John O'Gaunt School

John O’Gaunt School is a smaller-than-average secondary academy within Excalibur Academies Trust. Most pupils enjoy attending, value the caring pastoral support and feel that staff know them well. Behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management are strong, with pupils respectful, a successful behaviour drive creating calm classrooms, and a wide range of trips, clubs and careers education. Safeguarding is effective. The main area for development is the quality of education. Although the curriculum has been renewed and is more precisely sequenced, pupils’ outcomes in national tests have been too low and too many pupils are not well prepared for their next steps. In some lessons expectations remain too low, activities do not deepen understanding sufficiently, and pupils do not consistently get opportunities to develop subject-specific writing. Assessment and feedback are not consistently used to help pupils improve, and reading support is not identified well enough for pupils who need it. Attendance is also a concern: while many pupils attend well, a significant minority have low attendance and miss vital learning. Leaders, alongside the trust, are committed and have begun positive changes, but these improvements are not yet embedded and their impact has not been monitored closely enough. The school must continue implementing and monitoring its curriculum improvements and use robust attendance processes to support better attendance.

Strengths

• Staff build strong, caring relationships with pupils and provide effective pastoral support.
• Pupils feel the school has their best interests at heart, with one describing it as feeling like family.
• Pupils understand and use the school’s values of ambition, care and courage.
• Pupils are respectful of each other and know who to talk to if they have concerns.
• The Student Leadership Group gives pupils a valued voice in their education.
• The recent behaviour drive has been very successful, helping to create calm learning environments.
• Pupils who find behaviour difficult receive targeted support and are proud to improve.
• The curriculum has been renewed, with knowledge precisely sequenced so pupils are beginning to build knowledge and skills.
• Pupils with SEND receive precise and wide-ranging additional support.
• The school has redeveloped how it checks pupils’ learning, and teachers often identify and address gaps quickly.
• Literacy is a priority, with key vocabulary frequently emphasised and a welcoming library that promotes reading.
• Pupils’ wider development is carefully considered through plentiful trips, visits and an impressive range of clubs.
• Careers education is impactful, helping pupils understand their next steps.
• Leaders are highly committed to pupils and recognise the impact of initial improvements.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.
• The school has robust processes in place to support attendance and engage families.

Areas for Improvement

• The quality of education requires improvement.
• Pupils’ outcomes in national tests such as GCSEs have been too low.
• Too many pupils are not well prepared for their next steps in education, training or employment.
• In some lessons, expectations of what pupils can achieve remain too low.
• Learning activities do not consistently deepen pupils’ understanding.
• Pupils do not always have opportunities to develop their ability to write about different subjects.
• Checks on pupils’ learning are inconsistent, and follow-up after formal assessments and examinations varies.
• The school does not check well enough whether pupils throughout the school need help to improve their reading.
• Pupils who would benefit from extra reading support are not consistently identified, so some lack the fluency needed to learn well.
• A significant minority of pupils have low attendance and miss vital learning.
• Curriculum improvements are not yet embedded, and the school has not consistently checked their impact closely enough.
• The school must use the most helpful information to identify and act on further development priorities.

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 John O'Gaunt School attended 89.7% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 29.0% 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, 5.9% of pupils at John O'Gaunt School 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 John O'Gaunt School had 15.3 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 19.9% 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, 22.3% of pupils at John O'Gaunt School were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 5.0% 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 John O'Gaunt School received £9,401 and spent £9,798 for each of its 440 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £223,000 (£506 per pupil).

Across all 20 schools of Excalibur Academies Trust, income was £7,945 and spending £8,027 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 Hungerford · West Berkshire local authority: places and applications

John O'Gaunt School is part of Excalibur Academies Trust, which runs 20 schools. The nearest others:

• Great Bedwyn Church of England School Marlborough
• St Katharine's CofE Primary School Marlborough
• Lambourn CofE Primary School Hungerford
• Burbage Primary School Marlborough
• Easton Royal Academy Pewsey
• St John's Marlborough Marlborough
• Ogbourne CofE Primary School Marlborough
• Oare Church of England Primary School Marlborough
• Liden Academy Swindon
• Nythe Primary School Swindon

What is John O'Gaunt School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for John O'Gaunt School is Requires Improvement, from an inspection in March 2025.

When was John O'Gaunt School last inspected by Ofsted?

John O'Gaunt School was last inspected in March 2025.

How many pupils does John O'Gaunt School have?

John O'Gaunt School has 439 pupils on roll.

What age range does John O'Gaunt School cover?

John O'Gaunt School for pupils aged 11 to 16.

What are John O'Gaunt School's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 43.2, and 36% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is John O'Gaunt School?

John O'Gaunt School is at Priory Road, Hungerford, Berkshire, RG17 0AN.