Leigh Academy Bexley

Leigh Academy Bexley is a warm and welcoming school that has improved significantly since joining Leigh Academies Trust in June 2023. New trust and school leaders identified the most urgent priorities and have driven rapid progress across the school. Safeguarding standards are met. Pupils feel safe, happy and proud of their school; behaviour is calm and orderly; and there is a strong inclusive culture, including effective support for pupils with SEND and a new resourced provision for pupils with autism. Inclusion and leadership and governance are notable strengths. The school's curriculum, teaching, personal development, attendance and behaviour, achievement, and post-16 provision are all at the expected standard. The curriculum is broad and ambitious, teaching is typically high quality, and post-16 outcomes have improved to be in line with national averages. However, GCSE attainment and progress have historically been low and remain below national averages, including for disadvantaged pupils. Persistent absence is still high, although improving. Teaching sometimes does not check pupils' understanding sharply enough to close gaps before moving on, and personal development teaching does not always build secure, detailed understanding for all pupils. Leaders' next steps focus on sustaining improvement, raising attainment, sharpening assessment, improving attendance, and strengthening personal development.

Strengths

• Strong inclusive culture where pupils feel a genuine sense of belonging.
• Highly effective transition and induction arrangements that help leaders know pupils' needs well.
• Accurate identification of SEND and disadvantaged pupils' needs, with high-quality staff training and reasonable adjustments.
• Clear, ambitious leadership vision and rapid improvement since joining the Leigh Academies Trust.
• Effective governance and trust oversight that challenge and support leaders well.
• Calm, orderly environment with very good pupil behaviour and positive relationships.
• Broad, ambitious, well-sequenced curriculum from Year 7 to Year 13.
• Typically high-quality teaching with clear routines, modelling, retrieval, and effective support for reading, writing and mathematics gaps.
• Well-sequenced personal development programme, comprehensive careers guidance, and wide enrichment opportunities.
• Post-16 provision with improving outcomes in line with national averages and strong progression support.
• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture in which concerns are actively identified and managed.
• Pupils and sixth-form students feel safe, valued and proud of their school.

Areas for Improvement

• GCSE attainment and progress have historically been low and remain below national averages.
• Disadvantaged pupils' outcomes and progress remain below national averages, with large gaps.
• Attendance remains a concern: persistent absence is high and overall absence is above national averages, though both are improving.
• Teaching does not always check pupils' understanding precisely enough to close gaps before moving on.
• Personal development teaching does not always ensure all pupils gain a secure, detailed understanding of key content.

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 Leigh Academy Bexley attended 89.8% of sessions (the national figure for secondary schools was 91.6%). 33.7% 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, 8.0% of pupils at Leigh Academy Bexley were suspended at least once (nationally 7.3%). 4 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 Leigh Academy Bexley had 17.0 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for secondary schools was 16.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 36.6% 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, 22.5% of pupils at Leigh Academy Bexley were on SEN support (nationally 14.1%) and 3.2% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 3.5%).

The school has resourced provision with 1 pupil.

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 Leigh Academy Bexley received £10,692 and spent £10,088 for each of its 895 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £453,000 (£506 per pupil).

Across all 33 schools of Leigh Academies Trust, income was £8,972 and spending £8,821 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 Bexley · Bexley local authority: places and applications

Leigh Academy Bexley is part of Leigh Academies Trust, which runs 33 schools. The nearest others:

• Leigh UTC Dartford Dartford
• Leigh Academy Wilmington Wilmington
• Leigh Academy Dartford Dartford
• Leigh Stationers' Primary Academy Welling
• Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy Dartford
• Leigh Stationers' Academy London
• Leigh Academy Halley London
• Leigh Academy Blackheath London
• Leigh Academy Cherry Orchard Ebbsfleet
• Leigh Academy Ebbsfleet Swanscombe

What is Leigh Academy Bexley's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Leigh Academy Bexley is Expected standard, from an inspection in July 2026.

When was Leigh Academy Bexley last inspected by Ofsted?

Leigh Academy Bexley was last inspected in July 2026.

How many pupils does Leigh Academy Bexley have?

Leigh Academy Bexley has 873 pupils on roll.

What age range does Leigh Academy Bexley cover?

Leigh Academy Bexley for pupils aged 11 to 19.

What are Leigh Academy Bexley's GCSE results?

In 2026 its average Attainment 8 score was 40.9, and 30% of pupils achieved grade 5 or above in both English and maths GCSE.

Where is Leigh Academy Bexley?

Leigh Academy Bexley is at Avenue Road, Erith, Kent, DA8 3BN.