King Alfred's

King Alfred's is a large secondary school in Wantage, part of Cambrian Learning Trust, with 1,763 pupils on roll. This April 2026 full inspection found safeguarding standards met, with an open and positive safeguarding culture. Inclusion and post-16 provision are at expected standard, but achievement; attendance and behaviour; curriculum and teaching; leadership and governance; and personal development and wellbeing all need attention. Overall, the school has notable strengths but is not yet consistently meeting expected standards across several core areas of its work. The sixth form is a clear strength: it is well considered, ambitious and students achieve in line with national averages while behaving well and benefiting from strong enrichment and careers guidance. Inclusion work is generally effective, especially for pupils with SEND and those known to social care, and reading and mathematics foundations are supported well. Pupils typically feel safe, behave well and value the pastoral care and wider opportunities available. Staff feel valued, and governors fulfil their statutory responsibilities. The main concerns are inconsistency and underperformance for disadvantaged pupils. Attendance is too low, especially for disadvantaged pupils, and pupils with SEND or disadvantage are suspended more often than their peers. Achievement varies across subjects and groups, writing is not developed securely enough, and gaps are not always closed. The curriculum is not consistently ambitious or coherent, checks on learning are uneven, and support does not always enable pupils to work independently. Leadership impact is not yet sufficient in some areas, oversight of personal development is unclear, and pupils' knowledge of relationships education, British values and equality issues is inconsistent. The next steps rightly focus on attendance, closing gaps, curriculum coherence, RSE/citizenship, and better support for SEND and disadvantaged pupils.

Strengths

• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture where concerns are actively identified and managed.
• Inclusion processes identify barriers to learning and wellbeing accurately and swiftly.
• Support for pupils with SEND is typically well matched to their needs and helps them access learning.
• Targeted reading support and bespoke tutoring help disadvantaged pupils close some learning gaps.
• Leaders provide effective support for pupils known, or previously known, to social care.
• Alternative provision is used appropriately to meet individual pupils' needs.
• The sixth-form offer is well considered, ambitious and reflects local context and student needs.
• Sixth-form teaching is effective, with secure subject knowledge and good checks on understanding.
• Sixth-form students achieve well in national examinations, in line with the national average.
• Students behave well and model respectful relationships with staff and peers.
• Pupils benefit from a broad enrichment offer, including clubs, trips, competitions and performances.
• Disadvantaged pupils participate in enrichment activities to the same extent as other pupils.
• Careers education and guidance are helpful, with independent advice and practical experiences.
• Pastoral care is readily accessible and pupils trust adults to support them.
• Leaders have taken effective action to reduce poor behaviour and the overall use of suspensions.
• Staff feel valued and benefit from a range of professional learning opportunities.
• Governors understand and fulfil their statutory responsibilities and hold leaders to account.
• Pupils are well supported to develop secure foundations in reading and mathematics.
• The curriculum covers relationships, sex and health education, and pupils understand online safety.
• Pupils with SEND are supported effectively in health and personal safety education.

Areas for Improvement

• Achievement is inconsistent across different pupil groups and subject areas.
• Pupils do not develop writing accuracy and fluency as securely as they could.
• Pupils with gaps in knowledge are not always sufficiently supported to close them.
• Disadvantaged pupils do not achieve as well as they should in national examinations.
• Disadvantaged pupils are often not as well prepared for their next steps as they need to be.
• Attendance is not as high as it needs to be, and many disadvantaged pupils miss school too often.
• Pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils are sometimes not well enough supported to improve their behaviour.
• Pupils with additional needs continue to be suspended far more frequently than their peers.
• In some subjects, the curriculum is not as ambitious or coherent as it needs to be.
• Learning does not always happen in a sequence that helps pupils build knowledge over time.
• Checks on learning are used inconsistently to identify misconceptions and gaps.
• Pupils are often unclear about how or when to improve their work.
• Curriculum adaptation is inconsistent and does not always help pupils access learning independently.
• Leaders' actions have not yet had sufficient impact in some areas of the school's work.
• Leaders' understanding of how securely pupils are learning and achieving is sometimes less precise.
• Governors are sometimes not as ambitious as they could be about the timeliness and extent of improvements.
• Leaders do not have consistently clear oversight of the impact of the personal development programme.
• Pupils are not as knowledgeable as they need to be about some aspects of relationships education.
• Pupils have insufficient opportunities to explore misogyny, gender respect and sexual harassment.
• Pupils' understanding of fundamental British values, such as democracy and the rule of law, is not consistently clear.
• Pupils often have limited knowledge about the legal framework around equality and discrimination.
• Some pupils, particularly those with high levels of absence, have notable gaps in skills and knowledge.
• Some pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils do not make sufficient progress from their starting points.

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 King Alfred's attended 88.1% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 29.5% 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, 10.4% of pupils at King Alfred's were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). No 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 King Alfred's had 16.3 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 15.1% 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, 17.7% of pupils at King Alfred's were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 4.4% 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 2023–24 King Alfred's received £7,442 and spent £7,519 for each of its 1,682 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £771,000 (£458 per pupil).

Across all 18 schools of Cambrian Learning Trust, income was £6,956 and spending £6,911 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 Wantage · Oxfordshire local authority: places and applications

King Alfred's is part of Cambrian Learning Trust, which runs 18 schools. The nearest others:

• Wantage Church of England Primary School Wantage
• Charlton Primary School Wantage
• St Nicholas CofE Primary School Wantage
• St Johns CofE Academy Wantage
• Millbrook Primary School Wantage
• St James Church of England Primary School, Hanney Wantage
• John Blandy Primary School Abingdon
• Buckland Church of England Primary School Faringdon
• Thameside Primary School Abingdon
• Folly View Primary Faringdon

What is King Alfred's's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for King Alfred's is Needs attention, from an inspection in June 2026.

When was King Alfred's last inspected by Ofsted?

King Alfred's was last inspected in June 2026.

How many pupils does King Alfred's have?

King Alfred's has 1,708 pupils on roll.

What age range does King Alfred's cover?

King Alfred's for pupils aged 11 to 18.

What are King Alfred's's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 43.4, and 44% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is King Alfred's?

King Alfred's is at Portway, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 9BY.