | 34% | 710 | 6.5 miles |
| Hedingham School and Sixth Form | 39.9 | 10.4% | 16% | 1,177 | 6.6 miles |
| Castle Manor Academy | 40.3 | 9.7% | 29.7% | 760 | 6.9 miles |
| Thomas Gainsborough School | 46.1 | 8.3% | 20.2% | 1,603 | 8.0 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.
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 19.33%
- English as an additional language
- 0.9%
- Overall absence
- 10.07%
- Persistent absence
- 25.54%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Samuel Ward Academy6.1 miles
Secondary · Haverhill
-
Ormiston Sudbury Academy6.5 miles
Secondary · Sudbury
-
Hedingham School and Sixth Form6.6 miles
Secondary · Halstead
-
Castle Manor Academy6.9 miles
Secondary · Haverhill
-
Thomas Gainsborough School8.0 miles
Secondary · Sudbury
Other schools in Sudbury
- Ormiston Sudbury Academy Secondary
- Thomas Gainsborough School Secondary
- Acton Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Primary
- Belchamp St Paul Church of England Primary School Primary
- Boxford Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Primary
- Cavendish Church of England Primary School Primary
- Clare Community Primary School Primary
- Glemsford Primary Academy Primary
- Great Waldingfield Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Primary
- Hundon Community Primary School Primary
- Lavenham Community Primary School Primary
- Long Melford Church of England Primary School Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does Stour Valley Community School teach?
- Stour Valley Community School teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Sudbury.
- Who is the principal of Stour Valley Community School?
- The principal of Stour Valley Community School is Mrs Rachel Kelly, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Stour Valley Community School last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Stour Valley Community School, 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 Stour Valley Community School?
- Stour Valley Community School has 569 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Stour Valley Community School full?
- Stour Valley Community School has capacity for 575 pupils and 569 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 Stour Valley Community School a faith school?
- No. Stour Valley Community School has no designated religious character.
- Is Stour Valley Community School a selective school?
- No. Stour Valley Community School is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs Stour Valley Community School?
- Stour Valley Community School is part of ANGLIAN LEARNING. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have Stour Valley Community School's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 47.6 in 2022/23 and 44.5 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Stour Valley Community School rank locally?
- Stour Valley Community School ranked 19th of 43 secondary schools in Suffolk for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 55% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 8% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Stour Valley Community School's absence rate?
- Stour Valley Community School's overall absence rate is 10.1% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Stour Valley Community School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Stour Valley Community School'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.