The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form
Keyworth, NG12 5FF · Nottinghamshire local authority
Keyworth’s School Grade B+ better than 73% of towns in England
What stands out about The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form
- Its own letter, B+: GCSE results better than 74% of England’s secondary schools
- 17% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (fewer than England’s 30%)
- Ofsted: Inspected, April 2025 (shown, not graded)
- 88% of families who put it first got a place for September 2026 (156 of 178)
- Progress 8 of +0.16 in 2023/24, the last year DfE published it: pupils did about as well at GCSE as pupils nationally with the same results at 11
- Homes in its postcode sector (NG12 5) sold for a median £342,950; Keyworth’s is £325,950
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 168 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 51.3
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 75% of schools · Nottinghamshire avg 46.6
Grade 5+ in English and maths 55%
A strong pass · higher than 72% of schools · Nottinghamshire avg 47%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
+0.16: about 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 28 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 The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form?
88% of the families who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2019 (11), 2020 (1), 2021 (8), 2023 (1), 2024 (1), 2025 (1), 2026 (22). 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. East Midlands Education Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Nottinghamshire council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
88% got their first choice
Keyworth and Nottinghamshire, side by side
2025/26All 45 graded secondaries in Nottinghamshire. 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. Keyworth’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The West Bridgford School | A | 7% | 61.4 |
| Rushcliffe Spencer Academy | A | 12% | 58.3 |
| Carlton le Willows Academy | A | 26% | 56.5 |
| The Minster School | A | 11% | 55.5 |
| Toot Hill School | A | 16% | 55.2 |
| Alderman White School | A− | 25% | 53.2 |
| South Nottinghamshire Academy | B+ | 21% | 52.9 |
| George Spencer Academy | A− | 20% | 52.6 |
| The Becket School | A− | 19% | 52.3 |
| All Saints' Catholic Voluntary Academy | B+ | 20% | 51.5 |
| The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form | B+ | 17% | 51.3 |
| Bramcote College | B+ | 27% | 50.7 |
| Chilwell School | A− | 22% | 50.3 |
| Carlton Academy | B+ | 26% | 50.2 |
| The Kimberley School | B+ | 22% | 49.6 |
| East Leake Academy | B+ | 20% | 49.5 |
| Colonel Frank Seely Academy | B | 24% | 49.2 |
| Redhill Academy | B | 25% | 49.1 |
| The Newark Academy | B+ | 28% | 49.1 |
| Serlby Park Academy | B+ | 40% | 48.7 |
| Outwood Academy Valley | B+ | 25% | 48.1 |
| Arnold Hill Spencer Academy | B+ | 21% | 47.8 |
| Christ The King Voluntary Academy | B− | 28% | 46.8 |
| Outwood Academy Portland | B− | 30% | 46.6 |
| The Garibaldi School | B | 26% | 46.1 |
| The National CofE Academy | B− | 23% | 45.9 |
| The Joseph Whitaker School | B− | 24% | 45.7 |
| The Brunts Academy | C+ | 30% | 45.4 |
| Ashfield Comprehensive School | C+ | 31% | 45.2 |
| The Manor Academy | C+ | 30% | 43.8 |
| Tuxford Academy | C | 23% | 43.7 |
| The Suthers School | C+ | 27% | 43.6 |
| The Elizabethan Academy | C+ | 28% | 42.9 |
| Meden School | C | 40% | 42 |
| Retford Oaks Academy | C− | 33% | 40.8 |
| Outwood Academy Kirkby | C− | 49% | 40.5 |
| Magnus Church of England Academy | C− | 46% | 40.4 |
| Hall Park Academy | C− | 33% | 40.3 |
| Selston High School | C− | 32% | 40.1 |
| Quarrydale Academy | D | 39% | 39.3 |
| Sutton Community Academy | C− | 46% | 39.1 |
| The Holgate Academy | D | 39% | 36.6 |
| Sherwood Church Academy | D | 34% | 36 |
| The Dukeries Academy | D− | 43% | 32.6 |
| Queen Elizabeth's Academy | D− | 41% | 32.3 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 20251,024 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
The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form’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), April 2025. Ungraded inspection: School remains Good, December 2019.
Living near The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in NG12 5, the school’s postcode sector
Keyworth property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in NG12 5 sell for a little over Keyworth’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
3 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Keyworth, NG12 5FF
The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form: common questions
Is The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form a good school?
By its published results, above average: its GCSE results are better than 74% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is B+), with an Attainment 8 of 51.3 and 55% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Inspected, April 2025.
How hard is it to get into The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form?
For September 2026, 178 families put The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form first and 156 of them were offered a place; 168 places were offered in all.
What is The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Inspected (April 2025).
How much do houses cost near The South Wolds Academy & Sixth Form?
Homes in its postcode sector, NG12 5, sold for a median £342,950 over the 36 months to August 2026 (543 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; Keyworth’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.