The Polygon School
The Polygon School is a foundation special school in Southampton for boys aged 11 to 16. It has 77 pupils and every place is taken. About 83 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far more than at most schools in England. Ofsted visited in December 2025 and gave it a report card, which is below.
Handel Terrace, Southampton, SO15 2FH023 8063 6776polygon.southampton.sch.ukMr Benjamin Penfold headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted visited on 2 December 2025. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 9 March 2022 | Ungraded | School remains Good |
Results
GCSE results, summer 2025
12 pupils sat their GCSEs. Here is how they did against every state secondary in England.
All GCSE measures, year by year
| Measure | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2019 | 2018 | Southampton | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of Year 11 | 12 | 19 | 14 | 10 | 15 | 14 | – | – |
| Average GCSE scoreAttainment 8 | 2.4 | 1.2 | 3.1 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 5.3 | 42.6 | 46.8 |
| Progress from age 11Progress 8 | – | -2.09 | -2.19 | -2.82 | -2.53 | -1.74 | – | – |
| Strong pass in English and mathsGrade 5+ in English and maths | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 40% | 46% |
| Standard pass in English and mathsGrade 4+ in English and maths | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 58% | 66% |
| Core subjects scoreEBacc average point score | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.24 | 0.00 | 0.10 | 0.27 | 3.78 | 4.15 |
| Taking the core subjectsEBacc entry | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 38% | 41% |
| Average GCSE score: low-income pupilsAttainment 8, disadvantaged | 2.4 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Average GCSE score: pupils who started behindAttainment 8, low prior attainers | – | 1.8 | 4.3 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 4.7 | – | – |
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 Southampton council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
What parents say
From Ofsted's Parent View survey: 17 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.
Specialist SEND provision. A special school for pupils with autism, moderate learning difficulties, multi-sensory impairment, other needs, social, emotional and mental health, speech, language and communication, specific learning difficulties.
To get a place in the unit or resourced provision, a child normally needs an education, health and care plan (EHCP) that names the school. Other schools in Southampton with autism provision.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: emotional and mental health (56), Autistic spectrum disorder (16), language and communications needs (3), Other difficulty or disability (1), Vision impairment (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 77 | 76 | 72 | 69 | 65 | 69 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 83% | 82% | 86% | 78% | 80% | 80% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 1% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 82.2% 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 | 17.8% | 20.5% | 19.4% | 23.3% | 19.4% | 22.6% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 8.4% | 8.9% | 8.1% | 11.5% | 12.7% | 7.4% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 9.5% | 11.7% | 11.3% | 11.8% | 6.7% | 15.2% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 48.7% | 59.5% | 53.4% | 70.8% | 58.0% | 58.2% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 34.2 | 47.2 | 43.5 | 52.3 | 17.4 | – | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – |
What pupils do next
After GCSEs
Where the 14 pupils who left in 2022/23 were a year later.
Among pupils from low-income families it was 78%, compared with – for everyone else.
Earlier years
| Destination | 2022/23 leavers | 2021/22 leavers | 2020/21 leavers | 2019/20 leavers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Still in education, work or training | 71% | 60% | 43% | 53% |
| Education | 71% | 60% | 43% | 47% |
| Apprenticeship | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Work | 0% | 0% | 0% | 7% |
| Not in education, work or training | 0% | 30% | 29% | 33% |
Staff and money
From the government's count of school staff in November 2025 and the school's published accounts.
Money
From the council school accounts, year to March 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Springhill Catholic Primary School | Academy | 370 m | 652 | Outstanding 2022 | 99 | Compare |
| St Anne's Catholic School | Academy | 690 m | 1,189 | Outstanding 2022 | 91 | Compare |
| Banister Primary School | Foundation | 730 m | 417 | Good 2024 | 70 | Compare |
| Southampton Solent University | Higher education institutions | 930 m | – | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| St Mark's Church of England School | Church of England | 950 m | 1,129 | Good 2022 | 35 | Compare |
| Freemantle Church of England Community Academy | Academy | 970 m | 429 | Good 2024 | 47 | Compare |
| New Avenue School | Independent (grammar) | 0.7 miles | 20 | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| St Mary's Church of England Primary School & Nursery | Church of England | 0.8 miles | 624 | Outstanding 2023 | 73 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is The Polygon School a good school?
The Polygon School doesn't have a score yet. Ofsted's report card from December 2025 rated its teaching as as expected.
What is The Polygon School's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted no longer gives schools one overall grade. When it visited on 2 December 2025 it rated teaching as as expected, achievement as as expected, behaviour and attendance as strong, leadership as as expected.
How good are The Polygon School's GCSE results?
In summer 2025, 0% 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 2.4, against 46.8 for England. In each subject, pupils here finished well over a grade behind children across England who started secondary school at the same level.
How many pupils does The Polygon School have?
77 pupils aged 11 to 16 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 77 places, so it is 100% full. It is a boys' school.
What is attendance like at The Polygon School?
Pupils were in school 82.2% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 49% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
What do parents say about The Polygon School?
100% of the 17 parents who answered Ofsted's Parent View survey would recommend it to other parents, and 100% say their child is happy there. Across England, 84% of parents would recommend their child's school.
Does The Polygon School have specialist SEND provision?
Yes. It is a special school for autism, moderate learning difficulties, multi-sensory impairment, other needs, social, emotional and mental health, speech, language and communication, specific learning difficulties. To get a place there, a child normally needs an education, health and care plan (EHCP) that names the school.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Handel Terrace, Southampton, SO15 2FH
- Telephone
- 023 8063 6776
- Website
- www.polygon.southampton.sch.uk
- Headteacher
- Mr Benjamin Penfold
- Type of school
- Foundation special school (Foundation special school, special schools)
- Phase
- Special school, ages 11-16
- Gender
- Boys
- Trust
- Southampton Co-operative Learning Trust (3 schools)
- Local authority
- Southampton
- Ward
- Banister & Polygon
- Constituency
- Southampton Itchen
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- URN
- 116624 · LAESTAB 8527039 · UKPRN 10016195
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, consistent financial reporting 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.