King Harold Business & Enterprise Academy, Waltham Abbey

Ofsted's report card from its 21 April 2026 inspection grades King Harold Business & Enterprise Academy on 6 areas: 2 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 provide effective, strategic leadership of attendance."

Inclusion - Expected standard. "The school has a well‑embedded approach to identifying, assessing and meeting pupils' needs."

Achievement - Needs attention. "Overall attainment and progress are modest."

Curriculum and teaching - Needs attention. "Despite the curriculum being thoughtfully designed and typically well sequenced, it is not implemented consistently well across all subjects."

Leadership and governance - Needs attention. "While leaders demonstrate a clear understanding of the school's strengths and areas for development, they rightly recognise that the impact of their work remains inconsistent and is yet to secure consistently high-quality provision across all subjects."

Personal development and wellbeing - Needs attention. "Leaders demonstrate strong ambitions for pupils' personal development and wellbeing."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "Leaders should ensure that staff at all levels have the skills to drive the necessary improvements. This includes improving the sharpness of evaluation and ensuring consistent implementation of the agreed strategies"; "Leaders should ensure that teachers use assessment effectively to adapt their lessons in order to meet pupils' needs"; "Leaders should reduce the variability in how the school's personal development programme is taught. They should ensure that pupils' experiences fully reflect leaders' intent and that pupils learn securely what is taught in the school's personal, social and health education curriculum"; "The trust should ensure that those with responsibility for governance consistently provide effective support and scrutiny to leaders' work, including through effective evaluation of the impact of changes on pupils' achievement".

In 2026, pupils at King Harold Business & Enterprise Academy averaged an Attainment 8 score of 39.7, the average grade across their best eight GCSEs. The average state school scored 46.5 in Essex and 47 across England.

26% passed English and maths at grade 5 or above, against 45% in Essex and 47% in England.

That is up from 36.5 in 2025.

Its most recent Progress 8 score, for 2024, was -0.34: 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 33.5, against 42.3 for other pupils at the school - a gap of 8.8 points.

Pupils sat GCSEs in 20 subjects; after English and maths, the most popular were Social Studies, Combined Science and Geography.

For September 2026 entry, 118 families put King Harold Business & Enterprise Academy as their first choice and 166 named it as one of their preferences, for 178 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 King Harold Business & Enterprise Academy are Oasis Academy Enfield (2 miles, Good, Attainment 8 40.3); Haileybury Turnford (2.3 miles, Good, Attainment 8 46.2); The Lea Valley Academy (2.5 miles, Good, Attainment 8 34.4); and Goffs - Churchgate Academy (2.7 miles, Good, Attainment 8 44.2).

King Harold Business & Enterprise Academy's 2026 results were higher than 1 of these 4 schools.

King Harold Business & Enterprise Academy is one of 45 schools run by The Kemnal Academies Trust, an academy trust.

Across the trust's secondary schools, pupils averaged an Attainment 8 score of 38.2 in 2024/25.

146 parents answered Ofsted's Parent View survey about King Harold Business & Enterprise Academy (as of September 2026): 66% would recommend the school, 67% say their child is happy there and 54% of those with a view say bullying is dealt with well.

The strongest agreement was that their child feels safe (68%); the weakest, that the school deals with bullying well (among parents with a view) (54%).

Of the 144 pupils who finished Year 11 in 2023/24, 87% stayed in education or training for at least two terms, including 69% to a further education college, 1% to an apprenticeship and 3% into work.

33.5% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well above the average state school (25%), according to the 2026 school census.

The nearest railway station is Waltham Cross Rail Station, about 1.8 miles away in a straight line.

7 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Broomstick Hall Road (ne-bound), 80 metres away.

In August 2026, police recorded 193 crimes within a mile of the school, most often violence and sexual offences, anti-social behaviour and criminal damage and arson. That is well above the typical figure around schools in Essex (97), as is usual near a town centre.

In 2024/25, King Harold Business & Enterprise Academy issued 268 suspensions, 33.6 for every 100 pupils (the average state school: 6.3), and 5 permanent exclusions.

The primary schools closest to King Harold Business & Enterprise Academy are Hillhouse CofE Primary School (0.4 miles), Waltham Holy Cross Primary Academy (0.4 miles), Leverton Primary School (0.5 miles) and Upshire Primary Foundation School (0.9 miles). Admission does not depend on which primary a child attends unless the school's policy names feeder schools.