Gurney Pease Academy
Darlington, DL1 2NG · Darlington local authority
Darlington’s School Grade B− better than 46% of towns in England
What stands out about Gurney Pease Academy
- Its own letter, C: Key Stage 2 results better than 31% of England’s primary schools
- 56% meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, 6 points below England’s schools
- Room to spare: 191 pupils for 274 places
- 51% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (more than England’s 25%)
- Ofsted report card, February 2026: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (18 of 18)
- Homes in its postcode sector (DL1 2) sold for a median £140,250; Darlington’s is £158,000
Results
DfE · Key Stage 2Reading, writing and maths 56%
Met the expected standard, DfE’s 3-year average 2023–2025 · higher than 31% of England’s 14,979 graded primaries · Darlington avg 61%
Each subject, 2025
Met the expected standard; the mark is England’s schools · average scaled score: reading 105, maths 104 (100 = the expected standard)
Disadvantaged pupils, 2025
Met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths: the 19 disadvantaged pupils and the rest, beside England’s schools
England’s figures are of its graded mainstream state schools, each school counted once; grammar schools are included, which is why the right-hand tail is long. Small cohorts are suppressed.
How hard is it to get a place at Gurney Pease Academy?
Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.
In every year shown, every family who put it first was offered a place. The council runs the coordinated admissions; each school’s rules (siblings, distance, faith) decide who gets in. DfE doesn’t publish the furthest distance offered, so check the council’s admissions booklet for that. The Education Village Academy Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Darlington council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places · the 10 most in demand
100% got their first choice
Darlington and Darlington, side by side
2023–2025All 28 graded primaries in Darlington. Schools with more pupils on free school meals usually score lower, so a school above the crowd for its free school meals is doing better than its intake predicts. Darlington’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | KS2 expected standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Teresa's Catholic Primary School | A | 11% | 80% |
| Mowden Junior School | A− | 13% | 74% |
| Holy Family Catholic Primary School | A− | 13% | 74% |
| St Augustine's Catholic Primary School | A− | 7% | 73% |
| Abbey Junior School | A− | 9% | 71% |
| Bishopton Redmarshall CofE Primary School | A− | 15% | 71% |
| West Park Academy | A− | 13% | 71% |
| St John's Church of England Academy | B+ | 37% | 70% |
| Hurworth Primary School | B+ | 11% | 70% |
| Mount Pleasant Primary School | B+ | 56% | 70% |
| Heighington Church of England Primary School | B+ | 11% | 69% |
| Corporation Road Community Primary School | B+ | 43% | 68% |
| Whinfield Primary School | B+ | 21% | 68% |
| Firthmoor Primary School | B− | 50% | 64% |
| High Coniscliffe CofE Primary School | B− | 17% | 64% |
| Springfield Academy | B− | 42% | 63% |
| St. George's Church of England Academy | B− | 18% | 61% |
| Polam Hall School | C+ | 31% | 60% |
| Reid Street Primary School | C+ | 28% | 59% |
| Heathfield Primary School | C+ | 31% | 58% |
| St Bede's Catholic Primary School | C | 12% | 57% |
| Gurney Pease Academy | C | 51% | 56% |
| Northwood Primary School | C | 42% | 54% |
| St Mary's Cockerton Church of England Primary School | D | 30% | 42% |
| Harrowgate Hill Primary School | D | 32% | 39% |
| The Rydal Academy | D | 52% | 39% |
| Skerne Park Academy | D− | 57% | 31% |
| Red Hall Primary School | D− | 58% | 30% |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025197 pupils. SEN support is extra help in school for a special educational need; an EHC plan is the council’s legal plan for pupils who need more.
Girls and boys
Gurney Pease Academy’s letter
Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.
How school letters are worked out
Each school’s measure is compared with every graded school in England of the same phase: for primaries, the share of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (DfE’s three-year average); for secondaries, Attainment 8 and the share with grade 5 or above in English and maths, each turned into a z-score against England’s schools and averaged. The letter comes from the share of those schools it beats, in the same bands as every grade on the site. The same method gives U.S. schools their letters, against their own state.
Graded: England’s open mainstream state schools with published results (grammar schools included, which select by test). Not graded: special schools, alternative provision, nurseries, 16–19 colleges, UTCs and studio schools, Welsh schools. Ofsted plays no part.
Ofsted inspections
Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.
Report card, inspection starting February 2026.
Before the report card: Ungraded inspection: School remains Good, October 2021.
Living near Gurney Pease Academy
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in DL1 2, the school’s postcode sector
Darlington property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in DL1 2 sell for a little under Darlington’s typical price. HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales. Catchments aren’t published, so the postcode sector stands in for “around the school”.
Schools within 1.6 miles
18 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Darlington, DL1 2NG
Gurney Pease Academy: common questions
Is Gurney Pease Academy a good school?
By its published results, below average: its Key Stage 2 results are better than 31% of England’s primary schools (its letter is C), with 56% of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, against 62% for England’s schools. Ofsted: a report card in February 2026.
How hard is it to get into Gurney Pease Academy?
For September 2026, 18 families put Gurney Pease Academy first and all of them were offered a place; 20 places were offered in all.
What is Gurney Pease Academy’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection (February 2026) gave a report card: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met. Ofsted stopped giving one-word overall grades in September 2024.
How much do houses cost near Gurney Pease Academy?
Homes in its postcode sector, DL1 2, sold for a median £140,250 over the 36 months to August 2026 (332 sales).
Sources: DfE Get Information about Schools (16 October 2026), Key Stage 2 performance tables (2023–2025, three-year average) and Key Stage 4 (2025/26, provisional); Ofsted state-funded school inspections as at 30 September 2026. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Also: DfE Key Stage 4 performance, schools data (2023/24 and 2024/25 final, 2025/26 provisional) and Key Stage 2 performance tables 2024/25 by subject; DfE school census, January 2025; DfE school-level applications and offers, September 2019 to 2026 entry; HM Land Registry Price Paid by postcode sector, 2010 to August 2026.
A school’s letter is our own summary of its published results against England’s schools of the same phase; Darlington’s School Grade is a separate grade, built from the results of the schools in and around the town against other towns. Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.