City Academy Review 2026: A city-centre secondary focused on stability, routines, and rebuilding outcomes

City Academy is an 11 to 16 secondary in Edgbaston, Birmingham, with a stated ambition to remove barriers to success for its students and to build a culture where expectations are clear and support is visible. It is part of CORE Education Trust, having joined on 01 September 2020.

This is a school that has been through change at speed. Recent external monitoring describes a move from operating across two sites, following a merger and significant renovation work, to being fully based on the Langley Walk site, alongside a push for staffing stability and more consistent teaching practice.

Academically, the picture is mixed. FindMySchool’s GCSE outcomes ranking places the school at 3,429th in England and 93rd in Birmingham for GCSE outcomes, which sits below England average, within the bottom 40% of schools in England on this measure.

The defining feature here is purposeful rebuilding. The school’s recent story is less about longstanding tradition and more about creating consistency, in staffing, routines, and expectations. External monitoring notes that the school is now fully staffed and experiencing greater stability than at the previous inspection point, which matters for families because stability typically shows up in more predictable classroom standards and calmer day-to-day organisation.

Relationships are repeatedly described as a strength. Students report positive relationships with staff, and formal evidence describes a respectful culture with students who are ambitious for themselves and keen to learn. That combination, warmth plus high expectations, is often the bedrock for improvement in a school with uneven outcomes.

Leadership is clearly central to the current direction. The headteacher is Mrs Rebecca Bakewell. A school letter about leadership change indicates that Mrs Bakewell stepped up to become headteacher in March 2022, moving from a senior on-site leadership role.

City Academy is a secondary school without a sixth form, so the key headline indicators are GCSE outcomes and the school’s progress measures.

On FindMySchool’s GCSE outcomes ranking (based on official data), the school is ranked 3,429th in England and 93rd in Birmingham. This places it below England average, within the bottom 40% of schools in England on this measure.

The underlying GCSE metrics point to the central challenge: students’ outcomes need to rise, and progress has been weak. The Progress 8 score is -0.47, which indicates that, on average, students make less progress than pupils with similar starting points nationally. The EBacc average point score is 3.1, and 8.6% achieved grade 5 or above in the EBacc measure shown.

For parents, the implication is practical. This is not currently a results-led choice. It can be a sensible option for families who value a structured, improving school close to the city centre, and who will actively use the academic support that is in place, but those seeking consistently strong GCSE outcomes should probe closely on trajectory, subject-by-subject capacity, and how teaching consistency is being secured across departments.

The curriculum intent is ambitious, and planning is described as thoughtful, but the key issue has been implementation consistency. The school has introduced a teaching and learning handbook to set clearer expectations for how the curriculum should be delivered, backed by a professional development programme.

There are also signs of targeted practice, particularly around closing gaps. Monitoring references structured interventions for Year 11 focused on addressing misconceptions and missing knowledge. This is the right shape of response when a school is trying to raise outcomes quickly, but the more important question for families is how far strong practice is routine across Year 7 to Year 10, not just concentrated at exam time.

Reading is treated as a trust and school priority. Monitoring describes effective support for students who need to strengthen reading, including a peer reading programme where older students support younger students, plus form-time reading refinements driven by student voice. The implication is that students who arrive with weaker literacy should find more systematic help than in many schools, although impact depends on how reliably departments adapt lesson materials for different starting points.

Support for students with special educational needs and disabilities has strengthened since the earlier graded inspection point, with more personalised one-page profiles and staff training on how to adapt classroom activities. For families of students with SEND, the most useful next step is to ask how subject teachers use these profiles day to day, and what happens when adaptations are not consistently applied in a department.

Where Students Go Next

As an 11 to 16 school, City Academy’s “destination” story is primarily about post-16 transition into sixth forms, colleges, apprenticeships, and training. Careers education starts early, with evidence that students begin learning about different types of careers from Year 7, including exposure to universities and colleges.

For families, this matters because a school without a sixth form needs to be strong at transition planning. A good approach typically includes early guidance, clear signposting to local providers, and practical support with applications in Year 11. The school also notes compliance with the provider access requirements, which should help students hear directly about technical and training routes, not only academic sixth form pathways.

City Academy is a non-selective, mixed secondary. The school states that it has 150 places available in Year 7 each year and that applications for Year 7 must be made via Birmingham City Council’s common application process.

For September 2026 entry, Birmingham’s published secondary admissions timetable sets a closing date of 31 October 2025, with National Offer Day on 02 March 2026, and an appeals deadline shown as 13 April 2026. Birmingham also publishes late application handling, including a deadline of 31 July 2026 for late changes, after which families may need to approach schools directly.

In terms of demand, the dataset provided describes the school as oversubscribed, with an applications-to-offers ratio of 4.64 in the latest available entry-route demand figures included. Since last-distance data is not available here, the practical implication is that families should focus on the oversubscription criteria in the published admissions arrangements and ensure their preferences and documentation are correct and on time.

Open events are positioned as annual autumn-term activity. The school states that open days for new students run every year in the autumn term, using a mix of pre-booked appointments and drop-in sessions; the example given references an October open week pattern.

A practical tip: if you are shortlisting multiple Birmingham secondaries, use FindMySchool’s Map Search to compare travel practicality and realistic options side-by-side, then track deadlines and open events using a shortlist.

Safeguarding is described as effective, with a culture that includes regular staff training and systems designed to respond quickly when students need help.

More recent monitoring emphasises routines, attendance, and behaviour as key levers in the school’s improvement plan. It describes improved attendance across groups, calmer lessons, reduced suspensions, and a cohesive way of working between pastoral and safeguarding staff to address barriers faced by specific students, including persistence in securing external support when needed.

There is also evidence of practical safety education, including workshops delivered with police input at the time of monitoring. The implication for parents is that the school is taking a whole-system approach: standards in the classroom, predictable movement and routines, and structured safeguarding work, rather than relying on isolated interventions.

Enrichment is framed as an entitlement rather than a bolt-on. The school’s City Extra programme runs after the school day and is open to students in Years 7 to 11, with activities spanning chess, coding, creative arts, and sport.

Specific clubs referenced in the school’s published extracurricular schedule include Spanish Film Club and Table Tennis Club, alongside wider activity options.

Music also appears as a distinctive strand, with the school referencing partnership work with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire through its COREus choir programme. For students who enjoy performance, that kind of external linkage can raise ambition and provide more specialist experiences than a standalone school programme typically can.

Trips and cultural experiences are part of the mix. Students describe enjoying trips, and recent monitoring references a Year 10 theatre trip as an example of the opportunities now available.

The school day begins at 8:35am, with arrival time stated as 8:15 to 8:35am. The timetable runs to 3:10pm for all year groups, with break and lunch times staggered for different year cohorts.

For travel, the school publishes bus and rail guidance. Named bus routes include 80A, X20, X21, X22, 23, 24, and 25 (via Bath Row). The nearest train stations listed are Five Ways (around a 10 minute walk) and Birmingham New Street (15 minutes or more on foot).

• Outcomes remain the main concern. The current Progress 8 score of -0.47 indicates students have been making below-average progress. Families should ask what has changed since the most recent published outcomes, and how consistently strong teaching is now embedded across departments.

• Improvement is real, but still in progress. Monitoring describes clear steps forward in stability, attendance, and classroom calm, but also highlights that curriculum delivery is not yet consistent across the school. This is important if your child needs highly predictable teaching day to day.

• This is a city-centre school, so travel matters. A longer, multi-leg commute can reduce the time students use for clubs, intervention, or independent study. It is worth test-running the route at peak time before committing.

City Academy is best understood as a school on an improvement journey, with a strong emphasis on routines, relationships, and rebuilding consistency after a period of structural change. Behaviour and day-to-day culture are described positively, and recent monitoring suggests stability and attendance are moving in the right direction.

Who it suits: families who want a non-selective Birmingham secondary with clear routines, improving systems, and a strong pastoral-safeguarding spine, and who will actively engage with support and intervention where needed. The key decision point is academic trajectory; parents should look hard at how improvement is translating into subject-level classroom consistency and rising outcomes.