St Martin's School Brentwood

St Martin’s School Brentwood is a strong and improving secondary school with a warm, supportive culture and consistently impressive pupil behaviour. Pupils are positive about their school, treat each other and adults with kindness and respect, and learn in a calm environment where disruption is rare. The school’s ethos of helping pupils ‘to be the best you can be’ is well established, and pupils appreciate being challenged and supported to achieve well. The curriculum is ambitious and carefully planned across all key stages, including the sixth form. Teachers receive targeted professional development, including for SEND, and leaders carefully monitor how well disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND are doing. Personal development is well organised, pupils feel safe, and the careers programme is high quality. Leadership is a particular strength: the new leadership team, supported by the trust, has taken robust action to improve culture and behaviour, and staff and parents speak positively about the school. There are two main areas to improve. Lesson activities are not always closely matched to pupils’ different starting points, so some pupils do not consistently get the chance to deepen or extend their learning. In addition, the weakest readers do not always receive timely or well-matched support to help them become fluent readers quickly. This was the school’s first routine inspection since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has seen significant leadership changes since its previous inspection.

Strengths

• Warm and supportive culture with high levels of kindness and respect among pupils
• Pupils are exceptionally well mannered and polite across all years, including sixth form
• Calm and friendly learning environment where disruption is extremely uncommon
• Behaviour is consistently impressive, with well-established routines that protect learning time
• Ambitious and well-considered curriculum across all key stages, including sixth form
• Targeted professional development helps teachers meet pupils’ needs, including SEND
• Teachers use strategies such as regular questioning to check and secure learning
• Leaders focus closely on disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND so they do not fall behind
• Personal development programme is well thought out, age-appropriate and relevant
• High-quality careers programme helps pupils make informed decisions about their futures
• Sixth-form students contribute strongly to school life and support younger pupils
• Outstanding leadership has driven rapid improvements to culture and behaviour
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective

Areas for Improvement

• Some teachers do not consistently plan activities closely matched to pupils’ varying starting points
• Some pupils are not consistently given opportunities to deepen or extend their learning and meet the curriculum’s intended ambition
• The weakest readers do not consistently receive timely, well-matched support to become fluent readers quickly

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 St Martin's School Brentwood attended 92.9% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 19.4% 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, 7.5% of pupils at St Martin's School Brentwood were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). 5 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 2025–26 St Martin's School Brentwood had 18.9 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 12.6% 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, 11.0% of pupils at St Martin's School Brentwood were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 1.6% 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 St Martin's School Brentwood received £7,699 and spent £7,731 for each of its 1,712 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £1,598,000 (£933 per pupil).

Across all 5 schools of Discovery Educational Trust, income was £7,921 and spending £7,999 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 Brentwood · Essex local authority: places and applications

St Martin's School Brentwood is part of Discovery Educational Trust, which runs 5 schools. The nearest others:

• Hogarth Primary School Brentwood
• Larchwood Primary School Brentwood
• Kelvedon Hatch Community Primary School Brentwood
• Chase High School Westcliff-On-Sea

What is St Martin's School Brentwood's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for St Martin's School Brentwood is Good, from an inspection in November 2024.

When was St Martin's School Brentwood last inspected by Ofsted?

St Martin's School Brentwood was last inspected in November 2024.

How many pupils does St Martin's School Brentwood have?

St Martin's School Brentwood has 1,794 pupils on roll.

What age range does St Martin's School Brentwood cover?

St Martin's School Brentwood for pupils aged 11 to 18.

What are St Martin's School Brentwood's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 49.9, and 55% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is St Martin's School Brentwood?

St Martin's School Brentwood is at Hanging Hill Lane, Hutton, Brentwood, Essex, CM13 2HG.