Leeds East Academy

Leeds East Academy is a welcoming and inclusive secondary school where leaders have high ambitions for all pupils. Behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management are good, while the quality of education requires improvement. The school is part of White Rose Academies Trust and serves a mixed 11 to 16 comprehensive population with a significantly above-average proportion of pupils eligible for pupil premium funding. Safeguarding is effective, relationships are warm and respectful, classrooms are generally calm, and pupils benefit from a broad enrichment programme including university trips, work experience, lectures, and a structured tutor programme. The curriculum is now described as a strength, with exciting and relevant content and knowledge sequenced to become more complex over time. Staff are passionate, SEND support is effective, and literacy interventions are strong, particularly for the many pupils who join with low literacy levels. However, this improvement has not yet translated into consistently good achievement in national tests and assessments. Over time, the curriculum was not well adapted to address gaps in pupils’ knowledge and skills, and some pupils have fallen significantly behind their peers nationally. Inspectors identified three main areas for improvement. Staff do not consistently check what pupils know and remember precisely enough, so learning does not always build on prior knowledge. Some pupils miss too much learning because of low attendance or behaviour around the school building that does not meet the school’s high expectations. Leaders should ensure curriculum adaptations are closely monitored, assessment checks identify gaps precisely, and attendance and behaviour strategies are embedded so that improvement is sustained.

Strengths

• Welcoming and inclusive school community with high ambitions for all pupils
• Warm and respectful relationships between staff and pupils
• Calm and focused classroom atmosphere with effective rewards
• Broad, exciting, and relevant curriculum that is now a strength
• Curriculum content and skills become more complex over time
• Staff are passionate about sharing their knowledge with pupils
• Effective support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities
• Strong literacy interventions for pupils who join with low literacy levels
• Regular opportunities for pupils to read for pleasure and in groups
• Dedicated personalised learning centre provides effective literacy and numeracy support
• Wide range of enrichment opportunities including lectures, university trips, work experience, and the Empower Programme
• High-quality professional development for staff with workload considered
• Governance provides effective support and challenge to school leaders
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective

Areas for Improvement

• The quality of education requires improvement
• Pupils have performed significantly less well than their peers nationally in external tests and assessments
• The curriculum has not been well adapted over time to address gaps in pupils’ knowledge and skills
• Staff do not consistently check precisely what pupils know and remember
• New learning does not consistently build on what pupils already know and can do
• Some pupils miss too much learning because they are absent too often
• Some pupils’ behaviour outside lessons does not meet the school’s high expectations and impacts negatively on education
• Attendance improvements have not been sustained for all groups of pupils
• Pupils are not as well prepared for their next stage in education, employment, or training as they might be
• The impact of curriculum adaptations and assessment checks is not closely monitored enough to ensure rapid 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 Leeds East Academy attended 82.6% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 47.0% 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, 19.1% of pupils at Leeds East Academy were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). One pupil was 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 2025–26 Leeds East Academy had 15.4 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 29.7% 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, 26.0% of pupils at Leeds East Academy were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 3.8% 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 Leeds East Academy received £9,411 and spent £9,400 for each of its 1,021 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £412,000 (£404 per pupil).

Across all 4 schools of White Rose Academies Trust, income was £9,308 and spending £9,306 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 Leeds · Leeds local authority: places and applications

Leeds East Academy is part of White Rose Academies Trust, which runs 4 schools. The nearest others:

• Alder Tree Primary Academy Leeds
• Leeds City Academy Leeds
• Leeds West Academy Leeds

What is Leeds East Academy's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Leeds East Academy is Requires Improvement, from an inspection in November 2024.

When was Leeds East Academy last inspected by Ofsted?

Leeds East Academy was last inspected in November 2024.

How many pupils does Leeds East Academy have?

Leeds East Academy has 967 pupils on roll.

What age range does Leeds East Academy cover?

Leeds East Academy for pupils aged 11 to 16.

What are Leeds East Academy's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 31.4, and 21% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Leeds East Academy?

Leeds East Academy is at South Parkway, Leeds, LS14 6HA.