Magdalen College School
Secondary school · West Northamptonshire
Waynflete Avenue, Brackley, NN13 6FB
Ofsted category of concern: Special measures
At its inspection on 23 April 2025 (Ofsted graded inspection (previous framework)), this school was placed in the category special measures.
Ofsted judged the school to be failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education, and not to have the capacity to make the necessary improvements without help.
This is about that one inspection. Schools do come out of these categories. This page does not tell you where the school stands today. Check that with Ofsted.
-
First preferences per place, 2026
0.82
How many families named it first, for each place it gave out. Higher than 27% of schools admitting at Year 7 in England that year.
-
Offers made, 2026
211
Places given out on offer day. Not the number of places the school had, which is not published per year group.
-
Latest Ofsted
Not judged
Ofsted graded inspection (previous framework), April 2025. 2 inspections held.
About the school
- Type of school
- Academy
- Academy trust
- Magdalen College School Brackley Academy Trust
- Ages
- 11 to 18
- Boys or girls
- Boys and girls
- Sixth form
- Yes
- Website
- http://www.magdalen.northants.sch.uk/
- School number (URN)
- 139158
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 Schools update their own entries, so these can be out of date.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 1,650 places and 1,347 children on roll.
303 places were unfilled, which is 18% of the school.
In 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 the school had 1,395 children on roll on average, against 1,347 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 Magdalen College School
| Year group | Children |
|---|---|
| Year 7 | 200 |
| Year 8 | 216 |
| Year 9 | 236 |
| Year 10 | 214 |
| Year 11 | 227 |
| Year 12 | 85 |
| Year 13 | 115 |
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 West Northamptonshire. 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 West Northamptonshire 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.
If you live in West Northamptonshire, the council's own page explains how to apply there. West Northamptonshire school admissions.
To ask about visiting the school, or anything else about it, contact the school. Website: http://www.magdalen.northants.sch.uk/.
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. West Northamptonshire's page checked 29 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, 173 families named Magdalen College School as their first preference, and the school made 211 offers.
That is 0.82 first preferences per place offered, higher than 27% 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 0.91 in 2022–2023 and 0.84 in 2025–2026.
First preferences for this school fell 24%, from 231 a year in 2022–2023 to 174 in 2025–2026. Across all 22 schools in West Northamptonshire admitting at Year 7, first preferences changed little over the same years, from 4,584 to 4,586. The school also offered fewer places over these years, 254 a year in 2022–2023 and 208 in 2025–2026, which is why the figure per place can move the other way from the count of families.
Counts of families, not places.
Across West Northamptonshire as a whole, 75.8% of families applying for a secondary place for September 2026 were offered their first choice, and 94.6% 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 West Northamptonshire.
Compared with its own past
Fewer families than its recent average put this school first.
In 2026, 173 families put this school first. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 205 a year.
In 2026, 248 families named this school somewhere on their list. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 352 a year.
In 2026, every family who put this school first was offered a place here (173 of 173). In 2021 to 2025 it was 99 in every 100.
In 2026, 8 of the 211 offers went to children living outside West Northamptonshire. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 42 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 Magdalen College School 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 | 173 | 248 | 211 | 0.82 |
| 2025 | 176 | 284 | 204 | 0.86 |
| 2024 | 205 | 357 | 237 | 0.86 |
| 2023 | 233 | 377 | 254 | 0.92 |
| 2022 | 229 | 381 | 254 | 0.90 |
| 2021 | 184 | 361 | 236 | 0.78 |
| 2020 | 225 | 384 | 237 | 0.95 |
| 2019 | 236 | 373 | 256 | 0.92 |
| 2018 | 213 | 357 | 249 | 0.86 |
| 2017 | 213 | 313 | 231 | 0.92 |
| 2016 | 210 | 322 | 236 | 0.89 |
| 2015 | 197 | 309 | 230 | 0.86 |
| 2014 | 166 | 260 | 203 | 0.82 |
“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 211 offers: 173 to families who had named it first, 25 to families who named it second and 7 to families who named it third.
6 offers went to families who named it fourth or lower, or who were 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, 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 graded inspection (previous framework), 23 April 2025
Category of concern: Special measures
- Overall effectiveness
- Not judged
- Quality of education
- Inadequate
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Inadequate
- Personal development
- Requires improvement
- Leadership and management
- Inadequate
- Sixth form / post-16
- Requires improvement
Ofsted's report for this school
Ofsted ungraded inspection, 4 March 2020
School remains 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 West Northamptonshire lodged 394 appeals about a secondary school place.
330 of them were heard by a panel and 34 succeeded, which is about 10 in every 100 heard.
The other 64 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 West Northamptonshire, 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, 39 of the 1,293 children here had an education, health and care plan. That is 3 in every 100. That is close to the middle for schools in England, where the middle figure is 4 in every 100.
A further 399 were on SEN support, which is help arranged by the school without a plan. That is 31 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, 124 of the 1,293 children here were known to be eligible for free school meals. That is 10 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.
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 62.6% in 2024 to 67.5% in 2023, a difference of 4.9 points.
The year group had 219 children, so one child is worth about 0.5 percentage points and that difference is about 10 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 | 44.20 | - | 62.6% | 16.0% |
| 2023/24 | 46.30 | -0.25 likely between -0.43 and -0.07 |
67.5% | 11.6% |
| 2022/23 | 46.00 | -0.21 likely between -0.40 and -0.02 |
66.7% | 24.2% |
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 | 73.3 | 56.3 | 6.0 | 11.0 | 23.2% |
| 2023/24 | 72.9 | 54.7 | 10.7 | 7.5 | 25.0% |
| 2022/23 | 79.3 | 52.6 | 13.5 | 13.2 | 33.7% |
| 2021/22 | 79.4 | 69.0 | 6.0 | 4.4 | 13.1% |
| 2020/21 | 74.2 | 64.7 | 2.9 | 6.6 | 12.8% |
| 2019/20 | 68.8 | 63.8 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 7.3% |
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 Magdalen College School.
- Chenderit School: 9.7 km (6.0 miles) north-west, Banbury
- Royal Latin School: 12.0 km (7.4 miles) east, Buckingham
- Buckingham School: 12.1 km (7.5 miles) east, Buckingham
- Blessed George Napier Catholic School and Sixth Form: 13.2 km (8.2 miles) west, Banbury
- Wykham Park: 13.5 km (8.4 miles) west, Banbury
- The Cooper School: 13.5 km (8.4 miles) south, Bicester
Nearby and related
- Other schools near Magdalen College School
- All schools in West Northamptonshire
- Schools in the NN13 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, 2012 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.