Unity Academy Blackpool

Blackpool · FY2 0TS

General information All-through School · 2-16 years Who goes here 877 pupils, 62.3% FSM

Educational attainment Ofsted and results

Parent score Rate this school No reviews yet - be the first SEN 20.3% on SEN support Behaviour 11.5% absence rate Staff 16.7% turnover Financials £9,150 per pupil Environment Buildings and facilities

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Unity Academy Blackpool

General Information

Address: Warbreck Hill Road, Blackpool, FY2 0TS – View on map
Phone: 01253478129
Website: Visit school website
Headteacher: Mr Chris Drew
Age range: 2-16 years
Demand for places (Year 7, September 2026): 102 families put it first for 112 places – 9 for every 10 places. 99% of them were offered a place. 3 of the 112 places went to families living outside the council area. Children putting it first, for every 10 places: 2023 9 · 2024 10 · 2025 10 · 2026 9
Demand for places (Reception, September 2026): 33 families put it first for 30 places – 11 for every 10 places. 91% of them were offered a place. No places went to families living outside the council area. Children putting it first, for every 10 places: 2023 9 · 2024 8 · 2025 14 · 2026 11
Sixth form: No
Intake: Mixed
Religious character: Does not apply
Nursery provision: Yes

Who goes here

877 pupils out of 1020 places

Pupils eligible for free school meals: 533
% eligible for free school meals: 62.3%
Pupil mix: 4 in 10 (more mixed than the Blackpool average)
English as an additional language: 15% (England 22%)

Staff

Teachers leaving each year

Teacher turnover: 16.7% a year (Blackpool 11.3%, typical in England 15.5%)
Where they went: about 50% moved to another school, 50% left state schools altogether (retirement, other careers, independent schools, abroad)
Data years: 2022/23 to 2024/25 (average of 3 years, DfE school workforce census)

Teachers who moved school or left state schools in the year after each November, as a share of all the school's teachers. Some turnover is healthy – retirements, promotions, moving house.

Behaviour

Awaiting Data

About this Behaviour status

We've asked this school for real behaviour figures under Freedom of Information and haven't had a response yet.

Across Blackpool: suspensions by reason

Suspensions for sexual misconduct: 4 (0.5 per 1,000 pupils; England 1.7)
Permanent exclusions for sexual misconduct: 1
Suspensions for bullying: 9 (1.2 per 1,000 pupils; England 1.9)
Suspensions for abuse against sexual orientation or gender identity: 1 (0.1 per 1,000 pupils; England 0.8)
Data year: 2024/25 (DfE suspensions and exclusions statistics)

These are figures for all state secondary schools in Blackpool, not this school's own – the government doesn't publish them school by school. A suspension can have up to three reasons. Most sexual harassment between pupils never leads to a suspension, so these figures show only part of the picture.

Attendance

Overall absence: 11.5%
Persistently absent pupils: 36.0%
Data year: 2024/25

About persistent absence

A pupil is counted as "persistently absent" if they miss 10% or more of their possible school sessions - roughly one day in every two weeks. Schools and Ofsted both pay close attention to this figure specifically, since it can highlight a pattern the overall absence rate alone might hide.

SEN

No dedicated Unit or Resourced Provision

SEN Unit and Resourced Provision

Most mainstream schools don't have a dedicated SEN Unit or Resourced Provision - it isn't a mark against a school that doesn't, just a different kind of setup than one that does.

Pupils on SEN Support: 20.3%
Pupils with an EHC Plan: 3.9%
Data year: 2025/26

Most common needs - SEN Support

Speech, language and communications needs: 70 pupils
Moderate learning difficulty: 38 pupils
Social, emotional and mental health: 36 pupils
Physical disability: 11 pupils
Other difficulty or disability: 10 pupils

Most common needs - EHC Plan

Speech, language and communications needs: 11 pupils
Social, emotional and mental health: 7 pupils
Moderate learning difficulty: 6 pupils
Other difficulty or disability: 4 pupils
Physical disability: 2 pupils

These figures show the makeup of the school.

About these SEND figures

These figures give a sense of the makeup of the school - they aren't a judgement on the quality of support provided.

Parent score - no reviews yet –

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Behaviour

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Openness

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Teaching Quality

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School Ethos

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Ability to Deal with Problems

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Headteacher Approval

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SafeguardingSafeguarding (parent rating)How parents rate the school on keeping children safe - how safe their child feels, and how well concerns are listened to and acted on. It's parents' experience, not an inspection result; Ofsted checks safeguarding separately.

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Wraparound CareWraparound Care (parent rating)How parents rate the school's breakfast and after-school clubs - availability, cost and quality. Only asked for infant, junior and primary schools, where it matters most for working parents.

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Would recommend –

Educational Attainment

No overall grade given 2024 report

About this Ofsted rating

Ofsted stopped giving single overall grades for a period between September 2024 and November 2025 - this school's most recent inspection falls in that window, so there's no single rating to show, even though it was inspected. The full report (linked below) still has the detail.

SecondaryGCSE results, Year 11

Attainment 8 score: 29.3
Compared with the area: 10.6 points below the Blackpool average (39.9)
Compared with schools with similar pupils: As expected (+0.5 points against an expected 28.8)
Grade 4+ in English and maths: 32% (Blackpool 56%, England 65%) Improving
Data year: 2024/25

View the School Context Comparator – how this school's results compare with schools teaching similar pupils.

GCSE results over time

This schoolBlackpool averageEngland→ Broadly steady No clear rise or fall since 2022/23 (changes this small are normal from one year group to the next). In 2024/25 this school was 10.6 points below the Blackpool average (39.9).

About the Attainment 8 score

Attainment 8 measures a pupil's average result across 8 GCSE-equivalent qualifications (English and maths count double). It shows how pupils performed, not how much progress they made getting there - a school with a higher score doesn't necessarily add more value, since pupils often arrive with different starting points. Progress 8 is the measure designed to account for that, but it currently can't be calculated for any school for the two most recent academic years, due to a nationwide gap in the data caused by COVID-19 disruption to Key Stage 2 testing.

7th of 7 all-through schools in Blackpool for Attainment 8

#5Armfield Academy35.6
#6Highfield Leadership Academy30.0
#7Unity Academy Blackpool29.3

Click to see the full ranking

Attainment 8 ranking

Illustrative MVP scores - not based on verified data yet.

Rank School Score

#1St George's School A Church of England Academy55.5
#2St Mary's Catholic Academy41.5
#3Montgomery Academy40.0
#4Blackpool Aspire Academy36.7
#5Armfield Academy35.6
#6Highfield Leadership Academy30.0
#7Unity Academy Blackpool29.3

Leaver Destinations

In education, employment, or training a year later: 75.0%
Went into further education: 66.0%
Data year: 2024/25

About leaver destinations

This shows where a school's Year 11 leavers were recorded the following year - in a "sustained" destination means in education, an apprenticeship, or employment for at least 6 months, not just enrolled briefly. It's a different picture from exam results alone, and can highlight schools that support pupils well beyond just their GCSE grades.

GCSE Subjects Offered

English Language
Maths (General)
English Literature
Science Double Award
Art & Design
History
Geography
Photography
Biology
Chemistry (General)
French Language
Physics (General)
Computer Science
Music Studies (General)
Italian
Polish
Russian
Arabic
Spanish

About this subject list

This isn't the school's own description of its curriculum - it's real DfE exam entry data, showing which GCSE subjects this school's pupils were actually entered for in 2024/25. A subject not appearing here may still be taught but had no pupils entered that year, so treat this as a helpful guide rather than a complete guarantee - it's worth confirming directly with the school for the year your child would actually study.

PrimaryYear 6 SATs results

Year 6 SATs results

Met the expected standard in reading, writing & maths: 73% (England 62%)
Reached the higher standard: 2% (England 8%)
Compared with the area: 16 percentage points above the Blackpool average (57%)
Compared with schools with similar pupils: Above (3-year average 57% against an expected 52%)
3-year average (expected standard): 57%
Expected standard by subject: Reading 79% · Writing 79% · Maths 82% · Grammar, punctuation & spelling 71%
Average test scores: reading 106, maths 106
Based on: 56 Year 6 pupils, 2024/25

View the School Context Comparator – how this school's SATs results compare with schools teaching similar pupils.

SATs results over time

This schoolBlackpool averageEngland↗ Improving Up 18 percentage points since 2022/23. In 2024/25 this school was 16 percentage points above the Blackpool average (57%).

Year 6 SATs: joint 6th of 31 junior and primary schools in the area

#5Blackpool St Nicholas CofE Primary School75%
=6Holy Family Catholic Primary School73%
=6Unity Academy Blackpool73%
#8Waterloo Primary Academy70%
#9St Cuthbert's Catholic Academy66%

Click to see the full ranking

Year 6 SATs ranking

Junior and primary schools in this area, ranked by the % of Year 6 pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (official DfE results, 2024/25). Schools with the same result share a place (shown as =). In small schools one or two children can move a school several places, so treat close positions as roughly equal.

Rank School Score

#1St John Vianney's Catholic Primary School, Blackpool80%
=2Kincraig Primary School79%
=2Westcliff Primary Academy79%
#4Blackpool St John's Church of England Primary School77%
#5Blackpool St Nicholas CofE Primary School75%
=6Holy Family Catholic Primary School73%
=6Unity Academy Blackpool73%
#8Waterloo Primary Academy70%
#9St Cuthbert's Catholic Academy66%
=10Baines' Endowed Church of England Primary Academy65%
=10Layton Primary School65%
#12Thames Primary Academy62%
#13Our Lady of The Assumption Catholic Primary School, Blackpool61%
#14Westminster Primary Academy60%
#15Marton Primary Academy and Nursery59%
#16Roseacre Primary Academy57%
#17Boundary Primary School56%
#18Stanley Primary School54%
#19Anchorsholme Primary Academy53%
=20Bispham Endowed Church of England Primary School52%
=20Christ The King Catholic Academy52%
=22Devonshire Primary Academy47%
=22Norbreck Primary Academy47%
#24Revoe Learning Academy46%
#25Armfield Academy45%
=26Blackpool Gateway Academy44%
=26Moor Park Primary School44%
#28St Teresa's Catholic Primary School43%
#29St Kentigern's Catholic Primary School42%
#30Hawes Side Academy40%
#31Mereside Primary Academy18%

View full Ofsted inspection report

Financials

Spending per pupil: £9,150 (2024-25)

About this spending figure

A higher or lower position here isn't a sign of a better or worse school - schools have different needs and circumstances - but it can help reassure you that a school has sufficient funding behind your child's education.

4th of 8 all-through schools in Blackpool for spending per pupil

#2Highfield Leadership Academy£10,341
#3Blackpool Aspire Academy£9,391
#4Unity Academy Blackpool£9,150
#5St Mary's Catholic Academy£8,316
#6Montgomery Academy£8,117

Click to see the full ranking

Spending Per Pupil ranking

Based on official DfE financial return data (Consistent Financial Reporting / Academies Accounts Return) - not a ranking of school quality.

Rank School Score

#1South Shore Academy£11,570
#2Highfield Leadership Academy£10,341
#3Blackpool Aspire Academy£9,391
#4Unity Academy Blackpool£9,150
#5St Mary's Catholic Academy£8,316
#6Montgomery Academy£8,117
#7Armfield Academy£7,455
#8St George's School A Church of England Academy£7,397

View on the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool (GOV.UK)

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General Information

Who goes here

Staff

Teachers leaving each year

Behaviour

Across Blackpool: suspensions by reason

Attendance

SEN

Most common needs - SEN Support

Most common needs - EHC Plan

Educational Attainment

Attainment 8 ranking

Leaver Destinations ?

GCSE Subjects Offered ?

Year 6 SATs ranking

Financials

Spending Per Pupil ranking

Leaver Destinations

GCSE Subjects Offered