Penwith Alternative Provision Academy
Penwith Alternative Provision Academy is an academy alternative provision converter in Penzance for boys and girls aged 3 to 16. It has 44 pupils and room for 54. About 70 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far more than at most schools in England. Ofsted's last grade was inspected 2025, no overall grade.
Penbrea Road, Penzance, TR18 3NX01736 332341waveedu.orgMr Christian Denley principalAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 8 January 2025, back when it gave schools one overall grade. Read the report on Ofsted's website.
Not judged Between September 2024 and November 2025, Ofsted graded each area but stopped giving one overall word.
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 Cornwall 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 (22), SEN support but no specialist assessment of type of need (13), language and communications needs (4), Moderate learning difficulty (3), Autistic spectrum disorder (1), Other difficulty or disability (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 44 | 42 | 33 | 14 | 13 | 16 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 71% | 74% | 79% | 50% | 69% | 75% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 93% | 97% | 100% | 100% | 94% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 7% | 3% | 0% | 0% | 6% |
What pupils do next
After GCSEs
Where the 7 pupils who left in 2022/23 were a year later.
Earlier years
| Destination | 2022/23 leavers | 2021/22 leavers | 2020/21 leavers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Still in education, work or training | 86% | 71% | 63% |
| Education | 57% | 57% | 63% |
| Apprenticeship | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Work | 29% | 14% | 0% |
| Not in education, work or training | 14% | 14% | 38% |
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 primary 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Mary's Catholic School, Penzance | Academy | 120 m | 139 | Not inspected | 10 | Compare |
| Humphry Davy School | Foundation | 280 m | 740 | Good 2023 | 25 | Compare |
| Pensans Community Primary School | Academy | 770 m | 139 | Requires improvement 2024 | 3 | Compare |
| Nancealverne School | Academy | 800 m | 138 | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| Gulval School | Academy | 0.7 miles | 223 | Good 2022 | 66 | Compare |
| Mounts Bay Academy | Academy | 0.8 miles | 922 | Report card 2026 | 16 | Compare |
| St Mary's CofE Primary School, Penzance | Church of England | 0.9 miles | 141 | Good 2023 | 14 | Compare |
| Heamoor Community Primary School | Foundation | 0.9 miles | 201 | Good 2021 | 14 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Penwith Alternative Provision Academy a good school?
Penwith Alternative Provision Academy doesn't have a score yet. Ofsted rated it not judged at its last inspection in January 2025.
What is Penwith Alternative Provision Academy's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Penwith Alternative Provision Academy not judged at its last full inspection on 8 January 2025.
How many pupils does Penwith Alternative Provision Academy have?
44 pupils aged 3 to 16 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 54 places, so it is 81% full.
Does Penwith Alternative Provision Academy have a breakfast club?
Yes. It is on the government's free breakfast club programme, so every pupil can have a free half-hour breakfast club before school.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Penbrea Road, Penzance, TR18 3NX
- Telephone
- 01736 332341
- Website
- www.waveedu.org
- Principal
- Mr Christian Denley
- Free breakfast club
- Yes: on the government's programme, so every pupil can have a free half-hour breakfast club before school (listed since September 2026).
- Type of school
- Academy alternative provision converter (Academy alternative provision converter, academies)
- Phase
- Pupil referral unit / alternative provision, ages 3-16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Multi-academy trust
- Wave Multi Academy Trust (11 schools)
- Local authority
- Cornwall
- Ward
- Penzance East
- Constituency
- St Ives
- Setting
- Urban: Further from a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 June 2013 (academy converter)
- URN
- 139760 · LAESTAB 9081102 · UKPRN 10041825
- Formerly
- Penwith Short Stay School
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.
- 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.
- Breakfast club: DfE list of schools on the free breakfast club programme.
- 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.