Winterstoke Hundred Academy Review 2026: A fast-growing 11–19 academy built around belonging, ambition, and a new net zero campus

A newer school has two big tests. First, can it create routines that feel settled before the first cohort has even reached Year 11. Second, can it build a culture that students want to be part of, especially when year groups are expanding year by year. Winterstoke Hundred Academy has been doing both at speed since opening in September 2020.

The move into a purpose-built Locking Parklands site in January 2024 is a defining moment in that story. It is designed to operate as a fully carbon neutral school, with a sustainability brief that is unusually explicit for a state secondary. The school also runs a dedicated post-16 centre, which changes the feel of the sixth form: students have a distinct base, rather than being absorbed into a wider lower-school site.

Leadership has also stabilised after a transitional period. Matthew Randle took up the Principal role at the beginning of January 2024, following a national recruitment process led through the Cabot Learning Federation.

For parents, the most reassuring feature of a growing school is usually not a headline result. It is whether the daily experience feels orderly and predictable for students, particularly in Key Stage 3. Winterstoke Hundred’s ethos is framed in plain, memorable language: Be Safe, Be Kind, Work Hard. That simplicity matters when routines are still being embedded across expanding year groups.

Belonging is not left to chance. A relaunched House system gives students a structure that sits alongside tutor groups and year teams, with four named Houses that are designed to build identity and friendly competition: Birnbeck Bears, Clarence Cobras, Middle Hope Meerkats, and Steep Holm Stingrays. In practice, this kind of house culture works best when it is used for regular participation, not occasional one-off events. The prospectus positions Houses as a core part of student support, and the wider pastoral model is built around daily tutor contact plus a Head of House as a consistent second adult for students and families.

A second strand of culture is attendance and punctuality, and the language around this is direct. The academy’s own published ethos highlights attendance, punctuality, politeness, and respect as key life skills. That is matched by a practical lever: breakfast club is positioned as part of what makes arriving early attractive, and it also creates an informal daily touchpoint for staff to notice who is in, who is not, and who needs a check-in.

The most recent Ofsted inspection, carried out in November 2023 and published in January 2024, judged the school Good across all key areas, including sixth form provision. That judgement matters here because it is the first graded inspection since opening, giving families a baseline view at a moment when systems and staffing were still scaling up.

Because Winterstoke Hundred is still relatively young, headline public exam measures can take time to settle into long-term patterns. The strongest quantitative picture available here is at post-16, where the school is ranked 1,769th in England and 1st in Weston-super-Mare for A-level outcomes (FindMySchool ranking, based on official data). This indicates performance below England average overall, placing it in the bottom 40% of schools in England for A-level outcomes.

Grade distribution gives the clearest sense of the current post-16 profile. At A-level, 3.75% of entries achieved A*, 15% achieved A, and 36.25% achieved A* to B. England averages sit at 23.6% for A* and A combined, and 47.2% for A* to B combined. This gap suggests that, at present, the sixth form is more secure in achieving broad pass profiles than in delivering large volumes of top grades.

That is not necessarily a permanent picture, and a growing sixth form often shows year-to-year volatility as cohorts increase in size and subject take-up broadens. The inspection narrative supports the idea of a curriculum that is carefully structured and designed to build knowledge over time, which is the foundation you need before outcomes become consistently strong across all subjects.

For families comparing options locally, the FindMySchool Local Hub pages can be useful for viewing results side-by-side using the Comparison Tool, particularly when weighing sixth form pathways alongside nearby alternatives.

The school’s curriculum model is strongly built around sequencing, with a stated emphasis on students understanding the journey of learning across Key Stage 3 and into Key Stage 4. That focus on building knowledge systematically aligns with what parents tend to value in newer schools: predictability, clarity, and reduced dependence on individual teacher style.

Key Stage 3 allocation is explicit in the prospectus, with English and mathematics each taught five lessons per week, science four, and a broader base that includes modern foreign languages, humanities, arts, religious studies, and personal, social, and health education. For students, the implication is breadth without spreading the timetable too thin. For parents, it signals that arts and practical subjects are not treated as optional extras.

There is also a clear strand around literacy. Reading is described as a key element of the curriculum, and tutor-based reading uses selected books chosen for diversity or modern appeal. What matters operationally is what happens for students who are behind. At the time of inspection, reading interventions for students at the early stages of reading were still developing, and accelerating this support was identified as an improvement priority. For families with a child who has struggled with reading, this is a sensible point to probe on a visit: ask how reading needs are identified in Year 7, what interventions look like now, and how progress is checked.

Quality assurance inside lessons is a similar theme. The inspection describes teachers modelling learning and revisiting prior knowledge, with a practical example drawn from English where students develop rhetoric skills. The improvement point is consistency in checking understanding, so misconceptions are caught early. The key implication is not that teaching is weak, but that the school is still tightening the craft and reliability of assessment routines as it grows.

Where Students Go Next

A sixth form should be judged by clarity of pathways as much as by headline grades. Winterstoke Hundred positions its post-16 offer as a mix of A-level and vocational courses, aligned to university entry, apprenticeships, and training routes. For a mixed-ability sixth form in a growing school, that breadth is usually the right call. It reduces the risk of a narrow offer that suits only a small academic subset.

Destination data for the most recent published cohort shows a varied picture. In the 2023/24 leavers cohort (26 students), 38% progressed to university, 19% to further education, and 15% into employment. Apprenticeships are recorded at 0% for that cohort. For parents, the practical takeaway is that the sixth form supports multiple routes, but that apprenticeship take-up, at least in that cohort, does not show up in the headline destination data. That is worth exploring with the sixth form team, particularly if your child’s plan is a Level 3 to apprenticeship route.

Careers education starts early. The inspection describes careers learning beginning in Year 7 and developing through sixth form guidance for next steps. The more tangible indicator is how this plays out in experience: work-related learning, employer engagement, and meaningful advice on subject choices. Those are the questions that most reliably separate a compliance careers programme from one students actually use.

For Year 7 entry, applications are handled through North Somerset’s coordinated admissions process, not directly through the academy. For September 2026 entry, on-time applications open on 12 September 2025 and close at 11:59pm on 31 October 2025. Offers are released on the national offer day, which the council scheme confirms as 2 March 2026 for that cycle.

For families applying after the main deadline, North Somerset runs further allocation rounds, with the coordinated scheme listing 24 April 2026 as the closing date for applications to be considered for the second round of allocations. Appeals are part of the normal process for oversubscribed schools, and the scheme indicates that secondary appeals begin to be heard from May 2026.

For post-16 entry, the application route is direct, and timing matters. The Cabot Learning Federation post-16 admissions policy states that the deadline for applications for September 2026 entry is 31 May 2026. The school also publishes post-16 open event information, and open events appear to run in autumn, which matches how most sixth forms support early decision-making.

Parents weighing admissions should use the FindMySchoolMap Search to check practical travel distance and transport options, especially when balancing this school against alternatives across Weston-super-Mare and the wider North Somerset area.

Pastoral design is unusually important in a younger school because relationships and routines have not had decades to embed. Winterstoke Hundred’s structure is built around daily tutor contact and a Head of House model, with the stated intention that these are the first port of call for both student support and communication with families. The practical advantage is clear accountability. Parents should always know who their child’s key adults are, and who is responsible for progress and wellbeing.

Anti-bullying work is also visible in the inspection evidence, including student leadership through anti-bullying ambassadors who developed a pupil-led anti-bullying policy. This matters because it indicates the school is not treating bullying as a policy document problem. It is treating it as a culture and reporting problem, which typically responds better to peer leadership and consistent staff follow-up.

Support for students with special educational needs and disabilities is described as improving, supported by staff training and better access to specific information about students’ needs so that teachers can make practical adaptations. In a newer, expanding secondary, this is a common pressure point. Growth can outpace systems. The encouraging sign is that the school has already moved to tighten process and training, rather than leaving SEND support to individual teacher goodwill.

Ofsted also reported that safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Extracurricular life here is not limited to standard sports teams and a generic list of clubs. A weekly timetable shows a programme that includes both sport and interest-based options, with examples such as Dungeons and Dragons, a school newspaper club, pop choir, quilting and Japanese sashiko, Lego and crocheting, and a 999 Cadets option. Duke of Edinburgh also features prominently, including specific sessions for Year 9 and 10.

The value of that mix is practical. It broadens participation beyond the students who already identify as sporty or musical. It also gives quieter students a place to belong. In a growing school, this can be the difference between a culture where students socialise only within friendship groups, and one where students form identity through shared activities across year groups.

Breakfast and homework clubs are also framed as everyday features rather than special interventions. Breakfast club appears in both inspection evidence and school publications as a consistent part of student life, and homework club is listed within weekly club options. For many families, this kind of routine support matters more than occasional enrichment trips because it shapes the working week.

Trips and wider experiences are present, and the prospectus gives concrete examples from recent activity, including a music and history trip to Belgium and a ski trip to Italy. These details matter because they suggest the school is building the cultural and experiential offer that parents often worry will be limited in a newer academy.

The published school day structure is clear. Students are expected to be in school by 8:35, with teaching sessions running through to 3:00pm and extracurricular clubs scheduled from 3:00pm to 4:00pm. Breakfast club runs from 8:00am.

Travel planning is supported through a council-led home-to-school transport catchment map that includes walking and cycling routes. As with any secondary, the reality for families is that travel time can shape homework routines and after-school participation, so it is worth stress-testing the journey at peak times before committing.

Term dates are published in detail for the academic year. For example, the spring term in 2026 begins for students on Tuesday 6 January 2026.

• A-level outcomes are currently below England averages. The A-level grade profile, and the school’s A-level ranking position, suggest that top-grade conversion is not yet where families might want it to be. This may improve as the sixth form matures, but parents should ask subject-level questions rather than relying on general confidence.

• Reading support is still tightening for students who arrive behind. Tutor-based reading and whole-school training are in place, but accelerating interventions for students at early stages of reading was highlighted as an area for improvement. Families with literacy concerns should ask what support looks like now, not what is planned.

• A growing school can feel changeable year to year. The move to the Locking Parklands campus and the rapid expansion since 2020 are positive signs of investment and demand. They also mean systems, staffing, and communication routines may continue to evolve as the school reaches full capacity.

• Post-16 destinations show multiple routes, but apprenticeship take-up is not evident in the latest cohort data. If your child’s plan is an apprenticeship pathway, ask for current evidence of employer links, work-related learning, and how the sixth form supports applications and interviews.

Winterstoke Hundred Academy is a school still in its early chapters, but it already shows several markers of long-term strength: clear routines, a deliberate culture of belonging, and significant investment in facilities and sustainability. The most credible picture from external and published evidence is a Good school that is building a broad offer and tightening consistency as it grows.

It suits families who value a modern, structured approach, with a strong pastoral framework and an extracurricular mix that gives many students a place to belong. Those for whom sixth form top grades are the primary priority should scrutinise subject-level outcomes and support, and weigh alternatives with stronger A-level profiles.