The Valley Leadership Academy
Fearns Moss, Bacup, OL13 0TG
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy sponsor led
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Trust
- STAR ACADEMIES
- Headteacher
- Ms Colette Roberts
- Sponsor
- Star Academies
- Constituency
- Rossendale and Darwen
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 1,050
- Pupils on roll
- 578
- URN
- 147018
- Local authority
- Lancashire
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01706873896
About this school
The Valley Leadership Academy is a secondary academy in Bacup. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 578 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
- Expected standard
- Curriculum and teaching
- Needs attention
- Achievement
- Needs attention
- Attendance and behaviour
- Needs attention
- 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 | 72 | 118 | 82 |
| Attainment 8 score | 34.5 | 29.6 | 32.6 |
| Progress 8 score | -1.01 -1.34 to -0.67 | -1.08 -1.34 to -0.82 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 29% | 32.2% | 30.5% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 46% | 39.8% | 50% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 69% | 58.5% | 32.9% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 3.0 | 2.7 | 2.9 |
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 The Valley Leadership 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 | Lancashire average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 34.5 | 38.1 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 29.6 | 37.6 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 32.6 | 37 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 13.4% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 16.2% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 15.4% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 585 |
| 2023/24 | 655 |
| 2024/25 | 589 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How The Valley Leadership Academy compares
The Valley Leadership Academy ranked 81st of 81 secondary schools in Lancashire for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 24% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 2% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | Attainment 8 (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 32.6 | 15.4% | 46.9% | 578 | — |
| Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School | 73.3 | 4.6% | 7.9% | 1,087 | 0.4 miles |
| Alder Grange School | 37 | 7.5% | 24.3% | 899 | 2.0 miles |
| All Saints' Roman Catholic High School, a Voluntary Academy | 35.3 | 11.7% | 34.3% | 504 | 2.8 miles |
| Haslingden High School and Sixth Form | 44.2 | 7.9% | 22.4% | 1,540 | 3.3 miles |
| Whitworth Community High School | 50.3 | 5.9% | 24.4% | 654 | 3.5 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 report21 April 2026
- 19 September 2023
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 46.86%
- English as an additional language
- 1.9%
- Overall absence
- 15.4%
- Persistent absence
- 45.09%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School0.4 miles
Secondary · Rossendale
-
Alder Grange School2.0 miles
Secondary · Rossendale
-
All Saints' Roman Catholic High School, a Voluntary Academy2.8 miles
Secondary · Rossendale
-
Haslingden High School and Sixth Form3.3 miles
Secondary · Rossendale
-
Whitworth Community High School3.5 miles
Secondary · Rochdale
Other schools in Bacup
- Bacup Nursery School Nursery
- Bacup Holy Trinity Stacksteads Church of England Primary School Primary
- Bacup St Saviour's Community Primary School Primary
- Bacup Thorn Primary School Primary
- Britannia Community Primary School Primary
- Northern Primary School Primary
- Sharneyford Primary School Primary
- St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School, Stacksteads, Bacup Primary
- St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does The Valley Leadership Academy teach?
- The Valley Leadership Academy teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Bacup.
- Who is the headteacher of The Valley Leadership Academy?
- The headteacher of The Valley Leadership Academy is Ms Colette Roberts, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was The Valley Leadership Academy last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected The Valley Leadership 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 big is The Valley Leadership Academy?
- The Valley Leadership Academy has 578 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is The Valley Leadership Academy full?
- The Valley Leadership Academy has capacity for 1,050 pupils and 578 on roll (55%), 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 The Valley Leadership Academy a faith school?
- No. The Valley Leadership Academy has no designated religious character.
- Who runs The Valley Leadership Academy?
- The Valley Leadership Academy is part of STAR ACADEMIES. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- How have The Valley Leadership Academy's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 34.5 in 2022/23 and 32.6 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does The Valley Leadership Academy rank locally?
- The Valley Leadership Academy ranked 81st of 81 secondary schools in Lancashire for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 24% of England secondary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 2% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is The Valley Leadership Academy's absence rate?
- The Valley Leadership Academy's overall absence rate is 15.4% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are The Valley Leadership Academy's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, The Valley Leadership 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 15 July 2026.