Nore Academy
Nore Academy is a special free school in Sheerness for boys and girls aged 11 to 16. It has 67 pupils and room for 120. About 48 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far more than at most schools in England.
Danley Road, Minster-on-Sea, Sheerness, ME12 3AP01795 720747Ms Danielle Thurlow headteacherAll details
Ofsted
Ofsted hasn't published an inspection for this school yet. That is normal for a school that opened in 2025: new schools usually get their first inspection within three years.
Getting a place
Open to all. There is no entrance test.
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 Kent council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
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 (53), Autistic spectrum disorder (11), Physical disability (1), language and communications needs (1), Vision impairment (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 67 | 0 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 48% | – |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 0% | 0% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 0% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 0% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 53.3% of the time. Across similar schools in England it was 94.8%.
Attendance year by year
| Measure | 2024/25 | England |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 46.7% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 32.6% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 14.2% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 100.0% | 12.8% |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 0 | – |
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halfway Houses Primary School | Academy | 60 m | 498 | Good 2024 | 58 | Compare |
| Leigh Academy Minster | Academy | 640 m | 1,005 | Not inspected | 0 | Compare |
| The Elmley Dray School | Independent | 0.8 miles | 26 | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| Richmond Primary School | Academy | 0.9 miles | 246 | Good 2022 | 31 | Compare |
| EKC Sheppey Secondary | Academy | 1.0 miles | 542 | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| Thistle Hill Academy | Academy | 1.1 miles | 349 | No overall grade 2024 | 18 | Compare |
| Queenborough School and Nursery | Academy | 1.1 miles | 470 | Outstanding 2023 | 95 | Compare |
| West Minster Primary School | Council | 1.2 miles | 473 | Report card 2025 | 65 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Nore Academy a good school?
We don't have enough published data to score Nore Academy yet.
How many pupils does Nore Academy have?
67 pupils aged 11 to 16 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 120 places, so it is 56% full.
What is attendance like at Nore Academy?
Pupils were in school 53.3% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 100% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Danley Road, Minster-on-Sea, Sheerness, ME12 3AP
- Telephone
- 01795 720747
- Headteacher
- Ms Danielle Thurlow
- Type of school
- Special free school (Free schools special, free schools)
- Phase
- Special school, ages 11-16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Multi-academy trust
- Alternative Learning Trust (7 schools)
- Local authority
- Kent
- Ward
- Queenborough and Halfway
- Constituency
- Sittingbourne and Sheppey
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 January 2025 (academy free school)
- URN
- 150769 · LAESTAB 8867007 · UKPRN 10095877
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.
- 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.