Darwen Aldridge Community Academy

School overview

Darwen Aldridge Community Academy is a secondary school serving Blackburn with Darwen, classified by the DfE as a sponsor-led academy. It has 1,065 pupils aged 11 to 19 on roll. In the most recent GCSE results, pupils achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 36.5, below the national average of 46. That is down 2.5 points in its Attainment 8 score on the previous year. On our composite score, which combines the DfE attainment measures above, this places it in the lower half of secondary schools nationally.

24% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths, well below the national average of about 45%. 50% achieved a standard pass (grade 4+) in English and maths. Darwen Aldridge Community Academy was not oversubscribed for September 2026: all 128 families who put it first were offered a place. After Year 11, 87% of its leavers went on to education, an apprenticeship or work that they stayed in for at least two terms. Overall pupil absence was 11.3%. There are about 17.3 pupils per teacher. The school serves a community with above-average levels of disadvantage: about 37% of pupils have been eligible for free school meals in the last six years, compared with roughly 24% nationally — useful context when reading the results above. Darwen Aldridge Community Academy does not currently have a recent graded Ofsted judgement on record (often the case for newer or recently converted schools), so it is worth asking when its next inspection is expected. This overview is generated automatically from the latest published DfE performance tables and Ofsted data; figures are rounded, and you can check the originals via the official links above.