Kettering Buccleuch Academy, Kettering

Ofsted's report card from its 10 February 2026 inspection grades Kettering Buccleuch Academy on 8 areas: 2 strong standard and 6 expected standard. Report cards replaced single-word judgements in November 2025, on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Early years - Strong standard. "Children benefit from an excellent start to their education."

Post 16 provision - Strong standard. "Leaders have ambitious expectations for all post-16 students."

Achievement - Expected standard. "Leaders prioritise language and communication."

Attendance and behaviour - Expected standard. "Pupils generally attend well."

Curriculum and teaching - Expected standard. "The school has a broad and ambitious curriculum that is appropriately sequenced."

Inclusion - Expected standard. "Leaders understand the needs of pupils, including the most vulnerable."

Leadership and governance - Expected standard. "Leaders understand the school's context, strengths and areas for improvement."

Personal development and wellbeing - Expected standard. "The school has constructed a carefully planned, age-appropriate personal development programme."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "Leaders should ensure that pupils develop a secure understanding of fundamental British values and different worldviews to better equip them for life in modern society"; "Leaders need to ensure that their actions to tackle some pupils' use of discriminatory language result in all pupils understanding and respecting one another's differences, so that all pupils feel equally valued and respected".

The school runs after-school care.

In 2026, pupils at Kettering Buccleuch Academy averaged an Attainment 8 score of 51.4, the average grade across their best eight GCSEs. The average state school scored 44.6 in North Northamptonshire and 47 across England.

55% passed English and maths at grade 5 or above, against 41% in North Northamptonshire and 47% in England.

That is up from 48.3 in 2025.

Its most recent Progress 8 score, for 2024, was 0.52: pupils made well above 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 48, against 52.3 for other pupils at the school - a gap of 4.3 points.

Pupils sat GCSEs in 24 subjects; after English and maths, the most popular were Combined Science, Geography and Business Studies.

For September 2026 entry, 264 families put Kettering Buccleuch Academy as their first choice and 661 named it as one of their preferences, for 180 places offered. That is 1.5 first choices for every place. 97 families who put it first were not offered a place there.

The nearest other state secondary schools to Kettering Buccleuch Academy are Kettering Science Academy (1 mile, Good, Attainment 8 35.3); Southfield School for Girls (1.8 miles, Good, Attainment 8 46.7); Bishop Stopford School (1.9 miles, Outstanding, Attainment 8 62.9); and The Latimer Arts College (2.2 miles, Good, Attainment 8 45.9).

Kettering Buccleuch Academy's 2026 results were higher than 3 of these 4 schools.

Kettering Buccleuch Academy is one of 98 schools run by United Learning Trust, an academy trust.

Across the trust's secondary schools, pupils averaged an Attainment 8 score of 49 in 2024/25.

141 parents answered Ofsted's Parent View survey about Kettering Buccleuch Academy (as of April 2026): 72% would recommend the school, 73% say their child is happy there and 43% of those with a view say bullying is dealt with well.

The strongest agreement was that their child feels safe (78%); the weakest, that the school deals with bullying well (among parents with a view) (43%).

Of the 235 pupils who finished Year 11 in 2023/24, 84% stayed in education or training for at least two terms, including 41% to a further education college, 1% to an apprenticeship and 3% into work.

Of the 114 students who left the sixth form in 2023/24, 54% went on to university or other higher education, 7% to apprenticeships and 24% into work. 20% went to one of the most selective third of universities.

Kettering Buccleuch Academy has a resourced provision: 14 places, 1872 pupils on roll.

The nearest railway station is Kettering Rail Station, about 1.5 miles away in a straight line.

10 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Almond Road (after), 20 metres away.

Measured by the 2025 English Indices of Deprivation, the neighbourhood Kettering Buccleuch Academy 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 255 crimes within a mile of the school, most often violence and sexual offences, anti-social behaviour and public order offences. That is well above the typical figure around schools in North Northamptonshire (141), as is usual near a town centre.

In 2024/25, Kettering Buccleuch Academy issued 308 suspensions, 16.6 for every 100 pupils (the average state school: 6.3), and 4 permanent exclusions.

The primary schools closest to Kettering Buccleuch Academy are Grange Primary Academy (0.5 miles), Kettering Park Infant Academy (0.5 miles), Kettering Park Junior Academy (0.5 miles) and Brambleside Primary School (0.6 miles). Admission does not depend on which primary a child attends unless the school's policy names feeder schools.