Mary Elliot Academy
Mary Elliot Academy is a sponsored special academy in Walsall for boys and girls aged 11 to 19. It has 148 pupils, 8 more than it has places for. About 56 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far more than at most schools in England. Ofsted visited in February 2026 and gave it a report card, which is below.
Leamore Lane, Walsall, WS2 7DQ01922 490190mary-elliot.thrive.acMs Rebecca Davies headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted visited on 24 February 2026. Instead of one overall word, it now gives a grade for each part of school life. Read the full report on Ofsted's website.
Ofsted says these new grades can't be lined up against the old one-word grades.
Earlier inspections (1)
| Date | Type | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 2 March 2022 | S5 Inspection | Inadequate |
Results
GCSE results, summer 2025
18 pupils sat their GCSEs. Here is how they did against every state secondary in England.
The government hasn't published this school's headline results. That usually means the year group was too small to publish without identifying children.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
Each council publishes its own figures on how many families applied and how far away the last child to get a place lived. We are adding councils one at a time. If you have a link to Walsall council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
What parents say
From Ofsted's Parent View survey: 16 parents answered in the year to 6 April 2026. Parents choose whether to fill it in, and many only do so when an inspection is coming, so don't read too much into small differences. The England figures are the average for all schools with enough answers to publish.
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: Autistic spectrum disorder (62), Severe learning difficulty (49), Profound and multiple learning difficulty (27), Moderate learning difficulty (3), language and communications needs (3), Other difficulty or disability (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 148 | 142 | 140 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 55% | 53% | 54% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 28% | 31% | 30% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 0% | 0% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 100% | 100% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 89.3% of the time. Across similar schools in England it was 94.8%.
Attendance year by year
| Measure | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22† | 2020/21† | 2018/19† | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 10.7% | 13.4% | 13.1% | 12.7% | 20.6% | 10.2% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 7.3% | 8.5% | 8.1% | 6.9% | 18.6% | 8.0% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 3.5% | 4.9% | 4.9% | 5.8% | 2.0% | 2.2% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 32.7% | 37.3% | 32.4% | 33.7% | 65.9% | 37.9% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 0.0 | 0.0 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – |
† These attendance figures are for Mary Elliot School, the school this one replaced in April 2023. Same building and the same children. It got a new registration number, usually because it joined an academy trust.
Staff and money
From the government's count of school staff in November 2025 and the school's published accounts.
Money
From the academy accounts return, year to August 2025. The per-pupil figures are compared with other special 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 schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bloxwich Academy | Academy | 200 m | 1,383 | Report card 2026 | 4 | Compare |
| Busill Jones Primary School | Academy | 860 m | 235 | Report card 2026 | 8 | Compare |
| Castle School | Council | 910 m | 247 | No overall grade 2025 | – | Compare |
| Phoenix Academy | Academy | 950 m | 50 | Good 2022 | – | Compare |
| Old Hall School | Council | 0.7 miles | 134 | No overall grade 2024 | – | Compare |
| Elmore Green Primary School | Council | 0.7 miles | 314 | Good 2024 | 19 | Compare |
| Sandbank Nursery School | Local authority nursery school | 0.7 miles | 164 | Outstanding 2023 | – | Compare |
| Woodlands Academy of Learning | Academy | 0.7 miles | 446 | Good 2023 | 57 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Mary Elliot Academy a good school?
Mary Elliot Academy doesn't have a score yet. Ofsted's report card from February 2026 rated its teaching as as expected.
What is Mary Elliot Academy's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted no longer gives schools one overall grade. When it visited on 24 February 2026 it rated teaching as as expected, achievement as as expected, behaviour and attendance as as expected, leadership as as expected.
How many pupils does Mary Elliot Academy have?
148 pupils aged 11 to 19 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 140 places, so it is 106% full.
What is attendance like at Mary Elliot Academy?
Pupils were in school 89.3% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 33% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
What do parents say about Mary Elliot Academy?
81% of the 16 parents who answered Ofsted's Parent View survey would recommend it to other parents, and 81% say their child is happy there. Across England, 84% of parents would recommend their child's school.
Does Mary Elliot Academy have a sixth form?
Yes.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Leamore Lane, Walsall, WS2 7DQ
- Telephone
- 01922 490190
- Website
- mary-elliot.thrive.ac
- Headteacher
- Ms Rebecca Davies
- Type of school
- Sponsored special academy (Academy special sponsor led, academies)
- Phase
- Special school, ages 11-19, with sixth form
- Gender
- Mixed
- Multi-academy trust
- Thrive Education Partnership (7 schools)
- Local authority
- Walsall
- Ward
- Birchills Leamore
- Constituency
- Walsall and Bloxwich
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 April 2023 (new provision)
- URN
- 149678 · LAESTAB 3357008 · UKPRN 10092129
- Formerly
- Mary Elliot School
Recent changes
- New KS4 results for 2024/25
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.
- Staff: DfE school workforce census, November 2025.
- Pupil premium: DfE allocations and conditions of grant, 2026 to 2027.
- Money: DfE financial benchmarking and insights tool, academy accounts return 2024/25.
- 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.