State-fundedAcademy converter · Torbay · TQ3 3WA
Secondary (no sixth form) · ages 11–16
Paignton Academy is a state-funded school in Torbay, teaching pupils aged 11 to 16.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | -0.6311th percentile | -0.3027th percentile | -0.5215th percentile | -0.4815th percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 37.520th percentile | 38.924th percentile | 37.815th percentile | 38.120th percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was -0.63 — well below average, the 11th percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 0.63 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 -0.82 to -0.45. That sits entirely below zero, so the below-average result is very unlikely to be chance. It has moved around a good deal across the years shown, from -0.63 to -0.30. The three-year average is the steadier number to judge it on.
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 | 27%22nd percentile |
|---|---|
| EBacc average point score | 3.1019th 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 | -0.72 | -0.11 | -0.45 | -0.43 |
| Middle starters | -0.54 | -0.33 | -0.35 | -0.41 |
| Higher starters | -0.84 | -0.84 | -1.72 | -1.13 |
265 families named this school first for 286 places for 2026 entry — 0.93 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 0.93× | 0.83× | 0.84× |
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 | 12.6%8th percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 36.0%11th 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 above the norm.
Not inspected, or no grade in the published data
Around half of schools currently have no grade here — usually recently opened schools, or academies whose last full inspection was under a predecessor URN.
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 Paignton Academy 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.