Lift Beacon High
Lift Beacon High is a converter academy in London for boys and girls aged 11 to 16. It has 414 pupils and room for 600. About 74 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far more than at most schools in England. Ofsted's last grade was good, back in 2022.
Hilldrop Road, Islington, London, N7 0JG020 7607 5885liftbeaconhigh.orgMr Aaron Collingwoode-Williams headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 16 November 2022, back when it gave schools one overall grade. Read the report on Ofsted's website.
Good overall.
Results
GCSE results, summer 2025
77 pupils sat their GCSEs. Here is how they did against every state secondary in England. These are the results of Beacon High, the school this one replaced.
All GCSE measures, year by year
| Measure | 2025† | 2024† | 2023† | 2022† | 2019† | 2018† | Islington | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of Year 11 | 77 | 75 | 86 | 89 | 144 | 155 | – | – |
| Average GCSE scoreAttainment 8 | 29.5 | 33.8 | 34.8 | 37.6 | 32.8 | 35.0 | 48.7 | 46.8 |
| Progress from age 11Progress 8 | – | -0.94 | -0.78 | -1.03 | -1.01 | -0.72 | – | – |
| Strong pass in English and mathsGrade 5+ in English and maths | 16% | 21% | 26% | 19% | 10% | 20% | 50% | 46% |
| Standard pass in English and mathsGrade 4+ in English and maths | 26% | 40% | 47% | 49% | 37% | 37% | 68% | 66% |
| Core subjects scoreEBacc average point score | 2.42 | 2.77 | 2.78 | 2.99 | 2.62 | 2.90 | 4.42 | 4.15 |
| Taking the core subjectsEBacc entry | 12% | 11% | 7% | 19% | 13% | 22% | 50% | 41% |
| Average GCSE score: low-income pupilsAttainment 8, disadvantaged | 28.9 | 29.8 | 30.7 | 35.6 | 30.5 | 31.5 | – | – |
| Average GCSE score: other pupilsAttainment 8, non-disadvantaged | 31.8 | 43.0 | 44.7 | 40.3 | 40.7 | 43.3 | – | – |
| Average GCSE score: pupils who started behindAttainment 8, low prior attainers | – | 23.4 | 20.9 | 26.9 | 18.9 | 18.8 | – | – |
| Average GCSE score: pupils who started aheadAttainment 8, high prior attainers | – | – | 64.1 | 53.8 | 42.9 | 48.8 | – | – |
† These results are for Beacon High, the school this one replaced in January 2026. Same building and the same children. It got a new registration number, usually because it joined an academy trust.
Does every child do well here?
A good school does well by every child, not just on average. Each row compares two groups of pupils here. The grey marks show the same two groups across England. Every gap at this school is smaller than the gap across England. When a group has fewer than about ten pupils, its figures jump around a lot from year to year.
At GCSE, 2025
Low-income means the child has had free school meals at some point in the last six years. A group's figure isn't published when it has fewer than six pupils.
Getting a place
Open to all. There is no entrance test.
How places were given out for September 2026.
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: emotional and mental health (47), Specific learning difficulty (21), Autistic spectrum disorder (20), language and communications needs (10), Moderate learning difficulty (6), Physical disability (3).
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 87.0% of the time. Across similar schools in England it was 91.4%.
Attendance year by year
| Measure | 2024/25† | 2023/24† | 2022/23† | 2021/22† | 2020/21† | 2018/19† | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 13.0% | 11.0% | 10.8% | 8.2% | 7.0% | 5.1% | 8.6% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 5.2% | 3.4% | 3.5% | 3.2% | 2.6% | 1.9% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 7.8% | 7.6% | 7.3% | 5.0% | 4.4% | 3.2% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 41.3% | 34.7% | 32.1% | 25.3% | 23.5% | 12.8% | 23.9% |
† These attendance figures are for Beacon High, the school this one replaced in January 2026. Same building and the same children. It got a new registration number, usually because it joined an academy trust.
Money
Money
From the council school accounts, year to March 2025. The per-pupil figures are compared with other secondary schools in England that report their accounts the same way.
Reserves are the money left over at the end of the year, kept back for emergencies and big projects. Being in the red year after year is a warning sign. Very large reserves can mean money sitting in the bank instead of being spent on today's pupils. Academy figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000 and include a share of any money the trust holds centrally.
The area around the school
Crime figures come from police.uk. The police record each crime at the nearest of a fixed set of map points rather than the exact spot, so “within 500 m” is only rough. House prices are from HM Land Registry sales nearby over the last two years.
Nearby schools
The closest secondary schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acland Burghley School | Council | 890 m | 1,252 | Good 2023 | 53 | Compare |
| The Camden School for Girls | Voluntary | 910 m | 1,108 | Good 2022 | 83 | Compare |
| Parliament Hill School | Council | 0.9 miles | 1,191 | Outstanding 2024 | 85 | Compare |
| La Sainte Union Catholic Secondary School | Roman Catholic | 0.9 miles | 550 | No overall grade 2024 | 62 | Compare |
| St Mary Magdalene Academy | Academy | 1.0 miles | 1,561 | Outstanding 2023 | 91 | Compare |
| William Ellis School | Voluntary | 1.0 miles | 771 | No overall grade 2024 | 51 | Compare |
| City of London Academy, Highgate Hill | Free school | 1.0 miles | 641 | Good 2024 | 60 | Compare |
| Arts and Media School Islington | Foundation | 1.1 miles | 577 | Good 2023 | 22 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Lift Beacon High a good school?
Lift Beacon High doesn't have a score yet. Ofsted rated it good at its last inspection in November 2022.
What is Lift Beacon High's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Lift Beacon High good at its last full inspection on 16 November 2022.
How good are Lift Beacon High's GCSE results?
In summer 2025, 16% of pupils got a grade 5 or better in both English and maths. Across England it was 46%. Its Attainment 8 score, which is the average grade across a pupil's best eight subjects times ten, was 29.5, against 46.8 for England. In each subject, pupils here finished most of a grade behind children across England who started secondary school at the same level.
How many pupils does Lift Beacon High have?
414 pupils aged 11 to 16 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 600 places, so it is 69% full.
What is attendance like at Lift Beacon High?
Pupils were in school 87.0% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 91.4%. 41% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Lift Beacon High?
The average class had 19.6 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 22.8. 5% of classes had more than 30 pupils.
Does Lift Beacon High have a sixth form?
No. Pupils leave after Year 11 for a sixth form elsewhere, a college or an apprenticeship.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Hilldrop Road, Islington, London, N7 0JG
- Telephone
- 020 7607 5885
- Website
- www.liftbeaconhigh.org
- Headteacher
- Mr Aaron Collingwoode-Williams
- Type of school
- Converter academy (Academy converter, academies)
- Phase
- Secondary school, ages 11-16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Multi-academy trust
- Lift Schools (62 schools)
- Local authority
- Islington
- Ward
- Tufnell Park
- Constituency
- Islington North
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 January 2026 (academy converter)
- URN
- 152337 · LAESTAB 2064112 · UKPRN 10099849
- Formerly
- Beacon High
Where these figures come from
- School details: Department for Education, Get Information About Schools, refreshed daily (this page rebuilt 13 September 2026).
- Inspections: Ofsted management information, monthly; latest publication in our data 27 August 2026.
- GCSE results: DfE key stage 4 performance tables, 2024/25 final.
- Attendance: DfE pupil absence in schools in England, 2024/25 full year.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Class sizes: DfE schools, pupils and their characteristics, January 2026.
- Pupil premium: DfE allocations and conditions of grant, 2026 to 2027.
- Money: DfE financial benchmarking and insights tool, consistent financial reporting 2024/25.
- Admissions outcomes: Islington council's published allocation statistics (source), entry years 2024, 2025, 2026.
- Neighbourhood: police.uk street-level crime, HM Land Registry price paid data, NaPTAN bus stops, English Indices of Deprivation 2025.
- All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full list and update calendar.