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Orsett Heath Academy

SecondaryAges 11–16Free school

Grays, RM16 4DG · Thurrock local authority

Grays’s School Grade B better than 61% of towns in England

Its letter
34%
of England’s secondaries have lower GCSE results
Getting in
199/256
first choices offered a place, 2026 (England: 84%)
How full
699 pupils
58% of its 1,200 places
Free school meals
23%
23 in 100 pupils eligible · outlined square = England’s schools (30)
The gist

What stands out about Orsett Heath Academy

  • Its own letter, C: GCSE results better than 34% of England’s secondary schools
  • Room to spare: 699 pupils for 1,200 places
  • Ofsted: Good, October 2023 (shown, not graded)
  • 78% of families who put it first got a place for September 2026 (199 of 256)
  • Homes in its postcode sector (RM16 4) sold for a median £360,000; Grays’s is £360,000

Results

DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 118 pupils

Each bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Orsett Heath beats are shaded green.

Attainment 8 42

Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 28% of schools · Thurrock avg 46.2

20304050607080England avg 47.3Orsett Heath 42

Grade 5+ in English and maths 41%

A strong pass · higher than 38% of schools · Thurrock avg 46%

0%20%40%60%80%100%England avg 47.3%Orsett Heath 41%

Attainment 8, three years

The mark is England’s average that year

2024/25
47
2025/26
42

Disadvantaged pupils, 2025/26

Attainment 8 for the 29 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools

Disadvantaged
30.2England 38.6
Not disadvantaged
45.8England 50.6
Grade 4 or above in English and maths64%
England’s schools 66% · Thurrock 66% · a standard pass

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.

Getting in

How hard is it to get a place at Orsett Heath Academy?

78% of the families who put it first got a place for September 2026.

256
families put it first for September 2026
235
places offered
78%
of first choices offered a place (England’s secondaries: 84%)
First choices and places, by year of entry
20212022202420252026
Families who put it firstPlaces offered
Red figures: first choices not offered a place

Years when some first choices missed out: 2021 (25), 2022 (20), 2025 (31), 2026 (57). 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. South West Essex Community Education Trust Limited sets the admissions rules. Apply through Thurrock council’s coordinated admissions.

Demand for secondary schools in Grays, September 2026

Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places

Orsett Heath
1.09 per place
78% got their first choice
1.03 per place
80% got their first choice
0.60 per place
100% got their first choice
0.57 per place
100% got their first choice
0.51 per place
96% got their first choice

Grays and Thurrock, side by side

2025/26

All 13 graded secondaries in Thurrock. 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. Grays’s schools are coloured by their letter.

35394347515510%20%30%40%50%Pupils eligible for free school meals →Attainment 8 →Grays Convent HighWilliam EdwardsThe HathawayThames Park SecondaryOrsett Heath
ABCDElsewhere in ThurrockOrsett Heath
Show as a table
SchoolLetterFree school mealsAttainment 8
Harris Academy Chafford HundredA18%56.5
Grays Convent High SchoolB+22%51.5
The Gateway AcademyB+42%50
Thames Park Secondary SchoolB+29%49.1
Harris Academy RiversideB30%48.1
Harris Academy OckendonB28%47.7
Mossbourne Fobbing AcademyB−19%46.5
The Hathaway AcademyB−32%45.5
St Clere's SchoolC+23%42.9
Orsett Heath AcademyC23%42
Mossbourne Port Side AcademyC+34%42
William Edwards SchoolC22%41.8
Park AcademyD35%37.6

Who goes here

DfE school census, January 2025

564 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.

SEN support
15.8%England 14%
EHC plan
4.8%England 3.2%
English as an additional language
5.1%England 19%
Free school meals in the last 6 years
23.1%England 29.6%

Girls and boys

Girls 43%Boys 57%
Its letter

Orsett Heath Academy’s letter

Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.

Secondary: Attainment 8 and grade 5+ English and maths CBetter than 34% of 3,224 schools
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.

A+ 95+A 85–94A− 75–84B+ 65–74B 55–64B− 45–54C+ 35–44C 25–34C− 15–24D 5–14D− 0–4

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

Ofsted inspections

Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.

Graded inspection: Good, October 2023.

The full reports on Ofsted ↗

Living nearby

Living near Orsett Heath Academy

For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.

Home prices in RM16 4, the school’s postcode sector

Grays property prices →
£360,000
median sale, 258 sales in 36 months · Grays £360,000

Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025

£150K£200K£250K£300K£350K£400K2010201520202025RM16 4Grays
RM16 4Grays

By type, the 36 months to August 2026

Detached
£452K
Semi-detached
£395K
Terraced
£346K
Flat
£192K
RM16 4Grays

Homes in RM16 4 sell for about the same as Grays’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

16 state schools
0.5 mi1 mi1.5 miNB+B+CB+C−CA−A+B−B+B−B+AB−BC+COrsett Heath Academy
ABCDNo letterPrimarySecondary / all-through

Grays, RM16 4DG

Orsett Heath Academy: common questions

Is Orsett Heath Academy a good school?

By its published results, below average: its GCSE results are better than 34% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is C), with an Attainment 8 of 42 and 41% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Good, October 2023.

How hard is it to get into Orsett Heath Academy?

For September 2026, 256 families put Orsett Heath Academy first and 199 of them were offered a place; 235 places were offered in all.

What is Orsett Heath Academy’s Ofsted rating?

Its latest inspection outcome is Good (October 2023).

How much do houses cost near Orsett Heath Academy?

Homes in its postcode sector, RM16 4, sold for a median £360,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (258 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; Grays’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.