The Wellington Academy
Perham Down, SP11 9RR · Wiltshire local authority
Perham Down’s School Grade D− better than 4% of towns in England
What stands out about The Wellington Academy
- Its own letter, D: GCSE results near the bottom of England’s secondary schools (better than 13%)
- 29% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 18 points below England’s schools
- Ofsted: Good, October 2022 (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (143 of 143)
- Progress 8 of -0.13 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 (SP11 9) sold for a median £316,000; Perham Down’s is £262,500
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 188 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools The Wellington beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 38.4
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 12% of schools · Wiltshire avg 45.7
Grade 5+ in English and maths 29%
A strong pass · higher than 13% of schools · Wiltshire avg 44%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
-0.13: 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 50 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 Wellington 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. Ascend Learning Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Wiltshire council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
100% got their first choice
Perham Down and Wiltshire, side by side
2025/26All 28 graded secondaries in Wiltshire. 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. Perham Down’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Wilts Grammar School | A+ | 3% | 76.5 |
| Bishop Wordsworth's Church of England Grammar School | A+ | 4% | 73.5 |
| St John's Marlborough | A− | 13% | 51.8 |
| Hardenhuish School | B+ | 16% | 50.3 |
| Royal Wootton Bassett Academy | B+ | 14% | 50.3 |
| Malmesbury School | B+ | 14% | 49.9 |
| Lavington School | B+ | 14% | 49.4 |
| St Augustine's Catholic College | B+ | 15% | 49.4 |
| St Laurence School | B | 14% | 48.4 |
| Matravers School | B− | 23% | 47.1 |
| Wyvern St Edmund's Academy | B− | 21% | 46.1 |
| Kingdown School | C+ | 21% | 45.8 |
| The Trafalgar School at Downton | B− | 13% | 45.7 |
| Sheldon School | B− | 20% | 45.5 |
| The Corsham School | C+ | 17% | 45.3 |
| Devizes School | C+ | 24% | 44.6 |
| Bradon Forest School | C+ | 18% | 43.5 |
| The John of Gaunt School | C | 23% | 41.9 |
| St Joseph's Catholic School | C− | 26% | 41 |
| The Stonehenge School | C− | 16% | 39.2 |
| The Clarendon Academy | D | 31% | 39 |
| Abbeyfield School | D | 28% | 38.9 |
| The Wellington Academy | D | 20% | 38.4 |
| Melksham Oak Community School | C− | 24% | 38.3 |
| Kingsbury Green Academy | D | 26% | 37.2 |
| Avon Valley Academy | D− | 25% | 35.8 |
| Pewsey Vale School | D | 33% | 34.4 |
| Sarum Academy | D− | 39% | 32.3 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 20251,155 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 Wellington 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: Good, October 2022.
Living near The Wellington Academy
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in SP11 9, the school’s postcode sector
Perham Down property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in SP11 9 sell for well over Perham Down’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 ↗
Perham Down, SP11 9RR
The Wellington Academy: common questions
Is The Wellington Academy a good school?
By its published results, well below average: its GCSE results are better than 13% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is D), with an Attainment 8 of 38.4 and 29% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Good, October 2022.
How hard is it to get into The Wellington Academy?
For September 2026, 143 families put The Wellington Academy first and all of them were offered a place; 151 places were offered in all.
What is The Wellington Academy’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Good (October 2022).
How much do houses cost near The Wellington Academy?
Homes in its postcode sector, SP11 9, sold for a median £316,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (333 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; Perham Down’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.