Thurstable School
Maypole Road, Tiptree, Colchester, CO5 0EW
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy converter
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Trust
- THURSTABLE SCHOOL
- Head Teacher
- Mr James Ketley
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Constituency
- Witham
- Setting
- Larger rural: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,275
- Pupils on roll
- 932
- URN
- 137241
- Local authority
- Essex
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01621816526
About this school
Thurstable School is a secondary academy in Colchester. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 932 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 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
- Good
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Sixth form
- Good
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 206 | 210 | 205 |
| Attainment 8 score | 47.0 | 44.7 | 41.9 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.02 -0.21 to +0.18 | -0.19 -0.38 to +0.01 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 50% | 49% | 42% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 69% | 64.8% | 63.9% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 40% | 53.8% | 47.3% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 4.3 | 4.2 | 3.9 |
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 Thurstable 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 | Essex average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 47 | 43.8 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 44.7 | 41.6 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 41.9 | 42.2 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 9.4% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 7.5% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 9.2% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 1,201 |
| 2023/24 | 1,141 |
| 2024/25 | 1,031 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Thurstable School compares
Thurstable School ranked 50th of 78 secondary schools in Essex for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 45% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 11% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 41.9 | 9.2% | 19% | 932 | — |
| Honywood School | 46.3 | 9.2% | 20.5% | 849 | 4.7 miles |
| Lift New Rickstones | 40.6 | 9.2% | 31.3% | 1,221 | 4.8 miles |
| Lift Maltings | 39.9 | 12.8% | 25.8% | 787 | 5.2 miles |
| The Stanway School | 48.2 | 7.4% | 14.7% | 1,396 | 5.9 miles |
| Paxman Academy | 41.3 | 8.2% | 32.6% | 873 | 6.3 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
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 19.02%
- English as an additional language
- 2.4%
- Overall absence
- 9.19%
- Persistent absence
- 24.17%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Honywood School4.7 miles
Secondary · Colchester
-
Lift New Rickstones4.8 miles
Secondary · Witham
-
Lift Maltings5.2 miles
Secondary · Witham
-
The Stanway School5.9 miles
Secondary · Colchester
-
Paxman Academy6.3 miles
Secondary · Colchester
Other schools in Colchester
Thurstable School ranks 12th of the 14 ranked secondary schools in Colchester.
- Colchester Academy Secondary
- Colchester County High School for Girls Secondary
- Colchester Royal Grammar School Secondary
- Colne Community School Secondary
- East Bergholt High School Secondary
- Honywood School Secondary
- Paxman Academy Secondary
- Philip Morant School and College Secondary
- St Benedict's Catholic College Secondary
- St Helena School Secondary
- The Gilberd School Secondary
- The Stanway School Secondary
Common questions
- What year groups does Thurstable School teach?
- Thurstable School teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Colchester.
- Who is the head teacher of Thurstable School?
- The head teacher of Thurstable School is Mr James Ketley, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Thurstable School last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Thurstable 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 Thurstable School?
- Thurstable School has 932 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Thurstable School full?
- Thurstable School has capacity for 1,275 pupils and 932 on roll (73%), 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 Thurstable School a faith school?
- No. Thurstable School has no designated religious character.
- Is Thurstable School a selective school?
- No. Thurstable School is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs Thurstable School?
- Thurstable School is part of THURSTABLE SCHOOL. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have Thurstable School's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 47 in 2022/23 and 41.9 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Thurstable School rank locally?
- Thurstable School ranked 50th of 78 secondary schools in Essex for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 45% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 11% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Thurstable School's absence rate?
- Thurstable School's overall absence rate is 9.2% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Thurstable School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Thurstable 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.