Countesthorpe Academy

Countesthorpe Academy is a mixed secondary school and sixth form within LIFE Multi-Academy Trust. Inspectors found a school with high expectations, improving behaviour, effective safeguarding and a caring culture where pupils feel safe. Personal development and sixth-form provision are stronger than the core areas of quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management, which require improvement. The school has improved its curriculum and is working to raise achievement, but this work is not yet having full impact across all subjects.

Strengths

• Staff have high expectations of pupils and disruption in lessons is rare.
• Pupils feel safe and say there are many staff they can turn to for help.
• The school provides a wide range of opportunities for pupils and sixth-form students to develop interests and leadership roles.
• The school prioritises reading and provides clear support for pupils at the early stages of reading.
• Sixth-form students act as positive reading role models and mentors.
• Pupils and sixth-form students receive high-quality careers advice and guidance.
• The PSHE curriculum is well considered and helps pupils stay safe online and in real life.
• Provision for pupils with SEND is improving, with needs identified more swiftly and high-quality trust support.
• The school has strengthened community engagement and is increasingly seen as a first-choice school.
• Trust governance is effective and has an accurate view of the school’s improvement priorities.
• Staff benefit from high-quality professional development and feel well led and managed.
• Sixth-form provision offers a more consistently strong learning experience.

Areas for Improvement

• Too many pupils are absent too often, particularly disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND.
• Pupils do not achieve as well as they should at the end of key stage 4.
• Curriculum implementation is inconsistent across subjects.
• Not all staff routinely check pupils’ prior learning or gaps in understanding.
• In some subjects, pupils’ recall of previous learning is poor.
• Lessons are not routinely adapted to meet the needs of pupils with SEND across all subjects.
• Some pupils with SEND do not learn as well as they should because learning is not sufficiently adapted.
• Published outcomes show pupils do not achieve as well as they should in some subjects.

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 Countesthorpe Academy attended 90.2% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 26.2% 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, 12.1% of pupils at Countesthorpe Academy 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 Countesthorpe Academy had 17.9 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 25.5% 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, 12.3% of pupils at Countesthorpe Academy were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 2.8% 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 Countesthorpe Academy received £8,471 and spent £8,562 for each of its 1,193 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £633,000 (£530 per pupil).

Across all 10 schools of Life Multi-Academy Trust, income was £8,357 and spending £8,230 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 Blaby · Leicestershire local authority: places and applications

Countesthorpe Academy is part of Life Multi-Academy Trust, which runs 10 schools. The nearest others:

• The Winstanley School Leicester
• Kingsway Primary School Leicester
• Braunstone Frith Primary Academy Leicester
• Bosworth Academy Leicester
• Desford Community Primary School Leicester
• Dove Bank Primary School Nuneaton
• Ibstock School Ibstock
• Ashby School Ashby-De-La-Zouch
• Ivanhoe School Ashby-De-La-Zouch

What is Countesthorpe Academy's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Countesthorpe Academy is Requires Improvement, from an inspection in December 2024.

When was Countesthorpe Academy last inspected by Ofsted?

Countesthorpe Academy was last inspected in December 2024.

How many pupils does Countesthorpe Academy have?

Countesthorpe Academy has 1,149 pupils on roll.

What age range does Countesthorpe Academy cover?

Countesthorpe Academy for pupils aged 11 to 19.

What are Countesthorpe Academy's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 38.7, and 37% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Countesthorpe Academy?

Countesthorpe Academy is at Winchester Road, Countesthorpe, LE8 5PR.