Thorns Collegiate Academy
Brierley Hill, DY5 2NU · Dudley local authority
Brierley Hill’s School Grade C better than 31% of towns in England
What stands out about Thorns Collegiate Academy
- Its own letter, D: GCSE results near the bottom of England’s secondary schools (better than 12%)
- 30% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 17 points below England’s schools
- Ofsted: Requires improvement, March 2024 (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (124 of 124)
- Progress 8 of -0.52 in 2023/24, the last year DfE published it: pupils did less well at GCSE than pupils nationally with the same results at 11
- Homes in its postcode sector (DY5 2) sold for a median £220,000; Brierley Hill’s is £195,000
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 162 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Thorns Collegiate beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 37.6
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 10% of schools · Dudley avg 44.1
Grade 5+ in English and maths 30%
A strong pass · higher than 15% of schools · Dudley avg 43%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
-0.52: below 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 43 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 Thorns Collegiate 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. Shireland Collegiate Academy Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Dudley council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
100% got their first choice
Brierley Hill and Dudley, side by side
2025/26All 19 graded secondaries in Dudley. 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. Brierley Hill’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Swinford Hospital | A | 6% | 57.9 |
| Summerhill School | A− | 10% | 51 |
| Kingswinford Academy | A− | 22% | 50.9 |
| Redhill School | B | 25% | 48 |
| The Earls High School | B− | 22% | 46.8 |
| Bishop Milner Catholic College | C+ | 32% | 45.4 |
| The Dormston School | C+ | 27% | 44.5 |
| Beacon Hill Academy | B− | 39% | 44.4 |
| Windsor High School and Sixth Form | C+ | 29% | 44.2 |
| The Link Academy | B− | 51% | 44.2 |
| Ridgewood High School | C | 28% | 44 |
| The Crestwood School | C | 37% | 41.8 |
| Pegasus Academy | C | 49% | 41.7 |
| St James Academy | C+ | 50% | 41.6 |
| Ellowes Hall Sports College | C+ | 31% | 41.2 |
| Leasowes High School | C− | 35% | 40.2 |
| Thorns Collegiate Academy | D | 37% | 37.6 |
| The Wordsley School | D | 40% | 36.9 |
| The Pedmore High School | D− | 45% | 35.5 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025895 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
Thorns Collegiate 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: Requires improvement, March 2024.
Living near Thorns Collegiate Academy
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in DY5 2, the school’s postcode sector
Brierley Hill property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in DY5 2 sell for a little over Brierley Hill’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
19 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Brierley Hill, DY5 2NU
Thorns Collegiate Academy: common questions
Is Thorns Collegiate Academy a good school?
By its published results, well below average: its GCSE results are better than 12% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is D), with an Attainment 8 of 37.6 and 30% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Requires improvement, March 2024.
How hard is it to get into Thorns Collegiate Academy?
For September 2026, 124 families put Thorns Collegiate Academy first and all of them were offered a place; 147 places were offered in all.
What is Thorns Collegiate Academy’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Requires improvement (March 2024).
How much do houses cost near Thorns Collegiate Academy?
Homes in its postcode sector, DY5 2, sold for a median £220,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (396 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; Brierley Hill’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.