Tamworth Enterprise College and AET Academy Review 2026: A tightening culture of expectations, with momentum since 2023

This is an 11 to 16 secondary serving the Belgrave area of Tamworth, with capacity for 900 pupils and no sixth form. It sits within Lift Schools (formerly Academies Enterprise Trust), and in recent years it has been in a period of sustained change. The January 2025 Ofsted inspection graded all four key judgement areas as Good, which signals a clear shift in direction and consistency compared with the earlier Requires Improvement judgement.

Leadership matters here. Mr Jonathon Spears is the Head of School, and he started the role in March 2023, a point that aligns with the school’s stated emphasis on high expectations and routines.

A strong thread running through the school’s public messaging is the idea of creating calm, purposeful classrooms where students can focus. Behaviour expectations are explicit, practical, and framed around protecting learning time for everyone. The published expectations include punctuality, full uniform, being fully equipped, and a clear stance on devices being switched off and out of sight during the day.

The language of character education is unusually prominent. Alongside the wider Lift mission, the school articulates a set of named virtues and defines what they look like in practice, including Curiosity, Empathy, Resilience or self-control, Courage, Gratitude, Self-belief, Enthusiasm, and Integrity. The useful detail is that these are not left as slogans, each has a short behavioural description that staff and families can reference consistently.

The January 2025 inspection provides some of the clearest evidence on day-to-day culture. Inspectors describe a purposeful atmosphere where pupils focus on learning and behaviour is dealt with quickly when it falls short.

There is also a pragmatic recognition that improvement is a process rather than a single moment. The school has been through changes in senior, subject and pastoral leadership since the previous inspection, with raised expectations around behaviour and learning and an ambitious curriculum, while outcomes at the end of Key Stage 4 are still catching up to the operational improvements.

Headline performance indicators from the latest dataset paint a challenging picture that sits behind the school’s improvement narrative.

Ranked 3494th in England and 7th in Tamworth for GCSE outcomes (FindMySchool ranking, based on official data)

This places the school below England average overall, within the bottom 40% of schools in England for this measure.

On outcomes, the school’s Attainment 8 score is 36.3.

Progress is the other key headline: the Progress 8 score is -0.63, which indicates students, on average, made less progress than pupils nationally with similar starting points.

At EBacc level, the picture is mixed. The average EBacc APS is 3.04, compared with an England benchmark of 4.08.

What to do with this as a parent? The most useful interpretation is not that the school lacks ambition, it clearly does, but that the school is in the harder phase of improvement where routines, curriculum sequencing, and teaching consistency are being tightened before that reliably translates into exam outcomes. The 2025 inspection explicitly flags that improvement work is in place, but results have not yet caught up.

For families comparing options locally, FindMySchool’s Local Hub comparison tools can help you benchmark these outcomes against nearby secondaries using the same methodology and year of data.

Curriculum intent is clearly expressed: a broad and balanced curriculum, designed to help students “know more and remember more over time”, supported by deliberate practice and a focus on literacy, oracy, numeracy, and cultural enrichment.

A practical strength is that the school is explicit about how lessons are structured. The behaviour page describes routines such as a focused start to learning with retrieval activity and a clear “learning journey and purpose” being made visible to students. That type of consistency tends to benefit students who need clarity, predictable expectations, and frequent checking for understanding.

The 2025 inspection also offers a clue about academic priorities, noting deep dives in English, art, computer science, history and mathematics. That mix suggests the school is paying attention to core literacy and numeracy while also validating creative and technical pathways, a good fit for students who need to see both academic and applied options taken seriously.

With no sixth form on site, the key transition point is post-16. The school’s careers guidance encourages students to attend open days, speak with current students, and explore a range of post-16 options, including technical routes.

The 2025 inspection report also notes compliance with the provider access legislation, which is intended to ensure pupils receive information and engagement about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships. This matters for families who want strong guidance on both A-level and technical pathways, rather than a single “one route fits all” message.

Because destination statistics are not published here, families should treat Year 10 and Year 11 as the period to get clarity on post-16 planning, including course requirements, travel logistics, and the level of pastoral support offered through the transition.

Year 7 entry is coordinated through the local authority where your child lives, using the common application form process.

For Staffordshire residents applying for September 2026 entry, the key dates published by Staffordshire County Council are clear: the closing date was 31 October 2025, and National Offer Day is 02 March 2026.

Oversubscription criteria are published through Staffordshire’s admissions arrangements for the academy. Priority order begins with looked after and previously looked after children, then children resident in the catchment area, then siblings, then exceptional medical or social needs, and finally distance, with a random allocation tie-break where applicants have equal priority for the last place.

Open evenings for secondary transfer are typically concentrated in September each year. Staffordshire’s published list for 2025 includes a Lift Tamworth open evening on Wednesday 17 September 2025, which is a helpful indicator of the usual seasonal pattern.

For families trying to sense-check realistic options, the FindMySchool Map Search is the right tool for modelling proximity, then pairing it with the oversubscription rules and your own backup preferences.

Wellbeing messaging is practical and school-based. The school describes a whole-school approach, with targeted sessions weekly and clear routes for students to speak to teachers, tutors and progress leaders, with referrals available for additional support in school and through outside agencies.

The behaviour framework also emphasises a balance of sanction and support, which is often important for students who need structure but also need adults to help them make better choices over time, rather than simply accumulate detentions.

A notable detail is the focus on anti-bullying procedures and the encouragement for pupils to report concerns, seek staff support, and use practical online safety actions such as blocking unwanted messages.

Enrichment is presented as part of personal development rather than an optional add-on, and the school names clubs rather than relying on generic claims.

For academically inclined students, clubs such as Mock trial, Chess, KS3 Book Club, Writers Club, and Maths Homework Club provide structured ways to extend learning. The implication is less about polishing a university application at 11 to 16, and more about building confidence with public speaking, problem-solving, and sustained reading, all of which support GCSE performance over time.

Sport is also detailed in a practical, timetable-friendly way, including Swimming, year-group specific football sessions (including Girls KS3), and Fitness for both KS3 and KS4.

Facilities are worth noting because they suggest genuine capacity for sport. The school advertises a 3G pitch, a sports hall, and the presence of a swimming pool, with changing rooms located by the pool and a sports centre that operates in evenings and at weekends.

The published school day includes Morning STRIVE from 08:30 to 09:00, with the day ending after Afternoon STRIVE at 15:20. Reception opening hours are stated as 07:45 to 16:00 Monday to Thursday, and 07:45 to 15:30 on Fridays.

Breakfast club is available, with booking required via the school office and payment via ParentPay, and it is positioned as a healthy start to the day.

An after-school club offer is also described, but session times and costs are not currently published as fixed figures on the site, so families should ask directly for the current options.

For travel, Tamworth is served by national rail services via Tamworth station. For drivers, the school’s own facility hire information indicates parking is available via the main school drive, which is a useful practical signal for events and fixtures.

• Exam outcomes are still the key challenge. The Progress 8 score of -0.63 suggests that many students are not yet making the progress expected from their starting points, even with a strengthening operational culture.

• Improvement is real, but still bedding in. The 2025 inspection confirms raised expectations and curriculum work, while also noting that these changes have not yet translated into consistently stronger Key Stage 4 outcomes.

• No sixth form. Post-16 transition is a planned move to other providers, so families should engage early with careers guidance and travel logistics, especially if a student benefits from continuity.

• Oversubscription rules matter. Catchment and distance play a role once higher priority criteria are applied, so families should read the arrangements carefully and keep realistic backup preferences.

This is a school that reads as more disciplined and more coherent than it was several years ago, with a clear set of routines, a strongly stated culture, and an inspection profile that now aligns with that ambition. Outcomes are not yet where leadership and curriculum intent want them to be, so families should weigh the direction of travel against the current attainment and progress indicators. It suits students who respond well to clear expectations, structured lessons, and a purposeful environment, particularly where families are ready to engage with the school through Years 9 to 11 to keep progress and post-16 planning on track.