State-fundedAcademy converter · Thurrock · RM16 3NJ
Secondary (no sixth form) · ages 11–16
William Edwards School is a state-funded school in Thurrock, teaching pupils aged 11 to 16.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | -0.2928th percentile | -0.4120th percentile | -0.4517th percentile | -0.3821st percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 43.844th percentile | 44.445th percentile | 46.443rd percentile | 44.945th percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was -0.29 — below average, the 28th percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 0.29 of a grade per subject lower than pupils across England who had the same results at the end of primary school.
The 95% confidence interval for 2023–24 runs -0.47 to -0.11. That sits entirely below zero, so the below-average result is very unlikely to be chance. It has risen in each of the years shown (2021–22 to 2023–24), which is a more convincing signal than any single year.
Attainment 8 is the average grade pupils leave with across eight GCSEs; it tells you where they ended up, and tracks the intake a school admits as much as anything the school does. Progress 8 compares those grades with pupils nationally who had the same results at the end of primary school, so it is the better measure of what a school added.
| Grade 5+ in English & Maths | 41%46th percentile |
|---|---|
| EBacc average point score | 3.8144th percentile |
A school can post a respectable overall score while coasting one group and carrying the average on another. The row that matters to you is the one your own child sits in.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower starters | -0.11 | -0.23 | -0.26 | -0.20 |
| Middle starters | -0.21 | -0.48 | -0.54 | -0.41 |
| Higher starters | -0.62 | -0.37 | -0.39 | -0.46 |
90 families named this school first for 159 places for 2026 entry — 0.57 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 0.57× | 0.46× | 0.77× |
This is how sought-after a school is, not how good it is — demand tracks house prices and older siblings as much as anything a school does. It is also not your chance of getting in: a school with two applicants per place can still admit everyone living near it, while a less popular school a mile further away turns you down. Distance is usually what decides it, and that depends on your address.
| Overall absence | 7.5%71st percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 25.3%50th percentile |
Absence is worth reading next to results: it is a plainer signal of whether pupils are turning up and engaged than any grade average. Across the schools in this dataset the overall absence rate averages 9.0%, so this school is below the norm.
Achievement: Needs attention · Behaviour: Expected standard · Leadership: Needs attention
Inspected under Ofsted's 2025 report cards, which replaced the single overall grade with a grade per area on a five-point scale from Exceptional to Urgent improvement.
The GCSE results here are for 2023–24 and earlier, which describes pupils who have already left. Nothing on this page covers where pupils go next, A-level or sixth-form results, pastoral care, how far a school pushes music, sport or drama, or how it feels to walk around — and those are the things parents most often say settled it. Visit at an open evening before you rank a school.
Nor is any of it a prediction of a place. Whether your child is offered one depends on the school's admission criteria and, most often, on how far you live from the gate.
See William Edwards School on the map →Compare it with every other secondary school nearby, filter on results, admissions pressure or Ofsted, and sort the schools closest to your own postcode.