The Canterbury Academy

The Canterbury Academy at a glance

Located in Canterbury, Kent, The Canterbury Academy is a secondary school, classified by the DfE as a converter academy. The school educates roughly 1,984 pupils aged 11 to 19. Ofsted judged the school to be 'Requires improvement' when it was last inspected in January 2026. In the most recent GCSE results, pupils achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 39.0, below the national average of 46. That marks an improvement of 1.0 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.

34% of pupils achieved a grade 5 or above in both English and maths, below the national average of about 45%. 55% achieved a standard pass (grade 4+) in English and maths. Competition for places is real here - 72% of first-choice applicants were offered a Year 7 place for September 2026 (248 first choices for 203 places). After Year 11, 89% of its leavers went on to education, an apprenticeship or work that they stayed in for at least two terms. Overall pupil absence was 13.1%. There are about 15.8 pupils per teacher. If you are considering The Canterbury Academy, it may be worth asking how leaders have responded to Ofsted's findings and what has changed since the inspection. 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.