Washington Academy Review 2026: Clear behaviour culture, improving teaching, results still the key challenge

The most striking feature here is the direction of travel. Behaviour, personal development and leadership are all judged positively in the most recent full inspection, and a follow-up monitoring visit notes tangible progress in the quality of education.

This is a state-funded secondary serving students aged 11 to 16, with a strong emphasis on inclusion, including specially resourced provision and a wider SEND offer designed to keep students fully involved in mainstream life wherever appropriate.

The headline issue remains GCSE outcomes. The school is open about the need to convert recent curriculum and teaching improvements into stronger examination results over time, and that is the lens parents should use when deciding whether the fit is right.

A coherent values system matters most in schools that are rebuilding confidence, and the inspection evidence suggests this has been a priority. The school’s ‘Washington Way’ values are described as having improved culture, with students broadly buying in and reporting that they feel safe. Bullying is reported as rare and dealt with promptly, which is a useful marker for parents weighing day-to-day stability.

The tone is purposeful rather than flashy. Expectations around conduct are explicit, and routines appear to be taken seriously, including a structured approach to lesson starts and a consistent behaviour framework. That sort of clarity can be a strength for students who benefit from predictable systems and a calm learning climate, particularly in Key Stage 3 where habits are still forming.

Leadership is a prominent part of the identity. The Principal is Mrs Vicky Carter (also listed as Mrs Victoria Carter on official records), and the school sits within Consilium Academies.

The school is ranked 3,695th in England for GCSE outcomes (FindMySchool ranking), and 4th in its local area ranking group. This places it below England average overall.

On the published GCSE measures available here, the Attainment 8 score is 30.9 and Progress 8 is -0.99, indicating students, as a group, made substantially less progress than peers with similar starting points. EBacc outcomes are also relatively weak on the data available, with an average EBacc APS of 2.7 and 6.5% achieving grade 5 or above in the EBacc measure shown.

It is important to interpret these numbers alongside the improvement narrative in the official inspection evidence. The inspection commentary is clear that outcomes at Key Stage 4 have been poor over time, and equally clear that curriculum and teaching changes are intended to shift that picture. Parents considering the school should ask for current internal indicators, such as assessment snapshots and mock results patterns, as those are often the earliest signs of whether improvement is embedding.

For parents comparing options locally, the FindMySchool Local Hub page is the fastest way to view these results side-by-side using the Comparison Tool, and to check whether other nearby schools are showing stronger progress measures for similar intakes.

Consistency is the central thread. A key plank is the school’s SOLAR teaching model, a structured lesson cycle intended to standardise expectations around recall, explicit instruction, application, and review. In practice, this kind of model is most helpful when it reduces variation between classrooms, so students know what learning will feel like regardless of subject or teacher.

Reading is presented as a priority, with targeted support for weaker readers and a culture signal through routine reading moments, including at the start of lessons for younger year groups.

The curriculum offer is broad at Key Stage 3, covering the full range of core and foundation subjects, and Key Stage 4 includes a mix of GCSE and vocational pathways. The SEND information published by the school also signals differentiated routes, including nurture groups in Key Stage 3 and alternative pathways in Key Stage 4, which can be decisive for students who need a more tailored route to qualifications.

Because this is an 11 to 16 school, the key transition question is post-16 destinations. The most reliable indicator parents can use is the school’s stated emphasis on careers guidance and employer encounters, alongside how well it prepares students to move into sixth form, college, apprenticeships, or training. The inspection evidence points to structured personal development content, leadership roles for students, and career-related activity such as early exposure to careers fairs.

If you are considering this school, it is sensible to ask two practical, outcomes-focused questions at an open evening or meeting:

1. what proportion of Year 11 students progress into each post-16 route locally, and

2. what the school does, in real operational terms, for students whose attendance or engagement has dipped, since those are the students most at risk of drifting post-16.

Admissions are coordinated through Sunderland City Council rather than handled directly by the school, so families apply via the local authority process.

For September 2026 entry, Sunderland’s published secondary preference period runs from 8 September 2025 to 31 October 2025. Offers are issued on 1 March 2026 (or the next working day).

Open events matter because they provide the clearest sense of whether the culture suits your child. The school advertised an Open Evening on Thursday 18 September 2025, 5:30pm to 8:00pm, aimed at families considering secondary transfer.

If you are shortlisting based on travel practicality, use the FindMySchool Map Search to check your likely journey time at school-run hours. Even when distance is not the only criterion, day-to-day travel friction is one of the biggest predictors of punctuality and sustained attendance.

The strongest reassurance for parents is safeguarding, and the most recent graded inspection states safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Beyond that baseline, the pastoral model is built around accessibility. The SEND information notes a visible student welfare system and an emphasis on early conversations with families, plus the ability to draw on external partners where specialist input is required, including mental health services where appropriate.

Attendance is treated as a central improvement priority. The 2025 monitoring visit letter highlights a comprehensive approach to barriers and partnership work with families and the wider community, while also being clear that absence levels remained too high at that point.

The enrichment offer is more specific than many schools publish, and that specificity is useful because it shows what students can actually do on a Tuesday afternoon rather than what a prospectus implies.

Across a termly timetable, activities have included Climate Club, Classics Club, Cheerleading, Textiles Club, Drama/production Club, Geography Ambassadors, Enterprise Challenge, and subject support such as Further Maths. There is also a spread of sport and fitness options, including table tennis, trampolining, football, basketball, and gym sessions, with some activity before the school day as well.

Student leadership is also positioned as a development pathway, with published roles including sport leaders, digital leaders, performance leaders, literacy leaders, and numeracy leaders. The practical implication is that students who respond well to responsibility and recognition have routes to earn status in school that do not depend solely on top sets or headline grades.

The school day is published as: student arrival 8:25 to 8:30, registration 8:30 to 9:00, then five one-hour lessons with a mid-morning break and lunch between lesson blocks. The school states a typical week totals 32.5 hours.

Formal wraparound childcare is not typically a feature at secondary level, but before-school activity and after-school clubs can provide supervised structure for families who need it, and the school publishes a clubs timetable for this purpose.

• GCSE outcomes remain the core issue. The published GCSE measures and ranking position are weak, and the school is still in the phase of translating curriculum and teaching changes into sustained examination improvement.

• Attendance expectations may feel firm. The school places significant emphasis on attendance improvement, which is positive for learning, but it can feel intense for families who already struggle with school refusal or anxiety.

• Best for students who respond to structure. A consistent teaching model and clearly-stated routines can be excellent for many students, but those who need a highly flexible approach may take longer to settle.

Washington Academy looks like a school in active improvement mode. Behaviour culture, personal development and leadership indicators are stronger than the headline results suggest, and the monitoring visit evidence supports the view that teaching and curriculum work is embedding.

Who it suits: students who benefit from clear routines, a structured approach to learning, and a school that is explicit about expectations and support. The main question for families is whether the improvement trajectory feels sufficiently credible and fast-moving for their child’s exam years, particularly if they are entering Key Stage 4 soon.