Bradford Forster Academy
Bradford, BD4 8RG · Bradford local authority
Bradford’s School Grade C better than 25% of towns in England
What stands out about Bradford Forster Academy
- Its own letter, C−: GCSE results better than 15% of England’s secondary schools
- 33% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 14 points below England’s schools
- 47% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (more than England’s 30%)
- Ofsted: Inspected, February 2025 (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (113 of 113)
- Progress 8 of -0.54 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 (BD4 8) sold for a median £133,750; Bradford’s is £155,000
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 193 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Bradford Forster beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 37.7
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 10% of schools · Bradford avg 42.6
Grade 5+ in English and maths 33%
A strong pass · higher than 20% of schools · Bradford avg 40%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
-0.54: 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 83 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 Bradford Forster Academy?
Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2019 (36), 2020 (7), 2021 (32), 2022 (18). 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. Bradford Diocesan Academies Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Bradford council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places · the 10 most in demand
100% got their first choice
Bradford and Bradford, side by side
2025/26All 35 graded secondaries in Bradford. 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. Bradford’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ilkley Grammar School | A− | 8% | 56.6 |
| Feversham Girls' Secondary Academy | A− | 35% | 55.3 |
| Dixons Kings Academy | A | 31% | 54.7 |
| Dixons City Academy | A− | 32% | 52.5 |
| Dixons Trinity Academy | A− | 36% | 52.5 |
| Dixons McMillan Academy | B+ | 38% | 52.2 |
| Beckfoot School | A− | 18% | 51.5 |
| Eden Boys' Leadership Academy, Bradford | A− | 36% | 49.8 |
| Bronte Girls' Academy | B− | 38% | 47.9 |
| Bradford Girls' Grammar School | B− | 49% | 46.8 |
| Bingley Grammar School | B− | 28% | 45.6 |
| St Bede's and St Joseph's Catholic College, A Voluntary Academy | B− | 28% | 45.4 |
| Trinity Academy Bradford | B− | 25% | 45 |
| Dixons Cottingley Academy | C+ | 38% | 44.5 |
| Belle Vue Girls' Academy | B− | 41% | 44.4 |
| Carlton Bolling | C | 46% | 43.8 |
| Dixons Allerton Academy | C | 37% | 41.9 |
| Immanuel College | C | 33% | 41.8 |
| Valley Academy | C | 53% | 41.1 |
| Titus Salt School | C− | 28% | 40.8 |
| Carlton Keighley | C | 33% | 40.4 |
| Laisterdyke Leadership Academy | C− | 48% | 38.1 |
| Bradford Forster Academy | C− | 47% | 37.7 |
| Beckfoot Oakbank | D | 37% | 37.7 |
| Beckfoot Upper Heaton | D | 49% | 36.4 |
| Parkside School | D | 27% | 36.4 |
| Hanson Academy | C− | 47% | 36.3 |
| Appleton Academy | D | 51% | 36 |
| Oasis Academy Lister Park | D | 60% | 35.7 |
| Buttershaw Business & Enterprise College Academy | D | 46% | 35.3 |
| Bradford Academy | D | 51% | 35.2 |
| Tong Leadership Academy | D | 43% | 34.7 |
| Beckfoot Thornton | D− | 40% | 34 |
| The Holy Family Catholic School, a Voluntary Academy | D− | 46% | 31.7 |
| Co-op Academy Grange | D− | 57% | 30.1 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025969 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
Bradford Forster 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), February 2025.
Living near Bradford Forster Academy
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in BD4 8, the school’s postcode sector
Bradford property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in BD4 8 sell for a little under Bradford’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
29 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Bradford, BD4 8RG
Bradford Forster Academy: common questions
Is Bradford Forster Academy a good school?
By its published results, below average: its GCSE results are better than 15% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is C−), with an Attainment 8 of 37.7 and 33% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Inspected, February 2025.
How hard is it to get into Bradford Forster Academy?
For September 2026, 113 families put Bradford Forster Academy first and all of them were offered a place; 181 places were offered in all.
What is Bradford Forster Academy’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Inspected (February 2025).
How much do houses cost near Bradford Forster Academy?
Homes in its postcode sector, BD4 8, sold for a median £133,750 over the 36 months to August 2026 (164 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; Bradford’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.