St Augustine Academy Review 2026: A small Maidstone secondary rebuilding outcomes, with a clear pastoral spine

St Augustine Academy is a Church of England secondary in Maidstone, serving students from Year 7 to Year 11 and operating as part of Woodard Academies Trust. It opened in September 2011 and remains a relatively compact school by local standards, with a published capacity of 750 and around 740 pupils on roll.

The headline story is a school working hard to bring examination outcomes into line with its wider ambitions. Recent performance indicators sit below the England picture, with an Attainment 8 score of 36.2 and a Progress 8 score of -0.81 in the most recent dataset provided here. Alongside that, there are signs of a structured approach to improvement, including trust-led teacher training and a refreshed behaviour policy that has tightened consistency.

For families, the attraction is often the combination of scale and support. The school is described in formal reporting as caring, with an established pastoral team, and it also runs a resourced provision for autism, with places specifically allocated and staffed.

A school can feel smaller not just in numbers, but in how quickly adults notice what is going on. St Augustine Academy’s external reporting frames it as a caring community, with clearly stated values that shape daily expectations. Courage, compassion and community are not presented as decorative branding, but as the language leaders use to explain standards and relationships.

Behaviour is treated as a foundation rather than an optional extra. Over the year leading into the latest inspection cycle, leadership work focused on resetting routines and insisting on consistency, with the intention of making lessons calmer and more productive. The practical implication for families is straightforward, classrooms work better when expectations are predictable, and students who need structure often benefit from that clarity.

The Church of England designation matters here, both culturally and in how the school explains its purpose. The school sits within the Diocese of Canterbury, and formal reporting references assemblies and chaplaincy as part of students’ reflection and personal development, rather than as bolt-on activities.

Leadership is currently recorded on the Department for Education’s Get Information About Schools service as Mr Steffan Ball (Principal). The school’s governance and data record was last confirmed in December 2024, which is the most recent official confirmation visible in accessible sources.

This section uses FindMySchool rankings and the performance metrics provided for this school.

At GCSE level, the school’s outcomes sit below the England mid-pack. The Attainment 8 score is 36.2 and the Progress 8 score is -0.81, indicating that, on average, students have made less progress from their starting points than similar pupils nationally in England. The average EBacc APS is 3.08, and 4.3% of pupils achieved grades 5 or above across the EBacc measure.

In the FindMySchool GCSE outcomes ranking, the school is placed 3,465th in England and 11th within Maidstone, which puts it below England average overall, within the bottom 40% band on this measure. (FindMySchool ranking based on official data.)

That said, the lived experience of a school is rarely explained by one number. The more informative question is what the school is doing about it. The latest external review describes a trust-led training programme that has strengthened practice in English and mathematics, even if the impact was not yet consistent across all subjects at the time of inspection. For parents, that points to a school that has identified levers for improvement and is using its trust infrastructure to pull them.

Curriculum intent is described as ambitious and broad, with a focus on sequencing so that topics build logically over time. That matters because, in a school where prior gaps exist, the order in which knowledge is taught can be the difference between students coping and students thriving.

The strongest teaching picture presented is where subject expertise and adaptation meet. In many departments, staff knowledge is described as strong, and feedback during lessons is positioned as a routine expectation, so misconceptions are addressed early. When that happens reliably, students get a steadier experience, fewer “mystery marks” on work, and a clearer sense of what improvement actually looks like.

Where the school still has work to do is ensuring that classroom adaptation is consistently effective for students with SEND across subjects. There is evidence of supportive information-sharing through pupil “passports”, but the issue identified is translating that into learning design, not simply pastoral understanding. For families of children with additional needs, this is an important question to test during visits, what does support look like in lessons, not just outside them.

St Augustine Academy is an 11 to 16 school and does not operate a sixth form. Most students therefore move on at 16, typically into school sixth forms, sixth form colleges, or further education options across the local area.

The school’s careers programme is described as structured across year groups, with work experience for Year 10. The value of this is practical, even when academic outcomes are rebuilding, well-run guidance and meaningful employer contact can help students make better post-16 choices, particularly those who benefit from clearer vocational or technical pathways.

The Provider Access Legislation requirement is explicitly referenced in the latest reporting, which signals that students should have exposure to technical education and apprenticeship routes alongside academic sixth form options. Parents who want a balanced view of pathways should ask how the school schedules these encounters, and whether local colleges and training providers are active in school.

St Augustine Academy is recorded as non-selective and sits within Kent’s coordinated admissions framework for secondary transfer.

Demand is real. The admissions dataset provided here shows 392 applications for 155 offers, which equates to 2.53 applications per place in that cycle, and the school is described as oversubscribed on that measure. The practical implication is that families should treat application order and eligibility criteria seriously, and should not assume that proximity alone will secure a place in a given year.

For September 2026 entry into Year 7 in Kent, the published local authority timetable states that applications opened on 01 September 2025 and closed on 31 October 2025, with offers released on 02 March 2026.

As a Church of England school, the school’s admissions documentation for 2026 to 2027 outlines faith-related oversubscription criteria alongside other priorities, and it also confirms a Published Admission Number of 150 for Year 7. Families considering a faith priority route should read the school’s criteria carefully and treat evidence requirements as time-sensitive, since church attendance verification and supplementary paperwork can take time to arrange.

If you are comparing options across Maidstone, FindMySchool’s Map Search can be useful for checking your location relative to each school, then pressure-testing that against published admission criteria and your own preference order.

Pastoral support is described as a deliberate strength, with a strong team that supports students who need help, alongside expectations for conduct and safety. For parents, that matters because it suggests pastoral systems are not simply reactive, they are designed into how the school runs day to day.

The Autism Resource Centre is a notable element of the school’s offer. Official records confirm a resourced provision for ASD, with capacity and roll both listed at 12. This kind of provision can suit students who benefit from specialist support while remaining part of mainstream lessons and routines, but fit depends on the individual child’s profile and the resourced provision’s operating model.

Ofsted confirmed safeguarding arrangements are effective.

A school’s enrichment offer is often where confidence returns for students who have had a difficult time in purely academic spaces. St Augustine Academy’s reporting points to a deliberate programme for younger year groups, framed as widening horizons rather than simply keeping pupils occupied.

The most useful detail is specificity. Activities cited include weightlifting, sign language and chess. That mix matters because it signals breadth, a student who is not drawn to traditional team sport still has places to belong, and practical opportunities to develop discipline, communication, and competitive thinking in different forms.

For older students, work experience in Year 10 is a meaningful extension of enrichment into employability. Done well, it can turn abstract careers guidance into something concrete, and it often helps students take GCSE choices more seriously because they can see where subjects lead.

This is a state-funded school, there are no tuition fees.

The school does not publicly display full operational details through the sources accessible here, such as daily start and finish times. Families should check the school’s published term dates and day structure directly before committing to travel plans or childcare arrangements.

As a Maidstone secondary on Oakwood Road, most families will be balancing travel time with after-school commitments. When weighing up suitability, it is worth asking how clubs and interventions are scheduled, and how the school supports students who rely on buses or shared lifts.

• Academic outcomes are still a rebuilding story. Progress 8 sits at -0.81 in the latest dataset provided here, which indicates students, on average, have made less progress than similar pupils across England. This is the central trade-off for families prioritising examination performance above all else.

• Attendance is flagged as a key pressure point. External reporting highlights that absence has contributed to gaps in learning, especially for disadvantaged pupils. Families should ask what the current attendance strategy looks like, and how quickly leaders intervene when patterns emerge.

• SEND consistency across subjects remains an area to test. There is evidence of strong specialist support and effective early reading intervention, but also a clear message that classroom adaptation is not yet consistently effective across the curriculum. For some children, that distinction is decisive.

• Faith designation and admissions criteria may shape your route in. If you are applying using a faith-based priority, evidence requirements and timelines can add complexity. Treat this as an administrative project, not a last-minute add-on.

St Augustine Academy is a smaller Maidstone secondary with a clear pastoral identity, a faith designation that is integrated into its purpose, and a tangible enrichment offer that includes distinctive options such as sign language and weightlifting. It is also a school still working to convert ambition into examination outcomes at scale, with recent performance measures below England norms and improvement work described as underway.

Who it suits: families looking for a supportive, structured setting, particularly those who value a Church of England ethos and want a school where pastoral systems and enrichment are treated as core, not optional. For families whose primary criterion is top-end GCSE performance, this is a school to assess carefully, focusing on the momentum of improvement and the fit for your child’s needs.