Portslade Aldridge Community Academy, Brighton

Ofsted's report card from its 20 January 2026 inspection grades Portslade Aldridge Community Academy on 6 areas: 1 strong standard, 4 expected standard and 1 needs attention. Report cards replaced single-word judgements in November 2025, on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Inclusion - Strong standard. "Inclusion is central to the school's work, underpinning leaders' actions in fundamental ways."

Achievement - Expected standard. "Pupils' results in examinations at the end of key stage 4 are broadly average over time."

Curriculum and teaching - Expected standard. "The curriculum is ambitious and very well designed to ensure that pupils gain the right knowledge, skills and understanding that they need for future success."

Leadership and governance - Expected standard. "Leaders set an ambitious vision for the school."

Personal development and wellbeing - Expected standard. "The personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) curriculum is wide ranging and fulfils the necessary requirements, including in terms of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE)."

Attendance and behaviour - Needs attention. "Pupils' rates of attendance overall have been relatively low in recent years."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "• Pupils' rates of attendance need to improve further and rapidly so that pupils are benefiting fully from the school's effective provision and achieving more. This is particularly the case for pupils who are disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders should build on the early positive indicators of improvement to ensure that there is a securely rising trend in pupils' attendance levels over a sustained period of time. • The school should continue its work to improve the consistency of teaching further so that it is, overall, highly effective. In particular, leaders should ensure that teachers check the security of pupils' knowledge routinely before moving on to new content and understand fully pupils' different starting points so that subsequent learning can be adapted accordingly".

In its own words: "Welcome to our amazing school on the edge of the South Downs. When we think of our mission at PACA we start by recognising how lucky we are to live where we do. We have the country, the coast, our city and the capital. We live in a place that champions progressive values, which is dynamic and exciting."

In 2026, pupils at Portslade Aldridge Community Academy averaged an Attainment 8 score of 44.1, the average grade across their best eight GCSEs. The average state school scored 46.7 in Brighton and Hove and 47 across England.

46% passed English and maths at grade 5 or above, against 47% in Brighton and Hove and 47% in England.

That is up from 42.7 in 2025.

Its most recent Progress 8 score, for 2024, was -0.01: pupils made about 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 35.9, against 49.2 for other pupils at the school - a gap of 13.3 points.

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

For September 2026 entry, 150 families put Portslade Aldridge Community Academy as their first choice and 338 named it as one of their preferences, for 172 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 Portslade Aldridge Community Academy are Shoreham Academy (1.3 miles, Outstanding, Attainment 8 51.3); King's School (1.5 miles, Good, Attainment 8 56.5); Blatchington Mill School (2 miles, Good, Attainment 8 52.5); and Hove Park School and Sixth Form Centre (2.1 miles, Good, Attainment 8 42).

Portslade Aldridge Community Academy's 2026 results were higher than 1 of these 4 schools.

Portslade Aldridge Community Academy is one of 9 schools run by Aldridge Education, an academy trust.

Across the trust's secondary schools, pupils averaged an Attainment 8 score of 39 in 2024/25.

114 parents answered Ofsted's Parent View survey about Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (as of September 2026): 94% would recommend the school, 90% say their child is happy there and 53% of those with a view say bullying is dealt with well.

The strongest agreement was that they would recommend the school (94%); the weakest, that the school deals with bullying well (among parents with a view) (53%).

Of the 187 pupils who finished Year 11 in 2023/24, 86% stayed in education or training for at least two terms, including 38% to a further education college, 1% to an apprenticeship and 2% into work.

7.3% speak English as an additional language, against 18.8% on average, according to the 2026 school census.

The largest ethnic groups are White British (82%) and Mixed (7%).

The nearest railway station is Fishersgate Rail Station, about 1.2 miles away in a straight line.

13 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is College Close (adjacent), 80 metres away.

Measured by the 2025 English Indices of Deprivation, the neighbourhood Portslade Aldridge Community 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 142 crimes within a mile of the school, most often violence and sexual offences, anti-social behaviour and criminal damage and arson. That is well below the typical figure around schools in Brighton and Hove (366).

In 2024/25, Portslade Aldridge Community Academy issued 49 suspensions, 5.3 for every 100 pupils (the average state school: 6.3), and no permanent exclusions.

The primary schools closest to Portslade Aldridge Community Academy are Mile Oak Primary School (0.1 miles), Peter Gladwin Primary School (0.5 miles), St Nicolas CofE Primary School (0.8 miles) and Brackenbury Primary School (0.9 miles). Admission does not depend on which primary a child attends unless the school's policy names feeder schools.