Beckfoot Oakbank

Beckfoot Oakbank is a secondary academy within the Beckfoot Trust that was inspected in January 2025. The school has made positive changes to the curriculum since its previous inspection, and pupils recognise that lessons are improving. The sixth form is a clear strength: students enjoy their experience, progress well and benefit from a well-designed curriculum and supportive relationships. Safeguarding arrangements are effective, and staff feel valued by leaders. However, significant weaknesses remain. Behaviour during unstructured times and on corridors is poor, with too many pupils missing lessons and a significant minority not treating staff or peers with respect. Attendance is too low, especially for pupils with SEND or those who are disadvantaged, and pupils do not achieve well overall, with poor published GCSE outcomes in 2024. Support for pupils with SEND is inconsistent, gaps in knowledge are not always addressed, and pupils’ understanding of respect and difference is underdeveloped. Leadership and management are inadequate because the school and those responsible for governance have not acted decisively enough on behaviour and attendance. The trust has provided some effective challenge and added leadership capacity, and recent strategies have been introduced, but they are not yet having the desired impact. The headteacher was not available during the inspection, and the school has recently appointed an executive headteacher and temporary head of school.

Strengths

• Curriculum has been improved and made more ambitious since the previous inspection
• A consistent lesson structure, the Oakbank Way, is embedded across the school
• Pupils receive effective support to develop reading fluency, including phonics teaching
• Sixth-form students enjoy their experience and progress well from their starting points
• Sixth-form curriculum is well designed and students can recall and apply learning over time
• Careers guidance helps pupils understand future options and opportunities
• Staff feel valued by leaders and recognise that workload and well-being matter
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective
• Most pupils have an adult they can speak with, and bullying is addressed appropriately
• Trustees have provided effective challenge around the quality of education and added leadership capacity

Areas for Improvement

• Behaviour during unstructured times and on corridors is poor
• Too many pupils opt out of lessons and wander around the building
• A significant minority of pupils do not treat staff or peers with respect
• Behaviour incidents are not consistently addressed by staff
• Recent behaviour strategies are not having the desired impact and have not been implemented fast enough
• Pupils do not achieve well overall, and published GCSE outcomes in 2024 were poor
• Attendance is too low, especially for pupils with SEND or those who are disadvantaged
• Gaps in pupils’ knowledge are not always addressed, particularly for those who have missed learning
• Support for pupils with SEND is inconsistent and not always provided as identified
• Some pupils lack understanding of different faiths, cultures and protected characteristics
• Leadership and governance have not acted decisively enough on behaviour and attendance

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 Beckfoot Oakbank attended 85.5% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 37.6% 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, 22.6% of pupils at Beckfoot Oakbank were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). 9 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 Beckfoot Oakbank had 14.7 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 22.3% 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, 19.9% of pupils at Beckfoot Oakbank were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 3.2% 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 Beckfoot Oakbank received £8,218 and spent £8,529 for each of its 1,503 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £2,771,000 (£1,843 per pupil).

Across all 10 schools of Beckfoot Trust, income was £8,890 and spending £8,737 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 Keighley · Bradford local authority: places and applications

Beckfoot Oakbank is part of Beckfoot Trust, which runs 10 schools. The nearest others:

• Beckfoot Nessfield Keighley
• Beckfoot Phoenix Keighley
• Beckfoot Priestthorpe Primary School & Nursery Bingley
• Beckfoot School Bingley
• Hazelbeck Special School Bingley
• Beckfoot Upper Heaton Bradford
• Beckfoot Heaton Primary Bradford
• Beckfoot Allerton Primary School and Nursery Bradford
• Beckfoot Thornton Bradford

What is Beckfoot Oakbank's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Beckfoot Oakbank is Inadequate, from an inspection in June 2026.

When was Beckfoot Oakbank last inspected by Ofsted?

Beckfoot Oakbank was last inspected in June 2026.

How many pupils does Beckfoot Oakbank have?

Beckfoot Oakbank has 1,394 pupils on roll.

What age range does Beckfoot Oakbank cover?

Beckfoot Oakbank for pupils aged 11 to 18.

What are Beckfoot Oakbank's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 37.7, and 29% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Beckfoot Oakbank?

Beckfoot Oakbank is at Oakworth Road, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD22 7DU.