UTC Reading
Crescent Road, East Reading, Reading, RG1 5RQ
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- University technical college
- Ages
- 14 to 19
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Trust
- ACTIVATE LEARNING EDUCATION TRUST
- Principal
- Ms Jennie Thomson
- Admissions policy
- Non-selective
- Sponsor
- Activate Learning Education Trust
- Constituency
- Reading Central
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 600
- Pupils on roll
- 299
- URN
- 139268
- Local authority
- Reading
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01189381020
About this school
UTC Reading is a secondary school in Reading. It teaches children aged 14 to 19 and has 299 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
- Early years
- 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 | 120 | 106 | 79 |
| Attainment 8 score | 49.4 | 40.7 | 42.0 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.51 -0.81 to -0.21 | -0.80 -1.09 to -0.50 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 48% | 47.2% | 38% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 73% | 59.4% | 57% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 3% | 0% | 0% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 3.8 | 3.2 | 3.1 |
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 UTC Reading has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Reading average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 49.4 | 42.8 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 40.7 | 41 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 42 | 44.3 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 14.1% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 12.9% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 13.3% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 489 |
| 2023/24 | 395 |
| 2024/25 | 286 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How UTC Reading compares
UTC Reading ranked 8th of 9 secondary schools in Reading 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 3% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 42 | 13.3% | 24.5% | 299 | — |
| Maiden Erlegh School in Reading | 45.6 | 8.1% | 29.6% | 889 | 0.0 miles |
| Reading School | 83 | 4.5% | 9% | 1,138 | 0.6 miles |
| Maiden Erlegh School | 55.5 | 7% | 7.3% | 1,841 | 1.0 miles |
| Kendrick School | 84 | 4.9% | 9.2% | 939 | 1.1 miles |
| The Bulmershe School | 50.7 | 7.1% | 16% | 1,530 | 1.1 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)
- 24.46%
- English as an additional language
- 33.6%
- Overall absence
- 13.34%
- Persistent absence
- 39.33%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Maiden Erlegh School in Reading0.0 miles
Secondary · Reading
-
Reading School0.6 miles
Secondary · Reading
-
Maiden Erlegh School1.0 miles
Secondary · Reading
-
Kendrick School1.1 miles
Secondary · Reading
-
The Bulmershe School1.1 miles
Secondary · Reading
Other schools in Reading
UTC Reading ranks 17th of the 19 ranked secondary schools in Reading.
- Blessed Hugh Faringdon Catholic School Secondary
- Denefield School Secondary
- Hartland High School Secondary
- Highdown School and Sixth Form Centre Secondary
- Kendrick School Secondary
- King's Academy Prospect Secondary
- Langtree School Secondary
- Little Heath School Secondary
- Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge Secondary
- Maiden Erlegh School Secondary
- Maiden Erlegh School in Reading Secondary
- Oakbank School Secondary
Common questions
- What year groups does UTC Reading teach?
- UTC Reading teaches children aged 14 to 19. It is a secondary school in Reading.
- Who is the principal of UTC Reading?
- The principal of UTC Reading is Ms Jennie Thomson, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was UTC Reading last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected UTC Reading, 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 UTC Reading?
- UTC Reading has 299 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 14 to 19.
- Is UTC Reading full?
- UTC Reading has capacity for 600 pupils and 299 on roll (50%), 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 UTC Reading a faith school?
- No. UTC Reading has no designated religious character.
- Is UTC Reading a selective school?
- No. UTC Reading is recorded as non-selective in the schools register.
- Who runs UTC Reading?
- UTC Reading is part of ACTIVATE LEARNING EDUCATION TRUST. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have UTC Reading's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 49.4 in 2022/23 and 42 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does UTC Reading rank locally?
- UTC Reading ranked 8th of 9 secondary schools in Reading 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 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 UTC Reading's absence rate?
- UTC Reading's overall absence rate is 13.3% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are UTC Reading's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, UTC Reading'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.