Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy
Sleaford, NG34 7RS · Lincolnshire local authority
Sleaford’s School Grade C+ better than 41% of towns in England
What stands out about Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy
- Its own letter, A+: GCSE results better than 95% of England’s secondary schools
- 83% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 35 points above England’s schools
- A grammar school: it selects pupils by an entrance test (the 11-plus), which lifts its results
- 10% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (fewer than England’s 30%)
- Ofsted: Inspected, November 2024 (shown, not graded)
- 80% of families who put it first got a place for September 2026 (118 of 148)
- Progress 8 of +0.67 in 2023/24, the last year DfE published it: pupils did better at GCSE than pupils nationally with the same results at 11
- Homes in its postcode sector (NG34 7) sold for a median £195,000; Sleaford’s is £205,000
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 121 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 63
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 94% of schools · Lincolnshire avg 45.9
Grade 5+ in English and maths 83%
A strong pass · higher than 95% of schools · Lincolnshire avg 43%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
+0.67: above average. How pupils did at GCSE against pupils nationally with the same results at 11. Not published since 2023/24 (no Key Stage 2 tests in 2020 and 2021).
Disadvantaged pupils, 2025/26
Attainment 8 for the 15 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) 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 Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy?
80% of the families who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2019 (17), 2020 (4), 2021 (12), 2022 (7), 2023 (7), 2024 (9), 2025 (8), 2026 (30). 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. Community Inclusive Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Lincolnshire council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
80% got their first choice
Sleaford and Lincolnshire, side by side
2025/26All 53 graded secondaries in Lincolnshire. 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. Sleaford’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The King's School, Grantham | A+ | 8% | 73.2 |
| Caistor Grammar School | A+ | 7% | 68.9 |
| Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School | A+ | 9% | 68.4 |
| Bourne Grammar School | A+ | 7% | 67.2 |
| Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy | A+ | 10% | 63 |
| Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle | A | 12% | 62.7 |
| Spalding High School | A+ | 14% | 62.5 |
| The Queen Elizabeth's High School, Gainsborough | A | 12% | 62 |
| Carre's Grammar School | A | 9% | 60 |
| Queen Elizabeth's Grammar Alford - A Selective Academy | A | 16% | 59.9 |
| Spalding Grammar School | A | 8% | 59.9 |
| King Edward VI Grammar School | A | 13% | 58.8 |
| Boston High School | A | 15% | 56.6 |
| The Boston Grammar School | A− | 16% | 54.7 |
| Skegness Grammar School | A | 31% | 54 |
| The Priory Academy LSST | B+ | 18% | 52 |
| William Farr CofE Comprehensive School | B+ | 18% | 49.1 |
| Sir Robert Pattinson Academy | B+ | 21% | 49 |
| Bourne Academy | C+ | 26% | 47.7 |
| Sir William Robertson Academy, Welbourn | B− | 23% | 46.6 |
| Louth Academy | C | 43% | 45.3 |
| Caistor Yarborough Academy | B− | 28% | 44.6 |
| Cowley Academy | C | 36% | 44.3 |
| Spalding Academy | C− | 30% | 44.1 |
| The Priory Ruskin Academy | C− | 33% | 43.1 |
| Branston Community Academy | C | 25% | 42.7 |
| The Priory Pembroke Academy | C− | 26% | 41.8 |
| The Deepings School | C | 28% | 41.5 |
| Stamford Welland Academy | C− | 38% | 41.2 |
| Lincoln Castle Academy | C | 47% | 40 |
| St Peter and St Paul, Catholic Voluntary Academy | C− | 38% | 39.9 |
| Giles Academy | D | 34% | 39.6 |
| St George's Academy | D | 34% | 39.4 |
| The Barnes Wallis Academy | D | 42% | 39 |
| Lincoln Christ's Hospital School | C− | 38% | 38.8 |
| University Academy Holbeach | D | 35% | 38.7 |
| Charles Read Academy | D | 41% | 38.4 |
| King Edward VI Academy | D | 48% | 38.4 |
| Walton Academy | D | 39% | 37.8 |
| The Priory Witham Academy | D | 49% | 37.7 |
| Somercotes Academy | D | 48% | 37.7 |
| North Kesteven Academy | D | 38% | 37.5 |
| The Priory City of Lincoln Academy | D | 37% | 37.3 |
| West Grantham Church of England Secondary Academy | D | 56% | 36.6 |
| De Aston School | D | 36% | 35.7 |
| The Banovallum School | D− | 33% | 35.2 |
| University Academy Long Sutton | D− | 43% | 34 |
| John Spendluffe Foundation Technology College | D− | 55% | 33.3 |
| The Gainsborough Academy | D− | 65% | 33.1 |
| Haven High Academy | D− | 41% | 32.6 |
| Skegness Academy | D− | 67% | 31.2 |
| William Lovell Church of England Academy | D− | 52% | 28.3 |
| Thomas Middlecott Academy | D− | 42% | 27.6 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025756 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.
Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective 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.
Graded inspection (no overall grade since September 2024), November 2024.
Living near Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in NG34 7, the school’s postcode sector
Sleaford property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in NG34 7 sell for a little under Sleaford’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
6 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Sleaford, NG34 7RS
Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy: common questions
Is Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy a good school?
By its published results, well above average: its GCSE results are better than 95% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is A+), with an Attainment 8 of 63 and 83% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Inspected, November 2024.
How hard is it to get into Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy?
For September 2026, 148 families put Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy first and 118 of them were offered a place; 124 places were offered in all.
What is Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Inspected (November 2024).
How much do houses cost near Kesteven and Sleaford High School Selective Academy?
Homes in its postcode sector, NG34 7, sold for a median £195,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (568 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; Sleaford’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.