# The King John School

URN 136577, Secondary, Academy converter, Essex.

Shipwrights Drive, Benfleet, SS7 1RQ.

This school became an academy on 1 April 2011. Before that it was a foundation school, under its earlier school number, URN 115319.

This page states what happened. It publishes no score, no ranking and no prediction, and nothing here says whether a particular child would be offered a place.

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 It may have mistakes in it, or be out of date.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.

Figures current as of 14 September 2026.

## About the school

- Type of school: Academy
- Academy trust: Zenith Multi Academy Trust
- Became an academy: 1 April 2011. Before that it was a foundation school, under its earlier school number, URN 115319.
- Ages: 11 to 18
- Boys or girls: Boys and girls
- Sixth form: Yes
- Website: http://www.thekjs.essex.sch.uk
- Telephone: 01702 558284
- School number (URN): 136577

From Get Information about Schools. Schools update their own entries, so these can be out of date.

Zenith Multi Academy Trust runs 3 other schools with a page here. Nearest first:

- Castle View School, Canvey Island, 2.4 miles away: /school/147031/castle-view-school
- Laindon Park Primary School & Nursery, Basildon, 7.0 miles away: /school/145812/laindon-park-primary-school-nursery
- The James Hornsby School, Basildon, 7.2 miles away: /school/138865/the-james-hornsby-school

## How big the school is

In 2024 this school had 2,200 places and 2,103 children on roll.

97 places were unfilled, which is 4% of the school.

In 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 the school had 2,087 children on roll on average, against 2,103 in 2024.

Its places have grown from 1,853 in 2009 to 2,200 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.

| Year group | Children |
|---|---:|
| Year 7 | 352 |
| Year 8 | 349 |
| Year 9 | 343 |
| Year 10 | 344 |
| Year 11 | 284 |
| Year 12 | 200 |
| Year 13 | 226 |

**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.

To ask about a place during the school year, contact Essex, which handles applications made in-year. They hold the up-to-date position and this page does not.

## Who decides who gets a place

This school sets its own admission rules, through its academy trust, rather than Essex 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. The rules themselves are not reproduced here: 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: https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-secondary-school-place

If you live in Essex, the council's own page explains how to apply there. https://www.essex.gov.uk/apply-for-a-secondary-school-place

To ask about visiting the school, or anything else about it, contact the school. http://www.thekjs.essex.sch.uk, 01702 558284.

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 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2). GOV.UK link checked 23 September 2026.

## How many families applied

In the 2026 intake, 481 families named this school as their first preference, and it made 346 offers.

That is 1.39 first preferences per place offered, at Year 7. This describes demand. It is not a pass rate and not a prediction.

More first preferences per place. Across the 5 most recent years held, first preferences per place averaged 0.89 in 2022–2023 and 1.27 in 2025–2026.

First preferences for this school rose 53%, from 288 a year in 2022–2023 to 440 in 2025–2026. Across all 79 schools in Essex admitting at Year 7, first preferences changed little over the same years, from 16,596 to 16,288.

Across Essex as a whole, 83.4% of families applying for a secondary place for September 2026 were offered their first choice, and 94.9% were offered one of the three schools they named. That is a figure for the council, not for this school.

### Compared with its own past

More families than its recent average put this school first.

In 2026, 481 families put this school first. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 311 a year.

In 2026, 1,097 families named this school somewhere on their list. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 903 a year.

In 2026, 69 in every 100 families who put this school first were offered a place here (330 of 481). In 2021 to 2025 it was 93 in every 100.

In 2026, 48 of the 346 offers went to children living outside Essex. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 50 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.

| Intake year | First preferences | Offers made | First preferences per place |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| 2026 | 481 | 346 | 1.39 |
| 2025 | 399 | 346 | 1.15 |
| 2024 | 374 | 349 | 1.07 |
| 2023 | 299 | 349 | 0.86 |
| 2022 | 278 | 304 | 0.91 |
| 2021 | 204 | 280 | 0.73 |
| 2020 | 267 | 327 | 0.82 |
| 2019 | 370 | 349 | 1.06 |
| 2018 | 444 | 347 | 1.28 |
| 2017 | 395 | 342 | 1.15 |
| 2016 | 327 | 345 | 0.95 |
| 2015 | 353 | 344 | 1.03 |
| 2014 | 399 | 346 | 1.15 |

## Where families put this school on their list

In 2026 this school made 346 offers: 330 to families who had named it first, 9 to families who named it second and 6 to families who named it third.

1 offer went to a family who named it fourth or lower, or who was admitted another way.

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 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2).

## Catchment area

We hold no published admission area for this school. That is not the same as an address being outside one. We cannot say either way.

## If you are refused a place

In 2026, families in Essex lodged 542 appeals about a secondary school place.

406 of them were heard by a panel and 57 succeeded, which is about 14 in every 100 heard.

The other 136 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 Essex, not this school. Nobody publishes appeal figures school by school.

Source: Department for Education, admission appeals in England.

## 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 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2), paragraph 2.15.

## Children with special educational needs

In January 2026, 38 of the 2,098 children here had an education, health and care plan. That is 2 in every 100. Across schools in England the middle figure is 4 in every 100.

A further 303 were on SEN support, which is help arranged by the school without a plan. That is 14 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, 251 of the 2,098 children here were known to be eligible for free school meals. That is 12 in every 100.

Fewer 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 3 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.

## Results

### 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 74.8% in 2022 to 78.3% in 2023, a difference of 3.5 points.

The year group had 324 children, so one child is worth about 0.3 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.


Withheld figures are shown as a dash, never as zero. Progress measures are estimates and are published by the government with a 95% confidence interval.

Key stage 4, 2024: Attainment 8 49.60, Progress 8 not published.

Key stage 4, 2023: Attainment 8 51.30, Progress 8 +0.19.

Key stage 4, 2022: Attainment 8 51.80, Progress 8 +0.15.

## Where these figures come from

- Department for Education: Get Information about Schools. School identity, type, phase, address, contact details and how it is run. https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/. 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. https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-secondary-school-place
- Ofsted: state-funded school inspections management information. Inspection outcomes, published monthly. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/monthly-management-information-ofsteds-school-inspections-outcomes. Retrieved 14 September 2026.
- Department for Education: school-level applications and offers. Preferences and offers, 2014 to 2026 intakes. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/primary-and-secondary-school-applications-and-offers. Retrieved 14 September 2026.
- Department for Education: school pupils and their characteristics. Children in each year group, January 2026 census. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics
- Department for Education: school capacity. Places and pupils on roll, 2009 to 2024. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity
- Department for Education: key stage 4 performance. Attainment 8, Progress 8 and EBacc, by school. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-4-performance. Retrieved 4 September 2026.
- Department for Education: school workforce in England. Teacher turnover, by school, from the School Workforce Census. https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england. Retrieved 4 September 2026.

"Retrieved" is the date of our copy of each source, not the year its figures describe.

## 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.

Full page: /school/136577/the-king-john-school
Same figures as JSON: /school/136577.json