The 23 schools that went from Inadequate to Outstanding — and how
The Ofsted scale has four grades. The journey from the bottom one to the top is the rarest move a school can make. Across all 27,104 schools in England, we found 23 that have done it — gone from Inadequate to Outstanding within their inspection history.
This isn't a story about a couple of poster-child academies. It's a meaningful pattern. And looking at where these turnarounds happen reveals something else: the same trusts and the same towns keep coming up.
The full list
Every school below was once judged Inadequate and is now rated Outstanding. They're sorted by SchoolsNearMe's trajectory score — a forward-looking composite that combines the Ofsted journey with current attendance and rating-trend signals.
| School | Town | Phase | Trajectory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monega Primary School | London | Primary | +82 |
| Northern House Academy | Oxford | Not applicable | +80 |
| Southview School | Witham | Not applicable | +79 |
| Beddington Park Academy | Croydon | Primary | +78 |
| Holybrook Primary School | Bradford | Primary | +77 |
| Harris Primary Academy Croydon | Croydon | Primary | +76 |
| Westgate Hill Primary Academy | Newcastle-upon-Tyne | Primary | +75 |
| Avonbourne Boys' Academy | Bournemouth | Secondary | +75 |
| Marnel Junior School | Basingstoke | Primary | +75 |
| Harris Academy Ockendon | South Ockendon | Secondary | +74 |
| Croftway Academy | Blyth | Primary | +57 |
| Somersham Primary School | Somersham | Primary | +56 |
| Chiltern Way Academy Wokingham | Wokingham | Not applicable | +56 |
| Gilberdyke Primary School | Brough | Primary | +55 |
| Grange School | Manchester | Not applicable | +54 |
| Bramley Park Academy | Leeds | Primary | +54 |
| Outwood Primary Academy Alne | York | Primary | +37 |
| Outwood Academy Easingwold | York | Secondary | +36 |
| Tor Bridge Primary School | Plymouth | Primary | +35 |
| New Mill Infant School | Holmfirth | Primary | +35 |
| Freebrough Academy | Saltburn-By-the-Sea | Secondary | +33 |
| UTC Portsmouth | Portsmouth | Secondary | +31 |
| Liphook Infant School | Liphook | Primary | +28 |
What they have in common
Three patterns leap out of the list:
- Multi-academy trust involvement is near-universal. Almost every turnaround school is now in a MAT. The reason is mostly mechanical — when Ofsted finds a school inadequate, it triggers conversion to an academy under a sponsor trust. But the better-performing trusts (Harris, Outwood, Astrea, Star, Lift) account for an outsized share of the turnarounds.
- The journey takes roughly 5–8 years. An Inadequate judgement, followed by sponsor takeover, followed by a Good judgement at the first re-inspection (typically 2–3 years later), followed by an Outstanding judgement at the next one. Faster than feels intuitive.
- Attendance is the canary. In every school on this list, attendance trends improved before the Outstanding judgement landed. If you're looking for a school in the early stages of a turnaround, attendance is the leading indicator the inspector is also looking at.
Spot the next turnaround school early
Our trajectory score combines Ofsted journey, attendance trend and big rating jumps into a single forward-looking number. Pro shows it on every school in England — so you can find the school that's on the same path as these 23 before it gets its second Outstanding.
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