Sprowston Community Academy, Norwich

Ofsted's report card from its 6 May 2026 inspection grades Sprowston Community Academy on 7 areas: 7 expected standard. Report cards replaced single-word judgements in November 2025, on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Achievement - Expected standard. "At all key stages, pupils typically demonstrate a secure knowledge of what they have learned across the curriculum."

Attendance and behaviour - Expected standard. "Leaders demonstrate a clear and increasingly strategic approach to attendance."

Curriculum and teaching - Expected standard. "Leaders have developed a coherent approach to curriculum and teaching that supports an increasing consistency in the quality of pupils' learning."

Inclusion - Expected standard. "Leaders demonstrate a cohesive and well-considered approach to identifying and meeting pupils' needs."

Leadership and governance - Expected standard. "Leaders demonstrate a knowledgeable and strategic approach to school improvement."

Personal development and wellbeing - Expected standard. "Leaders prioritise and promote pupils' personal development and wellbeing through the school's culture and curriculum."

Post 16 provision - Expected standard. "Leaders demonstrate a clear and reflective approach to developing the sixth form."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "Leaders should ensure that they sustain and accelerate improvements in pupils' attendance, so that more pupils benefit fully from the education that the school provides and achieve well"; "Leaders should ensure that sixth-form students who select A-level courses have the prior knowledge and attitudes to learning that will enable them to achieve well".

In 2026, pupils at Sprowston Community Academy averaged an Attainment 8 score of 45.8, the average grade across their best eight GCSEs. The average state school scored 45 in Norfolk and 47 across England.

53% passed English and maths at grade 5 or above, against 43% in Norfolk and 47% in England.

That is in line with 2025, when the score was 45.

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 32.7, against 49.8 for other pupils at the school - a gap of 17.1 points.

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

For September 2026 entry, 261 families put Sprowston Community Academy as their first choice and 440 named it as one of their preferences, for 277 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 Sprowston Community Academy are The Open Academy (0.5 miles, Good, Attainment 8 33.1); Sewell Park Academy (1.1 miles, Good, Attainment 8 37.6); Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form (1.7 miles, Outstanding, Attainment 8 47.9); and Jane Austen College (1.8 miles, Outstanding, Attainment 8 52.2).

Sprowston Community Academy's 2026 results were higher than 2 of these 4 schools.

Sprowston Community Academy is one of 18 schools run by Broad Horizons Education Trust, an academy trust.

Across the trust's secondary schools, pupils averaged an Attainment 8 score of 44.8 in 2024/25.

Of the 265 pupils who finished Year 11 in 2023/24, 86% stayed in education or training for at least two terms, including 45% to a further education college, 4% to an apprenticeship and 2% into work.

Of the 53 students who left the sixth form in 2023/24, 45% went on to university or other higher education, 13% to apprenticeships and 30% into work. 3% went to one of the most selective third of universities.

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

13 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Leveson Road (adjacent), 110 metres away.

Measured by the 2025 English Indices of Deprivation, the neighbourhood Sprowston Community Academy stands in is among the 20% least deprived neighbourhoods in England. This describes where the school is, not where its pupils live.

In August 2026, police recorded 124 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 Norfolk (28), as is usual near a town centre.

In 2024/25, Sprowston Community Academy issued 358 suspensions, 20.6 for every 100 pupils (the average state school: 6.3), and 4 permanent exclusions.

The primary schools closest to Sprowston Community Academy are Cecil Gowing Infant School (0.1 miles), Falcon Junior School (0.2 miles), Sparhawk Infant School & Nursery (0.4 miles) and Sprowston Infant School (0.4 miles). Admission does not depend on which primary a child attends unless the school's policy names feeder schools.