Great Yarmouth Charter Academy Review 2026, a structured 11 to 16 academy with strong routines and a clear improvement agenda

A school can be both settled and still in motion, and that is the most useful way to frame Great Yarmouth Charter Academy right now. It sits on a long educational lineage in the borough, with the earlier grammar school founded in 1551 and later reshaped over the centuries into the modern secondary provision families see today.

Today’s version is a large, mixed secondary in Southtown, with a Christian character and a stated emphasis on structure, expectations, and consistency. Leadership has also been recently refreshed, with Principal Dean Rosembert appointed in April 2023, a timeline that matters because it frames how parents should read the school’s current trajectory and priorities.

The most recent Ofsted inspection (11 to 12 June 2024) confirmed the academy continues to be Good, and it also confirmed safeguarding arrangements are effective.

This is a school that places real value on clear routines and visible recognition. Formal systems matter here because they are used to build a predictable environment for pupils, including a rewards culture that pupils recognise and care about. One example is the use of “golden tickets” for achievement, which comes through as meaningful to pupils rather than performative, and sits alongside an approach that is intentionally structured and rule-led.

Relationships are a prominent part of the school’s identity, and the tone described in external evidence is not distant or purely compliance-driven. Staff are described as engaging with pupils in day-to-day moments, including social times, and that everyday presence is important because it often correlates with stronger behaviour management and a greater willingness from pupils to seek help early.

The Christian character is best understood as part of the school’s formal identity rather than a promise of a narrow intake. For families, the practical implication is that values, assemblies, and parts of personal development may use Christian framing, while admissions remain aligned to the local authority process and oversubscription criteria rather than faith selection.

For families looking for a clear, data-grounded view, the headline picture is “broadly typical performance in England, with some subject-level strengths, and a school working hard on consistency”.

FindMySchool ranking context (GCSE)

Great Yarmouth Charter Academy is ranked 2,674th in England for GCSE outcomes (FindMySchool ranking based on official data), and ranks 4th locally within Great Yarmouth. This places performance in line with the middle 35% of schools in England (25th to 60th percentile).

Attainment and EBacc

The school’s Attainment 8 score is 41.7. EBacc average point score is 3.57, and 11.8% achieved grades 5 or above across the EBacc measure. In parent terms, that combination usually indicates that outcomes are stronger for some pupils and subjects than others, and that the EBacc pathway is not yet a high-performance strength at whole-school level.

Progress

Progress 8 is -0.01, which is essentially in line with the England benchmark of 0.0 (progress broadly as expected from pupils’ starting points). That is a useful statistic for families because it indicates the school is not systematically underperforming relative to intake, even if attainment is not high in absolute terms.

A practical way to interpret this is that pupils who thrive with strong routines, regular checking of understanding, and a “no gaps left behind” approach are likely to do well. Pupils who require a higher degree of independent self-organisation may need more active parental scaffolding early on, particularly around homework habits, revision routines, and attendance.

Parents comparing local schools can use the FindMySchool local hub page to view results side-by-side using the Comparison Tool, particularly useful when schools sit close together in the middle performance band.

Teaching is described as having a sharp focus on core knowledge and skills, with frequent checking of what pupils have retained. That tends to produce two tangible effects for pupils. First, misconceptions are picked up earlier, which reduces the risk of pupils coasting with partial understanding. Second, it can feel highly structured, which suits pupils who like clear “what good looks like” expectations.

Reading support stands out as a distinctive strength. The school identifies pupils who struggle to read quickly and provides targeted provision that is described as enabling rapid and sustained progress. The implication for families is straightforward: for pupils arriving in Year 7 with weaker literacy, this is the kind of intervention capacity that can change their entire secondary trajectory, because reading competence unlocks access across every subject.

Support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities is described as effective, with adaptations made so pupils can access the same curriculum as their peers. For parents, the key question to explore at an open event is the operational detail, for example how teachers receive strategies, how interventions are timetabled, and how progress is monitored over time.

Because this is primarily an 11 to 16 school, most families will focus on two transition points: post-16 options, and the practical readiness pupils leave with at the end of Year 11.

A small post-16 cohort is referenced in recent official evidence, alongside a strong ambition from leaders to build high-quality programmes of study. The most important point for families is not the existence of post-16 provision, but its scale and breadth. Small sixth-form cohorts can offer close support and strong mentoring, but may have limits on subject choice and on the social critical mass some students want.

Careers education and guidance is described as meaningful at post-16 level, including access to work experience through employer links and support for university and apprenticeship applications. Even if your child does not remain on site for post-16 study, the presence of this work helps signal a school that is treating destination planning seriously rather than as a last-minute add-on.

Admissions are coordinated through Norfolk County Council, and the key dates for September 2026 entry are clear: applications opened on 11 September 2025, closed on 31 October 2025, and offer day is 2 March 2026.

The school has been oversubscribed in the most recent data available, with 259 applications for 185 offers, roughly 1.4 applications per place. That is not “hyper-competitive”, but it is enough to make proximity, sibling priority, and accurate application paperwork matter.

Oversubscription criteria follow a standard order that begins with children with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school, then looked-after and previously looked-after children, then siblings, followed by distance. For families outside the immediate area, the practical implication is that an application should be made with a realistic understanding of how distance operates in practice, especially in years when local demand rises.

Parents should use the FindMySchool Map Search to check their precise distance from the school gates and to sense-check options against the most recent admissions patterns, especially when several local secondaries sit within a small radius.

A “safe and structured” environment is a consistent theme in the most recent official evidence, with pupils described as proud of their school and clear about expectations. That is typically a positive sign for families who want calm routines and predictable boundaries.

Breakfast club is referenced as part of the school’s support offer, particularly for disadvantaged pupils, alongside subsidised activities. This matters because it signals that the school is actively trying to remove practical barriers that can otherwise become entrenched, such as poor punctuality, low participation in enrichment, and reduced access to adult support before the day starts.

There are also two wellbeing-linked themes parents should treat as “ask about this directly”. First, suspension levels are recognised as high, and the school is working with external agencies to address this. Second, attendance is identified as an ongoing priority, with additional staffing allocated to improve it. The right way to interpret these points is not alarm, but due diligence: ask how behaviour systems are communicated to staff, how pupils are supported back from repeated sanctions, and what the attendance strategy looks like for pupils with complex barriers.

Extracurricular life is not presented as an optional extra, it is framed as part of pupils’ broader development and engagement. Two specific examples help make this concrete.

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

Pupils can participate in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, with large numbers taking up the offer. For many pupils this becomes the first sustained experience of goal-setting and team responsibility outside lessons, and it can be particularly powerful for pupils who need a confidence reset after a difficult Key Stage 3 period.

Activities week with cultural capital

The school runs an activities week that has included trips such as the British Museum and West End theatres. The educational value is not simply “a day out”, it is the experience of being in high-expectation cultural spaces and learning how to participate in them, something that can widen horizons for pupils who have had limited access to those settings.

Enrichment is also closely tied to personal development and PSHE education, which includes attention to emotional and physical health. The implication for families is that the school is trying to build participation and belonging, which is often the missing ingredient behind both improved attendance and improved behaviour.

This is a state school with no tuition fees. The main day-to-day costs to budget for are typically uniform, transport, and optional extras such as trips, food, and any paid enrichment.

Breakfast club is part of the support offer mentioned in official evidence. Families should confirm current timings for the school day and any before-school provision directly with the school, as published schedules can change across the year.

For travel, most families will use local bus routes serving the Southtown area and school-age walking or cycling where practical; Norfolk’s admissions process is LA-coordinated, so transport planning should be considered alongside application preferences rather than after offers are released.

• Attendance remains a key improvement priority. The school recognises that too many pupils do not attend often enough and has allocated additional staffing to address this. For families, strong routines at home around punctuality and medical evidence can make a disproportionate difference.

• Suspension levels are described as high. The school is working with external agencies, but parents should ask how behaviour expectations are communicated to all staff and how consistency is monitored across departments.

• Outcomes sit in the middle performance band in England. For some pupils this will be a good fit, especially those who benefit from structure and targeted literacy support. For very high attainers seeking a consistently high EBacc pipeline, it is sensible to compare curriculum pathways carefully.

• Admissions are mildly competitive. Oversubscription is real but not extreme; precise preferences, realistic distance expectations, and early application discipline matter.

Great Yarmouth Charter Academy offers a clear, structured secondary experience with strong emphasis on routines, literacy support, and a culture of recognition that pupils seem to value. Results sit in the middle band in England, and leadership is relatively new, which helps explain a school that is simultaneously stable in day-to-day order and still working through consistency issues around behaviour communication and attendance.

Who it suits: families seeking an 11 to 16 school in Great Yarmouth with a firm behavioural framework, targeted reading support, and a practical commitment to enrichment and personal development, particularly for pupils who thrive with clear expectations and close adult oversight.