Application demand · 2026
Undersubscribed120 of 120 first-choice applicants received an offer
for 210 entry places
Last reviewed: September 2026 · Rankings and key information above update regularly, however, this review below is refreshed bi-annually and may not reflect recent changes. If you spot anything outdated or inaccurate, please let us know.
A fresh start is exactly what this is. Stowupland High School opened in its present form on 1 September 2024, a Fresh Start academy within the Oxlip Learning Partnership, succeeding a predecessor school of the same name. It serves Stowupland and the surrounding villages near Stowmarket, with 897 students on roll against a capacity of 1,085.
Principal Lee Walker leads a mixed, non-selective 11 to 18 school whose own summary of its vision is short: "Always Striving for Success". The school has not yet been inspected by Ofsted since it opened, so there is no graded judgement of its own. Recent GCSE and A-level results sit in the lower part of the England tables, and sixth-form applications have been paused since September 2024, with the school planning to offer places again for 2027/28. Strengths lie elsewhere: an on-site specialist centre for students with cognition and learning needs, a layered pastoral system and a steady programme of productions, trips and careers events.
Rural space defines the setting. The principal describes a large site in the Suffolk countryside with specialist facilities and teaching spaces for the examination courses on offer, and a number of footpaths lead into the grounds. School buses are on site during the morning and evening periods, and the named feeder primaries are spread across several villages, so many students travel in rather than walk.
Since the 2024 reopening, the tone set by leadership is one of high expectations. Students are expected to work hard, meet demanding academic targets and take part in the wider life of the school, and the principal's welcome frames the aim as students leaving with the highest standards of academic excellence and personal responsibility. The school describes itself as an inclusive community school, and a separate statement of values anchors behaviour in three words: Rights, Respect and Responsibility.
Uniform policy shows how that translates day to day. A royal blue polo shirt and a navy jumper or cardigan, both carrying the Stowupland logo, are compulsory, and the jumper must be worn when arriving at school and moving around the site. Rules on skirts, footwear, make-up and nails are detailed and enforced, with persistent breaches leading to time in the Internal Exclusion Room. Families who find the cost hard can ask about financial support, and donated pre-worn uniform is issued free of charge. That combination (firm standards, practical help) is a fair summary of the culture the school is trying to build.
Context matters here too. 28.7% of students are eligible for free school meals, and Pupil Premium funding is directed at targeted interventions, personalised support and enrichment. The school is one of two secondary academies in the Oxlip Learning Partnership, alongside Copleston High School, with five primary academies including Bacton, Cedars Park and Mendlesham, three of which are also named feeder schools.
Results are the area where the school has most ground to make up. In proprietary FindMySchool rankings built from official data, Stowupland High School is 3,330th of 3,895 in England for GCSE results, ranked against all schools in England with published GCSE results, state and independent. That places it in the lower reaches of the table.
The underlying measures tell a consistent story. The average Attainment 8 score was 43.4 across a year group of 185 students. Progress 8 stood at -0.13, where 0 represents the England average: students made slightly less progress from their starting points than similar students elsewhere, but the gap is modest rather than severe. In the English Baccalaureate, 10.3% of students achieved grade 5 or above across the full suite of subjects, and the average EBacc point score was 3.7. For a school with a broad, comprehensive intake and a substantial disadvantaged cohort, those figures describe a school where many students pass but relatively few reach the higher grades across academic subjects.
At A-level, the picture is similar. Stowupland stands 2,051st of 2,549 in England for A-level results. Around 7% of entries were graded A*, 3% A and 11% B, giving 21% at A* to B against an England average of 47%. The A* to A rate was about 10%, compared with 24% across England. These results come from a sixth form that has since paused recruitment, so they are a limited guide to any provision that reopens.
For families, the honest reading is this: the academic record inherited by the new school sits in the lower part of the England tables at both key stages, and lifting it is the obvious task for the current leadership. A Progress 8 score close to zero means students are roughly keeping pace with similar students elsewhere, but not yet gaining the extra ground seen in stronger schools.
England ranks and key metrics (where available)
A-Level A*-B
21.31%
% of students achieving grades A*-B
GCSE
3330th
England rank
Ranking figures update automatically as our data refreshes and are the definitive source. Any rankings quoted in the review text were accurate when it was written and may since have changed.
The curriculum statement is built around the idea of powerful knowledge, carefully sequenced across every subject. Students follow a three-year Key Stage 3, covering the full range of National Curriculum subjects in depth before choosing options at the end of Year 9. RPE, computing, design and technology, drama, music, and PE and dance all appear alongside the core subjects in Years 7 to 9.
Options begin in January of Year 9, with an Options booklet, an Options evening and individual interviews where students need them. Everyone continues with English, maths, science, RE and core PE, then selects four further courses. The vocational choices give the school a practical edge: Health and Social Care, BTEC Sport and ICT sit alongside GCSEs, and personalised options with outside providers exist for students with specific requirements. Music is taught through the BTEC Level 2 Tech Award in Music Practice, offered in both a Music Pathway (performing, composing and appraising) and a Technology Pathway aimed at students who want to create music using digital technology. GCSE Drama follows the Pearson Edexcel specification, with devising, performance from text and a written paper that includes a live theatre evaluation.
Reading is treated as a whole-school priority. Every student sits an NGRT reading test on entry, repeated at least annually for Years 7 to 10, and results are shared with parents. Weaker readers move into tiered intervention, including a systematic synthetic phonics programme for those who struggle with decoding, and online programmes such as Lexia, MyON and Bedrock. A tutor-time reading programme and library lessons keep reading visible for everyone else. In a school where results need to rise, early work on literacy is exactly the right lever to pull.
Year teams are clearly named. Each year group from Year 7 to Year 11 has a Progress Leader responsible for academic progress and wellbeing, supported by Assistant Progress Leaders, which gives parents an obvious first contact beyond the form tutor.
Most students leave at 16. In the school's own figures for 2025, 95% of students continued in education, training or employment at the end of Key Stage 4. With the sixth form paused, Year 11 students need a post-16 place elsewhere, which makes the careers programme more important than usual.
The careers offer is specific and staffed. Mrs Katrina Johnson, the school's professional Careers Advisor, provides impartial one-to-one guidance to students in any year group who request it, and she supports every Year 11 student through the autumn and spring terms, including help with college applications. Mrs A Walden, as Careers Leader, oversees the programme.
Named events run through the upper years. Years 10 and 11 visit the Suffolk Skills Show to learn about local employment. The Learning About Work Day brings local employers into school, and each student can have a one-to-one interview with a member of staff or a business representative. A Careers Fair for Years 9 to 11 puts students in front of local and national employers and post-16 providers. Year 10 students complete a compulsory week of work experience in July and source their own placements, which the school acknowledges can take persistence. For students who will be looking for college courses or apprenticeships at 16, this structured exposure to employers is one of the more useful things the school provides.
This is the section families need to read carefully. The trust's admissions policy states that applications for the Sixth Form at Stowupland High School have been paused since September 2024, and that the school currently plans to offer places again in 2027/28. Admission will depend on the viability of the courses and on student suitability, and the courses themselves are under review. Entry requirements and a subject list for any reopened sixth form are therefore not yet settled, and the policy says details will appear on the school website nearer the time.
What remains is the physical footprint. The library is placed at the bottom of the Sixth Form building, and the school's pastoral pages describe its trained peer mentors as predominantly sixth-form students. The PE department's stated aim of maintaining BTEC Sport numbers from Key Stage 4 into Key Stage 5 hints at the kind of vocational route a future sixth form might include, though nothing is confirmed.
Parents of current Year 10 and Year 11 students should plan for post-16 options elsewhere unless and until the school confirms its 2027/28 offer.
Entry at Year 7 is coordinated by Suffolk County Council on the school's behalf, using the Suffolk common application form. For September 2027 entry, the closing date for Year 7 applications is 31 October, and secondary offers are due on 1 March 2027 (or the next nearest working day). The published admission number is 210.
Demand is steady rather than intense. In 2025 the school received 235 applications for 152 offers, about 1.55 applications per place, and every family who put Stowupland first was offered a place. The application count includes families who ranked the school lower down their list, so the figure that matters most to local families is that recent first preferences have been met.
When the school is oversubscribed, the trust's policy sets this order after children with an Education, Health and Care plan naming the school:
The Family of Schools is Bacton Primary, Cedars Park, Mendlesham, Freeman, Haughley Crawfords and Old Newton. Attending one of these at the closing date is treated as residing in the priority admissions area, which makes feeder attendance more important than home address for most families. Distances are measured in a straight line by the county council, with random allocation as the final tie-breaker.
Families can visit through an annual Open Evening, with presentations on the school's values and vision at 5.45pm or 6.45pm, and through Tea & Tours during the school day, for which booking is required. In-year applications use the school's own form and guidance.
Places at the Mulberry Centre follow a separate route: admission requests come from the local authority through its specialist decision-making panels, not directly from parents.
Support is organised in layers, and the layers are well documented. Every student has a form tutor they see daily, who is the first point of contact, and parents can email tutors directly. Scheduled parent meetings take place three times a year. Behind the tutor sit the Progress Leader for each year and Assistant Progress Leaders, who hold non-teaching roles, are safeguarding trained, and help manage behaviour, incidents and mentoring.
Mental health provision goes beyond signposting. A Mental Health Lead coordinates the work, Mental Health First Aiders are available in school, and a Wellbeing Practitioner offers one-to-one and small-group support, although the school is candid that places are limited, thresholds apply and there can be a wait. Staff can refer students to the Mental Health Support Team, an Ipswich-based service that regularly works from the school, and students can be referred to Kooth for online support. School nurses see students with medical or wellbeing needs on a referral basis.
Smaller touches matter for younger students. A Friendship club gives Year 7 students a quiet place to eat lunch away from the busier areas, and the library stays open at lunchtime for homework, reading and a calmer space. Students with particular medical needs may be offered a personalised timetable, reviewed fortnightly, with the aim of returning to full-time education within about six weeks. For some students in Years 9 to 11, The Mix in Stowmarket provides an alternative learning environment.
Bullying can be reported to any member of staff, to the year team, or by email to a monitored address, and trained sixth-form student mentors are described as taking concerns to the relevant Progress Team.
Special educational needs support is led by Mr Walters, the SENDCo. The standout provision is the Mulberry Centre, a Key Stage 3 and 4 centre for students aged 11 to 16 with cognition and learning needs, set within the school grounds. It has 24 places, 23 of them filled. Each student has a co-produced Pathway Plan that sets out how and when they join mainstream lessons, and Mulberry students share breaks, assemblies, trips and sporting and cultural events with the main school. For a family whose child has an EHCP and would struggle in full mainstream classes, this is a genuine reason to look closely at Stowupland.
Drama and performing arts. The school claims a well-deserved reputation for drama, and the production list backs it up: recent annual shows have included Matilda, High School Musical, Oliver and Fame Jr., each open to all year groups. The 2027 production is Legally Blonde Jr. Showcases give dancers, musicians and singers a stage in front of families and the wider community. Theatre trips have reinforced the classroom work, from Starlight Express for Years 7 to 10 to the New Wolsey Theatre for Years 8 and 9, and a Dance East workshop has run for Years 7 to 10.
Sport and physical activity. Sports clubs run in line with the school's competition calendar, students can use the on-site fitness suite, and the whole school takes part in the annual Sports' Day. PE offers accreditation that is useful on a college application: Sports Leaders Level 1 and 2, a Fitness Instructors award and dance leaders awards. BTEC Sport is available as a Key Stage 4 option, and a PE trip to Wimbledon has featured for Years 9 and 10.
Music. Beyond the BTEC pathways, a respectable number of students take peripatetic instrumental lessons in school or externally, and the department points students towards local ensembles such as Simply Brass and Stowmarket Concert Band, along with county-led ensembles. For students drawn to production, the Technology Pathway offers a route into creating music with digital tools.
Clubs, trips and awards. The lunchtime and after-school programme includes an art and textiles club, a French Cinema club and a Latin club, plus sports clubs, with sign-up through Arbor. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is managed by Miss Holder, with expeditions for Years 10 and 11. The library adds its own clubs, author visits and themed days, supported by 12 student librarians who each take two duty days a week. Trips have included a Year 9 Battlefields residential, geography fieldwork at Felixstowe, a history field trip to Castle Acre and orienteering for Year 8, with foreign travel that may include Paris, Lille, a bi-annual ski trip and the World War One Battlefields. The school aims to keep trip costs low and invites families eligible for Pupil Premium to ask what help is available.
Student leadership roles include subject ambassadors, mental health ambassadors, prefects and a School Council.
The school day runs from 8.55am (line-ups) to 3.40pm, with tutor time from 9.05am, five hour-long lessons, a 25-minute break and a 50-minute lunch; the school calculates this as 33.75 hours a week. Catering is run by an in-house provider, with lunch served in the Dining Room and designated spaces such as the Concourse, and a cashless system topped up through Parentmail. Students who live over 3 miles away by the shortest walking route, and for whom Stowupland is the nearest high school, qualify for free county transport, but families must opt in by 31 May every year. Car access to the site is restricted between 8.30am and 9.00am and between 3.15pm and 4.00pm while buses are on site. There is bike storage for those who cycle.
No inspection of its own yet. The school has not yet been inspected by Ofsted since it opened on 1 September 2024. Before this school opened, the predecessor school (URN 143362) was judged Requires Improvement by Ofsted in January 2023. Families are choosing a school on its current direction rather than an external verdict.
Results sit low in the England tables. GCSE and A-level results place the school in the lower part of the England tables, with A* to B grades at A-level well under half the England rate. Families prioritising top grades should weigh this against the pastoral and SEND strengths.
The sixth form is paused. Sixth-form applications have been paused since September 2024, with places planned for 2027/28 and courses still under review. A student who wants to stay on the same site after GCSEs cannot yet count on it, so plan post-16 options with that uncertainty in mind.
Wellbeing support has limits. The one-to-one Wellbeing Practitioner service is in high demand, with thresholds and possible waiting times. Families whose child needs intensive mental health support should discuss what is realistically available at the point of joining.
Stowupland High School is a rural comprehensive in transition. The 2024 Fresh Start gave it a new identity, a clear set of expectations under Principal Lee Walker and a place in a local trust, but the academic record it carries is weak, and the sixth form is on hold. What it offers now is practical and humane: a well-organised pastoral structure, careful reading intervention, a specialist Mulberry Centre for students with cognition and learning needs, strong drama productions and a careers programme that gets students in front of employers.
It is best suited to local families within the Family of Schools feeder network who want a community secondary with firm standards, good SEND provision and a lively performing arts calendar, and who are comfortable backing a school that is still rebuilding its results. The main caveat is the absence of an inspection of its own and results that sit low in the England tables, so parents should ask directly how the school plans to raise attainment.
It is too early for an external verdict: the school opened as a Fresh Start academy on 1 September 2024 and has not yet been inspected by Ofsted. Its GCSE results rank 3,330th of 3,895 in England and its A-level results 2,051st of 2,549, both in the lower part of the tables. Its clearest strengths are pastoral care, the Mulberry Centre for students with cognition and learning needs, and drama.
In 2025 the school received 235 applications for 152 offers, about 1.55 applications per place, and every family who named it as first preference was offered a place. If oversubscribed, priority goes to children in care, then to children at the named feeder primaries (the Family of Schools), with distance used as a tie-breaker.
Results sit in the lower part of the England tables. The average Attainment 8 score was 43.4 and Progress 8 was -0.13, slightly below the England average of zero. Some 10.3% of students achieved grade 5 or above across the English Baccalaureate subjects.
Behaviour rests on the values of Rights, Respect and Responsibility, with detailed uniform and conduct rules and an Internal Exclusion Room for persistent breaches. Students can report bullying to any member of staff, their year team or a monitored email address, and Progress Leaders and Assistant Progress Leaders manage incidents.
Not at present. Sixth-form applications have been paused since September 2024. The school plans to offer places again in 2027/28, but courses are under review and entry will depend on course viability and student suitability, so families should check with the school before relying on it.
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