Salford City Academy

Salford City Academy is a community-focused school where pupils feel safe and behave well. Inspectors found strong personal development and wellbeing, with an ambitious enrichment and PSHE offer, strong careers guidance, and effective support for SEND and disadvantaged pupils. Safeguarding standards are met. Most other areas – achievement, attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, and leadership and governance – are at the expected standard, with pupils generally achieving well and staff morale high. The main concerns are around attendance and consistency. Overall and persistent absence are above national averages, and leaders need to make sure their strategies rapidly improve attendance for all pupils, especially those with SEND. Writing and handwriting support is less developed, highly effective teaching is not yet consistent across all subjects and year groups, and monitoring of attendance at alternative provision is not coherent enough. A disadvantage gap remains, and destinations after key stage 4 have been below national averages. Contextually, this is a full section 5 inspection of a school in the United Learning trust. The school serves a deprived area with high free school meals and above-average SEN support. Inspectors also considered the school's response to an alleged serious incident under investigation, and noted the school uses six unregistered alternative provisions. The report recognises many strengths but sets clear next steps for attendance, writing, teaching consistency, and alternative provision monitoring.

Strengths

• Ambitious personal development programme with wide enrichment from rowing to jewellery making and leadership via The Hub.
• High-quality PSHE curriculum building understanding of British values and risks including online/offline safety, consent and gang violence.
• Comprehensive careers programme with individualised guidance, university visits, apprenticeships and employer partnerships.
• Pupils behave well and show positive attitudes; corridors are polite and respectful with warm staff-pupil relationships.
• Effective attendance strategies have reduced absence, including for disadvantaged pupils, with nurture and transition programmes.
• Accurate curriculum understanding and evidence-informed teaching help teachers identify misconceptions quickly.
• Most pupils learn well across subjects and develop secure knowledge; reading and numeracy support is effective.
• SEND and disadvantaged pupils' needs are identified quickly and well supported so most access the ambitious curriculum.
• Disadvantaged pupils' attainment is usually above similar pupils nationally, and participation in enrichment is growing.
• Staff morale is high; leaders consider workload and wellbeing, and governance understands strengths and development areas.
• Strong safeguarding culture where pupils feel safe and know staff deal with bullying or unkindness quickly.
• School sits at the heart of its community with strengthening parent, carer and community relationships through The Hub.
• Alternative provision is used appropriately and in pupils' best interests.

Areas for Improvement

• Overall absence and persistent absence are above national averages.
• Attendance strategies need to lead rapidly to high attendance for all pupils, especially those with SEND.
• Writing and handwriting support is less well developed, leaving weaker writers needing to catch up.
• Highly effective teaching is not yet consistently embedded across all subjects and year groups.
• Monitoring and recording of attendance at alternative provision is not coherent enough.
• A gap remains between disadvantaged pupils' achievement and that of non-disadvantaged peers.
• Destinations after key stage 4 have been below national averages for recent leaver cohorts.
• A small number of subjects have less positive achievement and require further improvement.

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Salford City Academy attended 89.7% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 28.9% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 23.4%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 12.3% of pupils at Salford City Academy were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). 10 pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2024–25 Salford City Academy had 28.5 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 50.2% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 14.1%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 18.9% of pupils at Salford City Academy were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 2.9% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 3.5%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded secondary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2024–25 Salford City Academy received £9,433 and spent £9,137 for each of its 895 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £800,000 (£894 per pupil).

Across all 93 schools of United Learning Trust, income was £8,687 and spending £8,616 per pupil.

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Manchester · Salford local authority: places and applications

Salford City Academy is part of United Learning Trust, which runs 98 schools. The nearest others:

• The Lowry Academy Manchester
• Irlam and Cadishead Academy Manchester
• Cadishead Primary Academy Manchester
• Dukesgate Academy Salford
• The Albion Academy Salford
• Brentnall Academy Salford
• Sale High School Sale
• Marlborough Road Academy Salford
• William Hulme's Grammar School Manchester
• Manchester Academy Manchester

What is Salford City Academy's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Salford City Academy is Expected standard, from an inspection in June 2026.

When was Salford City Academy last inspected by Ofsted?

Salford City Academy was last inspected in June 2026.

How many pupils does Salford City Academy have?

Salford City Academy has 876 pupils on roll.

What age range does Salford City Academy cover?

Salford City Academy for pupils aged 11 to 16.

What are Salford City Academy's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 44.6, and 49% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Salford City Academy?

Salford City Academy is at Northfleet Road, Peel Green, Eccles, Manchester, M30 7PQ.