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C−

Edgar Wood Academy

SecondaryAges 11–16Free school

Middleton, OL10 2QN · Rochdale local authority

Middleton’s School Grade C− better than 23% of towns in England

Its letter
21%
of England’s secondaries have lower GCSE results
Getting in
52/52
first choices offered a place, 2026 (England: 84%)
How full
729 pupils
81% of its 900 places
Free school meals
43%
43 in 100 pupils eligible · outlined square = England’s schools (30)
The gist

What stands out about Edgar Wood Academy

  • Its own letter, C−: GCSE results better than 21% of England’s secondary schools
  • 32% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 15 points below England’s schools
  • 43% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (more than England’s 30%)
  • Ofsted report card, June 2026: achievement expected standard, safeguarding met (shown, not graded)
  • Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (52 of 52)
  • Homes in its postcode sector (OL10 2) sold for a median £289,995; Middleton’s is £225,000

Results

DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 115 pupils

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

Attainment 8 41.4

Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 25% of schools · Rochdale avg 44

20304050607080England avg 47.3Edgar Wood 41.4

Grade 5+ in English and maths 32%

A strong pass · higher than 18% of schools · Rochdale avg 41%

0%20%40%60%80%100%England avg 47.3%Edgar Wood 32%

Disadvantaged pupils, 2025/26

Attainment 8 for the 51 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools

Disadvantaged
37.5England 38.6
Not disadvantaged
44.5England 50.6
Grade 4 or above in English and maths57%
England’s schools 66% · Rochdale 61% · 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 Edgar Wood Academy?

Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.

52
families put it first for September 2026
76
places offered
100%
of first choices offered a place (England’s secondaries: 84%)
First choices and places, by year of entry
20222023202420252026
Families who put it firstPlaces offered
Red figures: first choices not offered a place

Years when some first choices missed out: 2022 (4), 2023 (73), 2024 (26). 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. Altus Education Partnership sets the admissions rules. Apply through Rochdale council’s coordinated admissions.

Demand for secondary schools in Middleton, September 2026

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

1.37 per place
71% got their first choice
1.16 per place
72% got their first choice
0.73 per place
100% got their first choice
Edgar Wood
0.68 per place
100% got their first choice

Middleton and Rochdale, side by side

2025/26

All 13 graded secondaries in Rochdale. 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. Middleton’s schools are coloured by their letter.

35394347515510%20%30%40%50%Pupils eligible for free school meals →Attainment 8 →Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic HighSt Anne's CofEDixons MiddletonEdgar Wood
ABCDElsewhere in RochdaleEdgar Wood
Show as a table
SchoolLetterFree school mealsAttainment 8
Holy Family Roman Catholic and Church of England CollegeA−21%51.8
Hollingworth AcademyA−30%50.6
Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic High SchoolB−25%46
Oulder Hill Leadership AcademyB36%45.8
Wardle AcademyC+30%44.6
Newhouse AcademyC+43%44
St Anne's Church of England AcademyC48%43.3
Falinge Park High SchoolC+49%43.2
Dixons Middleton AcademyC33%41.9
Matthew Moss High SchoolC44%41.9
Edgar Wood AcademyC−43%41.4
Kingsway Park High SchoolD50%39.2
St Cuthbert's Roman Catholic High School, a Voluntary AcademyD43%37.9

Who goes here

DfE school census, January 2025

637 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
13.8%England 14%
EHC plan
3.8%England 3.2%
English as an additional language
14.4%England 19%
Free school meals in the last 6 years
45.5%England 29.6%

Girls and boys

Girls 48%Boys 52%
Its letter

Edgar Wood 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 C−Better than 21% 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.

Report card, inspection starting June 2026.

SafeguardingMet
AchievementExpected standard
Curriculum and teachingExpected standard
InclusionExpected standard
Attendance and behaviourExpected standard
Personal development and well-beingExpected standard
Leadership and governanceExpected standard

Before the report card: Graded inspection: Requires improvement, November 2023.

The full reports on Ofsted ↗

Living nearby

Living near Edgar Wood Academy

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

Home prices in OL10 2, the school’s postcode sector

Middleton property prices →
£289,995
median sale, 395 sales in 36 months · Middleton £225,000

Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025

£50K£100K£150K£200K£250K£300K£350K2010201520202025OL10 2Middleton
OL10 2Middleton

By type, the 36 months to August 2026

Detached
£370K
Semi-detached
£258K
Terraced
£167K
Flat
£148K
OL10 2Middleton

Homes in OL10 2 sell for well over Middleton’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

9 state schools
0.5 mi1 mi1.5 miNBA−C−DA−CC+D−C−C−Edgar Wood Academy
ABCDNo letterPrimarySecondary / all-through

Middleton, OL10 2QN

Edgar Wood Academy: common questions

Is Edgar Wood Academy a good school?

By its published results, below average: its GCSE results are better than 21% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is C−), with an Attainment 8 of 41.4 and 32% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: a report card in June 2026.

How hard is it to get into Edgar Wood Academy?

For September 2026, 52 families put Edgar Wood Academy first and all of them were offered a place; 76 places were offered in all.

What is Edgar Wood Academy’s Ofsted rating?

Its latest inspection (June 2026) gave a report card: achievement expected standard, safeguarding met. Ofsted stopped giving one-word overall grades in September 2024.

How much do houses cost near Edgar Wood Academy?

Homes in its postcode sector, OL10 2, sold for a median £289,995 over the 36 months to August 2026 (395 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; Middleton’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.