State-fundedAcademy sponsor led · Norfolk · NR21 9QT
Secondary with sixth form · ages 11–18
Fakenham Academy is a state-funded school in Norfolk, teaching pupils aged 11 to 18.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | -0.1241st percentile | -0.2928th percentile | -0.4517th percentile | -0.2927th percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 38.422nd percentile | 38.221st percentile | 41.925th percentile | 39.523rd percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was -0.12 — average, the 41st percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 0.12 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 -0.36 to +0.13. That range includes zero, so on this year's figures the school cannot be told apart from an average one — treat small differences between schools with care. 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 | 31%28th percentile |
|---|---|
| EBacc average point score | 3.4831st 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 | -0.36 | +0.05 | -0.38 | -0.23 |
| Middle starters | -0.05 | -0.40 | -0.34 | -0.26 |
| Higher starters | +0.53 | -0.83 | -0.89 | -0.40 |
134 families named this school first for 135 places for 2026 entry — 0.99 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 0.99× | 0.97× | 1.00× |
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 | 9.5%37th percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 25.9%47th 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.
Standards maintained
The outcome of an ungraded inspection, which checks whether a school's previous grade still holds rather than issuing a new one.
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 Fakenham 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.