Aldercar High School, Nottingham

Ofsted's report card from its 21 April 2026 inspection grades Aldercar High School on 7 areas: 3 expected standard and 4 needs attention. Report cards replaced single-word judgements in November 2025, on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Attendance and behaviour - Expected standard. "Leaders have identified the patterns and trends associated with poor attendance and are working, at pace, to address the barriers to attending that some pupils face."

Inclusion - Expected standard. "Many pupils who attend the school are disadvantaged, are pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or are pupils facing additional vulnerabilities."

Personal development and wellbeing - Expected standard. "Leaders have ensured a well-planned and delivered personal, social and health education curriculum that is highly relevant to pupils' needs and context."

Achievement - Needs attention. "The attainment of pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and disadvantaged pupils, is not as good as needed at the end of key stages 4 and 5 over time."

Curriculum and teaching - Needs attention. "Leaders are determined for pupils, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and disadvantaged pupils, to experience an ambitious curriculum."

Leadership and governance - Needs attention. "There has been a period of leadership turbulence."

Post 16 provision - Needs attention. "There has been a great deal of change to the leadership of the sixth form."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "Leaders should make sure that there is a well-planned curriculum across all subjects and key stages that suitably builds on pupils' starting points and that also ensures that pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and students in the sixth form, develop the foundations of learning needed to successfully progress to their appropriate next steps"; "Leaders should ensure that they embed highly effective teaching and assessment across the school so that all groups of pupils, including those with SEND, make clear and sustained progress across the curriculum"; "Leaders should continue their work to analyse closely the performance of different groups of vulnerable pupils, to identify priorities accurately and to continue to improve their attendance and achievement".

In 2026, pupils at Aldercar High School averaged an Attainment 8 score of 38.3, the average grade across their best eight GCSEs. The average state school scored 45.2 in Derbyshire and 47 across England.

31% passed English and maths at grade 5 or above, against 44% in Derbyshire and 47% in England.

That is up from 33.9 in 2025.

Its most recent Progress 8 score, for 2024, was -0.39: pupils made below average progress compared with pupils nationally who started secondary school at the same level. Progress 8 was not published for 2026.

Disadvantaged pupils averaged an Attainment 8 of 29.6, against 44.3 for other pupils at the school - a gap of 14.7 points.

Pupils sat GCSEs in 17 subjects; after English and maths, the most popular were Statistics, Combined Science and History.

For September 2026 entry, 100 families put Aldercar High School as their first choice and 177 named it as one of their preferences, for 102 places offered. It had fewer first-choice applications than places. Every family who put it first was offered a place there for 2026 entry.

The nearest other state secondary schools to Aldercar High School are Hall Park Academy (1.3 miles, Good, Attainment 8 40.3); Heanor Gate Spencer Academy (1.6 miles, Outstanding, Attainment 8 43.4); The Ripley Academy (2.5 miles, Good, Attainment 8 42.9); and Selston High School (3.6 miles, Good, Attainment 8 40.1).

Each of them had higher 2026 results than Aldercar High School.

Aldercar High School is one of 29 schools run by Embark Multi Academy Trust, an academy trust.

Of the 116 pupils who finished Year 11 in 2023/24, 80% stayed in education or training for at least two terms, including 32% to a further education college, 3% to an apprenticeship and 5% into work.

Of the 43 students who left the sixth form in 2023/24, 14% went on to university or other higher education, 7% to apprenticeships and 33% into work. 9% went to one of the most selective third of universities.

42.6% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well above the average state school (25%), and 4.9% speak English as an additional language, against 18.8% on average, according to the 2026 school census.

In 2026, 95 pupils (14.7%) received SEN support and 66 (10.2%) had an education, health and care plan, against 16.2% and 4.6% at the average state school. The most common need among them is social, emotional and mental health needs.

Aldercar High School has a resourced provision for hearing impairment and physical disability: 10 places, 10 pupils on roll.

The nearest railway station is Langley Mill Rail Station, about 1080 metres away (roughly a 13-minute walk).

6 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is College (adjacent), 100 metres away.

Measured by the 2025 English Indices of Deprivation, the neighbourhood Aldercar High School stands in is among the 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in England. This describes where the school is, not where its pupils live.

In August 2026, police recorded 151 crimes within a mile of the school, most often violence and sexual offences, anti-social behaviour and shoplifting. That is well above the typical figure around schools in Derbyshire (50), as is usual near a town centre.

In 2024/25, Aldercar High School issued 230 suspensions, 33.3 for every 100 pupils (the average state school: 6.3), and 4 permanent exclusions.

The primary schools closest to Aldercar High School are Aldercar Infant School (under 0.1 miles), Langley Mill Academy (0.2 miles), Langley Mill Church of England Infant School and Nursery (0.5 miles) and Laceyfields Academy (0.9 miles). Admission does not depend on which primary a child attends unless the school's policy names feeder schools.