Thornaby Academy
Baysdale Road, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9DB
- Phase
- Secondary
- School type
- Academy sponsor led
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Trust
- NORTHERN EDUCATION TRUST
- Headteacher
- Kendra Brownless
- Sponsor
- Northern Education Trust
- SEN provision
- OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability
- Constituency
- Stockton West
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 790
- Pupils on roll
- 443
- URN
- 148186
- Local authority
- Stockton-on-Tees
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01642763244
About this school
Thornaby Academy is a secondary academy in Stockton-on-Tees. It teaches children aged 11 to 16 and has 443 pupils on roll.
Ofsted has inspected Thornaby 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 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
- Expected standard
- Achievement
- Expected standard
- Attendance and behaviour
- Expected standard
- Personal development and wellbeing
- Strong standard
- Leadership and governance
- Strong standard
- Safeguarding
- Met
Exam results
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 64 | 85 | 80 |
| Attainment 8 score | 33.9 | 36.8 | 40.9 |
| Progress 8 score | -0.51 -0.86 to -0.15 | -0.36 -0.67 to -0.05 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 25% | 36.5% | 47.5% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 39% | 56.5% | 62.5% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 23% | 17.6% | 21.3% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 2.9 | 3.3 | 3.8 |
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 Thornaby 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 | Stockton-on-Tees average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 33.9 | 36.6 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 36.8 | 37.8 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 40.9 | 37.6 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 13.2% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 16.2% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 14.8% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 454 |
| 2023/24 | 492 |
| 2024/25 | 478 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Thornaby Academy compares
Thornaby Academy ranked 11th of 13 secondary schools in Stockton-on-Tees for Attainment 8 in 2024/25. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 41% 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 | 40.9 | 14.8% | 68% | 443 | — |
| St Patrick's Catholic College, A Voluntary Catholic Academy | 40.3 | 8.1% | 41.6% | 567 | 0.1 miles |
| Acklam Grange School | 48.5 | 7.6% | 33.4% | 1,452 | 1.0 miles |
| Outwood Academy Acklam | 42.9 | 9.6% | 52.9% | 1,201 | 1.8 miles |
| Macmillan Academy | 47.8 | 9% | 46.6% | 1,586 | 1.9 miles |
| All Saints Church of England Academy | 54.6 | 5.9% | 15% | 873 | 2.1 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.
Inspection history
-
Graded inspection report10 February 2026
- 6 June 2023
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 67.99%
- English as an additional language
- 12.8%
- Overall absence
- 14.81%
- Persistent absence
- 42.21%
Location
Nearby schools
-
St Patrick's Catholic College, A Voluntary Catholic Academy0.1 miles
Secondary · Stockton-on-Tees
-
Acklam Grange School1.0 miles
Secondary · Middlesbrough
-
Outwood Academy Acklam1.8 miles
Secondary · Middlesbrough
-
Macmillan Academy1.9 miles
Secondary · Middlesbrough
-
All Saints Church of England Academy2.1 miles
Secondary · Stockton-on-Tees
Other schools in Stockton-on-Tees
Thornaby Academy ranks 9th of the 11 ranked secondary schools in Stockton-on-Tees.
- All Saints Church of England Academy Secondary
- Egglescliffe School Secondary
- Ian Ramsey Church of England Academy Secondary
- Ingleby Manor Free School Secondary
- North Shore Academy Secondary
- Our Lady & St. Bede Catholic Academy Secondary
- Outwood Academy Bishopsgarth Secondary
- Sedgefield Community College Secondary
- St Patrick's Catholic College, A Voluntary Catholic Academy Secondary
- The Grangefield Academy Secondary
- Bader Primary School Primary
- Barley Fields Primary Primary
Common questions
- What ages does Thornaby Academy teach?
- Thornaby Academy teaches children aged 11 to 16. It is a secondary school in Stockton-on-Tees.
- Who is the headteacher of Thornaby Academy?
- The headteacher of Thornaby Academy is Kendra Brownless, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- Has Thornaby Academy been inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Thornaby 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 Thornaby Academy?
- Thornaby Academy has 443 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 11 to 16.
- Is Thornaby Academy full?
- Thornaby Academy has capacity for 790 pupils and 443 on roll (56%), 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 Thornaby Academy a faith school?
- No. Thornaby Academy has no designated religious character.
- Is Thornaby Academy part of an academy trust?
- Thornaby Academy is part of NORTHERN EDUCATION TRUST. Schools in a trust or federation share leadership and governance, but each keeps its own inspection record and results.
- What SEN provision does Thornaby Academy have?
- The schools register lists Thornaby Academy's special educational needs provision as: OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability. Contact the school to discuss how it would support a particular child.
- How have Thornaby Academy's results changed over recent years?
- Its Attainment 8 score was 33.9 in 2022/23 and 40.9 in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Thornaby Academy compare with other schools in Stockton-on-Tees?
- Thornaby Academy ranked 11th of 13 secondary schools in Stockton-on-Tees for Attainment 8. Its Attainment 8 score was higher than 41% 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 Thornaby Academy's absence rate?
- Thornaby Academy's overall absence rate is 14.8% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Thornaby Academy's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Thornaby 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 10 July 2026.