Soar Valley College

Soar Valley College is a highly effective and ambitious school with a strong community ethos. Pupils are respectful, happy and safe, and they achieve exceptionally well across a curriculum that is skilfully sequenced and consistently well taught. Provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is exemplary, behaviour and attendance are excellent, and personal development and careers education are highly developed. Leadership is strong at all levels, with trustees and governors knowing the school well and staff feeling well supported. Safeguarding arrangements are effective. This was the school's first section 5 inspection; it had previously been judged outstanding before becoming an academy and joined Aspire Learning Partnership in 2023. Inspectors did not identify any areas for improvement.

Strengths

• Strong community ethos with respectful and caring relationships
• Pupils feel safe, happy and enjoy learning
• Unfailingly ambitious for all pupils, including those with SEND
• Pupils achieve exceptionally well across the curriculum
• Curriculum is skilfully sequenced and builds complexity logically
• Teachers have excellent subject knowledge and check understanding effectively
• Exemplary SEND provision with accurate identification and well-considered adaptations
• Exemplary pupil behaviour and very strong attendance
• Targeted reading support benefits pupils, including many with English as an additional language
• Exemplary personal development and character education
• Highly developed careers education and a wide range of enrichment activities
• Leaders, trustees and governors know the school well and provide rigorous supportive challenge
• Staff feel well supported and workload is carefully considered
• Effective safeguarding arrangements

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 Soar Valley College attended 94.6% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 13.0% 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, 4.2% of pupils at Soar Valley College 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 Soar Valley College had 16.4 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 11.4% 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, 12.0% of pupils at Soar Valley College were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 2.2% 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 Soar Valley College received £10,141 and spent £8,345 for each of its 1,566 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £14,030,000 (£8,959 per pupil).

Across all 2 schools of Aspire Learning Partnership, income was £8,990 and spending £7,963 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 Leicester · Leicester local authority: places and applications

Soar Valley College is part of Aspire Learning Partnership, which runs 3 schools. The nearest others:

• Taylor Road Primary School Leicester
• The City of Leicester College Leicester

What is Soar Valley College's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Soar Valley College is Outstanding, from an inspection in May 2025.

When was Soar Valley College last inspected by Ofsted?

Soar Valley College was last inspected in May 2025.

How many pupils does Soar Valley College have?

Soar Valley College has 1,564 pupils on roll.

What age range does Soar Valley College cover?

Soar Valley College for pupils aged 11 to 16.

What are Soar Valley College's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 49.6, and 50% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Soar Valley College?

Soar Valley College is at Gleneagles Avenue, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE4 7GY.