The Sutton Academy
Secondary school · St. Helens
Elton Head Road, St Helens, WA9 5AU
This school became an academy on 1 September 2010. Before that it was a community school, under Sutton High Sports College (URN 104825).
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First preferences per place, 2026
1.17
How many families named it first, for each place it gave out. Higher than 79% of schools admitting at Year 7 in England that year.
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Offers made, 2026
255
Places given out on offer day. Not the number of places the school had, which is not published per year group.
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Latest Ofsted
Expected standard
Ofsted report card (current framework), June 2026. 2 inspections held.
About the school
- Type of school
- Academy
- Academy trust
- The Challenge Academy Trust
- Became an academy
- 1 September 2010. Before that it was a community school, under Sutton High Sports College (URN 104825).
- Ages
- 11 to 18
- Boys or girls
- Boys and girls
- Sixth form
- Yes
- Website
- https://www.thesuttonacademy.org.uk/
- Telephone
- 01744 678859
- School number (URN)
- 136141
Other schools run by The Challenge Academy Trust
The Challenge Academy Trust runs 11 other schools with a page here. These are the 10 nearest.
- Penketh High School, Warrington (4.4 miles away)
- Great Sankey Primary School, Warrington (4.4 miles away)
- Penketh South Community Primary School, Warrington (4.5 miles away)
- Dallam Community Primary School, Warrington (5.3 miles away)
- Meadowside Community Primary and Nursery School, Warrington (6.0 miles away)
- Beamont Collegiate Academy, Warrington (6.1 miles away)
- Padgate Academy, Warrington (7.1 miles away)
- Sir Thomas Boteler Church of England High School, Warrington (7.6 miles away)
- Bridgewater High School, Warrington (7.8 miles away)
- Appleton Thorn Primary School, Warrington (9.6 miles away)
From Get Information about Schools, retrieved 2 September 2026. Schools update their own entries, so these can be out of date.
How big the school is
In 2024 this school had 1,550 places and 1,444 children on roll.
106 places were unfilled, which is 7% of the school.
In 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 the school had 1,351 children on roll on average, against 1,444 in 2024.
Its places have grown from 1,322 in 2009 to 1,550 in 2024.
Places are the whole school added up, every year group together. That is not the number of places a school offers to new children in one year.
Source: Department for Education school capacity collection.
Children in each year group
As counted on one day in January 2026, the most recent school census. These are children, not places.
Children in each year group at The Sutton Academy
| Year group | Children |
|---|---|
| Year 7 | 274 |
| Year 8 | 269 |
| Year 9 | 267 |
| Year 10 | 263 |
| Year 11 | 261 |
| Year 12 | 42 |
| Year 13 | 65 |
This is not a list of spare places. Places per year group are not published, and the count is from January. Children join and leave all year, so a year group that looked two under in January can be full by March.
If you are moving into the area and need a place during the school year, ask St. Helens. Councils handle applications made during the school year, including for schools that set their own admission rules. They hold the up-to-date position, which this page does not.
Who decides who gets a place
This school sets its own admission rules, through its academy trust, rather than St. Helens setting them.
Look on the school's own website for its admission arrangements. An admission authority has to agree its rules every year and publish them. The council still takes the application.
Taken from the kind of school this is, as recorded by the Department for Education. We do not hold this school's rules themselves: a summary of an admission rule is not the rule, and only the admission authority's own published arrangements are binding.
How to apply
Applications for a place starting in September 2027 closed on 31 October 2026, unless your council set a later date.
That is a Saturday, and some councils accept applications until the next working day. Your council's website gives its own closing date.
Councils send every offer for secondary school places on the same day, 1 March 2027 or the next working day.
An application made after the closing date is what the rules call a late application. It is still a normal application and the council still handles it, but it is dealt with after the ones that arrived on time, so it does not get an answer on the day above.
You apply through the council where you live, even for a school in another area. You do not apply to the school. Find your council's secondary school application on GOV.UK.
To ask about visiting the school, or anything else about it, contact the school. Website: https://www.thesuttonacademy.org.uk/. Telephone: 01744 678859.
Links and dates can change. Your council's own website has the final word. The dates are set nationally by the School Admissions Code 2021. GOV.UK link checked 23 September 2026. Contact details from Get Information about Schools.
How many families applied
Preferences expressed and offers made at Year 7, as published by the Department for Education. These describe demand, not whether a particular child would be offered a place.
In the 2026 intake, 298 families named The Sutton Academy as their first preference, and the school made 255 offers.
That is 1.17 first preferences per place offered, higher than 79% of schools admitting at Year 7 in England that year.
Little change in first preferences per place. Across the 5 most recent years held, first preferences per place averaged 1.19 in 2022–2023 and 1.09 in 2025–2026.
First preferences for this school fell 11%, from 314 a year in 2022–2023 to 278 in 2025–2026. Across all 9 schools in St. Helens admitting at Year 7, first preferences fell 11% over the same years, from 2,110 to 1,882. Both fell, so some of this school's fall is the area getting quieter rather than the school being chosen less.
Counts of families, not places.
Across St. Helens as a whole, 93.3% of families applying for a secondary place for September 2026 were offered their first choice, and 98.4% were offered one of the three schools they named. That is a figure for the council, not for this school. How the 2026 round went in St. Helens.
Compared with its own past
About the same number of families as its recent average put this school first.
In 2026, 298 families put this school first. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 289 a year.
In 2026, 525 families named this school somewhere on their list. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 483 a year.
In 2026, 85 in every 100 families who put this school first were offered a place here (254 of 298). In 2021 to 2025 it was 90 in every 100.
In 2026, 1 of the 255 offers went to a child living outside St. Helens. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 1 a year.
Each figure is compared only with the same figure at this school. "About the same" means within 10 in every 100 of the average.
First preferences and offers at Year 7
Families naming The Sutton Academy first, against the offers it made, for every intake year held.
| Intake | 1st preferences1st choice | All preferencesAny choice | Offers madeOffers | 1st prefs per placePer place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 298 | 525 | 255 | 1.17 |
| 2025 | 259 | 503 | 254 | 1.02 |
| 2024 | 283 | 492 | 265 | 1.07 |
| 2023 | 339 | 545 | 265 | 1.28 |
| 2022 | 289 | 444 | 264 | 1.09 |
| 2021 | 273 | 430 | 268 | 1.02 |
| 2020 | 261 | 398 | 268 | 0.97 |
| 2019 | 269 | 400 | 269 | 1.00 |
| 2018 | 189 | 302 | 195 | 0.97 |
| 2017 | 209 | 330 | 215 | 0.97 |
| 2016 | 211 | 363 | 239 | 0.88 |
| 2015 | 214 | 372 | 230 | 0.93 |
| 2014 | 231 | 390 | 240 | 0.96 |
“Offers made” is the number of offers on offer day, not the number of places the school has.
Source: Department for Education: school-level applications and offers, checked 14 September 2026. All sources.
Where families put this school on their list
In 2026 this school made 255 offers: 254 to families who had named it first and 1 to a family who named it second.
A school is not allowed to treat a family differently because of where it sat on their list. The School Admissions Code says an admission authority must not give extra priority to children whose parents rank preferred schools in a particular order.
The order is used at the end, by the council, and not by the school. Where more than one school could take a child, the council offers the one the family put highest.
Leaving the other boxes empty does not change how this school considers an application. If none of the schools a family names can offer a place, the council has to offer one at a school that has room, and that school may be further away.
Source: Department for Education school level applications and offers, and the School Admissions Code 2021, paragraphs 1.9 and 2.11.
Ofsted
Ofsted changed its inspection framework: the current one publishes several graded areas and no single overall grade, while the previous one published an overall effectiveness grade. Each inspection below states which framework produced it.
Ofsted report card (current framework), 16 June 2026
- Safeguarding
- Met
- Inclusion
- Strong standard
- Curriculum and teaching
- Strong standard
- Achievement
- Expected standard
- Attendance and behaviour
- Expected standard
- Personal development and wellbeing
- Strong standard
- Sixth form / post-16
- Expected standard
- Leadership and governance
- Expected standard
The current framework does not award an overall grade.
Ofsted's report for this school
Ofsted graded inspection (previous framework), 14 June 2022
- Overall effectiveness
- Good
- Quality of education
- Good
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Good
- Sixth form / post-16
- Good
Ofsted's report for this school
Source: Ofsted: state-funded school inspections management information, checked 14 September 2026. All sources.
If you are refused a place
In 2026, families in St. Helens lodged 73 appeals about a secondary school place.
56 of them were heard by a panel and 17 succeeded, which is about 30 in every 100 heard.
The other 17 did not reach a panel. Most appeals that do not are withdrawn because a place comes up first.
This is a record of decisions already made. A panel hears one case at a time and decides it on what that family sets out, so these figures do not indicate what would happen in any particular appeal.
These count appeals about every school in St. Helens, not this school. Nobody publishes appeal figures school by school.
Source: Department for Education, admission appeals in England, reporting year 2026.
Waiting lists
Being refused a place does not end the application. Every admission authority has to keep a waiting list until at least 31 December of the school year the child would have started, and some keep them for longer.
A waiting list is not a queue. The rules say a child cannot be given priority for having joined it earlier, or for having applied earlier. The list is put back in order against the school's own admission rules every time a child is added, so a place can move further away as well as nearer.
Councils differ on whether a refused child goes onto the list automatically. The council that sent the refusal is the only place that can say which it does.
From the School Admissions Code 2021, paragraph 2.15.
Children with special educational needs
In January 2026, 77 of the 1,441 children here had an education, health and care plan. That is 5 in every 100. Across schools in England the middle figure is 4 in every 100.
A further 293 were on SEN support, which is help arranged by the school without a plan. That is 20 in every 100, against a middle figure of 15 in every 100 across England.
A school named in a child's education, health and care plan has to admit that child. That duty holds even when the school is full, and it sits outside the rules that decide who gets a place when there are more children than places. Which school is named is decided with the council while the plan is being written, not through the normal application.
Source: Department for Education, special educational needs in England, January 2026 census.
Who goes to this school
In January 2026, 547 of the 1,441 children here were known to be eligible for free school meals. That is 38 in every 100.
More children are eligible here than at half of secondary schools in England, where the middle figure is 27 in every 100.
English was not the first language for 6 in every 100 children here. Across secondary schools the middle figure is 12 in every 100.
This describes the children who go to this school. It is not a measure of the school. Most children go to a school near home, so it is mostly a fact about the streets around it.
This matters when reading results. Across the 3,610 schools we hold 2024 key stage 4 results for, the fifth with the fewest eligible children averaged 81% getting grade 4 or above in English and maths. The fifth with the most averaged 35%.
Those are averages of many schools all over the country. This school's own results are further down this page exactly as published.
Source: Department for Education school census, January 2026. Free school meal eligibility is counted for every pupil on roll.
Exam results
Published by the Department for Education for the whole year group. Figures for smaller cohorts are withheld by DfE to protect pupil privacy and appear here as a dash, not a zero.
Key stage 4: what these numbers are made of
Getting grade 4 or above in English and maths.
Across the 3 years published, this measure ran from 55.1% in 2024 to 59.9% in 2022, a difference of 4.8 points.
The year group had 256 children, so one child is worth about 0.4 percentage points and that difference is about 12 children.
Half of schools in England move by 6 points or more across the same three years, so movement on this scale is ordinary rather than a sign of anything.
| Year | Attainment 8 | Progress 8 | Grade 4+ English & maths | EBacc grade 4+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 43.10 | - | 55.1% | 23.0% |
| 2023/24 | 43.10 | -0.06 likely between -0.24 and 0.11 |
56.3% | 29.3% |
| 2022/23 | 43.10 | -0.08 likely between -0.28 and 0.11 |
59.9% | 17.9% |
Progress 8 compares pupils here with pupils nationally who had similar results at the end of primary school; 0 is average. It is an estimate, and DfE publishes a range it is likely to fall within. Where that range spans zero, the school cannot be said to be above or below average.
Teachers staying and leaving
These come from the School Workforce Census, which follows each teacher into the next year. The numbers count full-time jobs, so a teacher who works half the week counts as half. They are not a count of people.
The share of teachers who left, each year
Counted as full-time jobs rather than people, and counting a move to another state school as leaving this one.
| Census year | Teachers (FTE) | Still there a year later | Moved to another state school | Left state schools | Left in total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 95.8 | 81.2 | 4.0 | 10.6 | 15.2% |
| 2023/24 | 95.9 | 90.4 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 5.7% |
| 2022/23 | 48.5 | 41.5 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 14.4% |
| 2021/22 | 90.4 | 41.4 | 3.6 | 45.4 | 54.2% |
| 2020/21 | 80.8 | 76.0 | 1.0 | 3.8 | 5.9% |
| 2019/20 | 81.2 | 66.4 | 7.4 | 7.4 | 18.2% |
This is turnover among teachers. It says nothing about the headteacher or the senior leadership team: DfE publishes leadership retention separately and we do not hold it by school.
Catchment area
Nobody publishes a catchment area map for this school that we can read. That does not mean an address is outside its area. It means we hold no map, so we cannot tell you either way.
Where it is, and schools nearby
The 6 nearest secondary schools we hold figures for, by straight-line distance from The Sutton Academy.
- Rainhill High School: 2.3 km (1.4 miles) south-west, Prescot
- Saint Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic Academy: 3.7 km (2.3 miles) west, Prescot
- St Augustine of Canterbury Catholic Academy: 3.9 km (2.5 miles) north-east, St. Helens
- De La Salle School: 4.1 km (2.5 miles) north-west, St. Helens
- Cowley International College: 4.5 km (2.8 miles) north, St Helens
- The Prescot School: 5.4 km (3.3 miles) west, Liverpool
Nearby and related
- Other schools near The Sutton Academy
- All schools in St. Helens
- Schools in the WA9 postcode district
- What data we hold
- This page as JSON: the same figures, for software that would rather not read a web page
Where these figures come from
- Department for Education: Get Information about Schools. School identity, type, phase, address, contact details and how it is run
Retrieved 2 September 2026 - GOV.UK: apply for a school place. Where to find your council's secondary school application. Link checked 23 September 2026
- Ofsted: state-funded school inspections management information. Inspection outcomes, published monthly
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Department for Education: school-level applications and offers. Preferences and offers, 2014 to 2026 intakes
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Department for Education: school pupils and their characteristics. Children in each year group, January 2026 census
- Department for Education: school capacity. Places and pupils on roll, 2009 to 2024
- Department for Education: key stage 4 performance. Attainment 8, Progress 8 and EBacc, by school
Retrieved 4 September 2026 - Department for Education: school workforce in England. Teacher turnover, by school, from the School Workforce Census
Retrieved 4 September 2026
Using this information
This is information only, not advice. It may have mistakes in it, or be out of date. Check with the school and the council before you decide anything. We collect these figures from official publications and check them, but mistakes can get through. If you find one, tell us.
Figures current as of 14 September 2026.
This page was updated on 5 November 2026. "Retrieved" is the date of our copy of each source, not the year its figures describe. How we compare schools.