State-fundedAcademy sponsor led · Westmorland and Furness · LA14 3JT
Secondary (no sixth form) · ages 11–16
Walney Academy is a state-funded school in Westmorland and Furness, teaching pupils aged 11 to 16.
| 2023–24 | 2022–23 | 2021–22 | 3-year average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progress 8 | -1.202nd percentile | -0.845th percentile | -1.092nd percentile | -1.042nd percentile |
| Attainment 8 | 34.414th percentile | 40.629th percentile | 37.214th percentile | 37.418th percentile |
Progress 8 for 2023–24 was -1.20 — well below average, the 2nd percentile nationally. On average pupils left with grades about 1.20 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 -1.55 to -0.84. 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 -1.20 to -0.84. 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 | 25%19th percentile |
|---|---|
| EBacc average point score | 2.9916th 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 | -0.37 | -0.31 | -0.70 | -0.46 |
| Middle starters | -1.24 | -1.00 | -1.11 | -1.12 |
| Higher starters | -1.71 | -0.79 | -1.63 | -1.38 |
54 families named this school first for 59 places for 2026 entry — 0.92 first preferences per place.
| 2026 entry | 2025 entry | 2024 entry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per place | 0.92× | 0.96× | 0.91× |
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 | 9.9%32nd percentile |
|---|---|
| Persistently absent pupils | 30.1%29th 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 Walney 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.