Nunnery Wood High School's first Ofsted report card rates it Strong standard for teaching, inclusion, results and leadership. Attendance is its next step.
Nunnery Wood High School has been rated Strong standard, the second-highest grade, in four of the six areas Ofsted now inspects. The four are inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, and leadership and governance.
The Spetchley Road school was rated Expected standard in the other two: attendance and behaviour, and personal development and wellbeing. Safeguarding standards are met.
The inspection took place on 22 September 2026 and the report card was published on 20 October (Ofsted, Nunnery Wood High School report card). It was led by Rob Matthews, one of His Majesty’s Inspectors.
The grades
Ofsted’s new report cards give a grade for each area on a five-point scale: Exceptional, Strong standard, Expected standard, Needs attention and Urgent improvement. There is no single overall grade.
| Area | Grade |
|---|---|
| Inclusion | Strong standard |
| Curriculum and teaching | Strong standard |
| Achievement | Strong standard |
| Leadership and governance | Strong standard |
| Attendance and behaviour | Expected standard |
| Personal development and wellbeing | Expected standard |
| Safeguarding | Met |
The school was last fully inspected in March 2022, under the old framework, and was judged Good in every category (Ofsted, March 2022 report). It had been Good since 2015.
What the inspector found
The report is warmest about teaching and results. “Teachers have secure subject knowledge and have high expectations of the work that pupils produce,” it says.
On achievement, it finds that pupils in Year 10 and 11, “including disadvantaged pupils, have achieved results well above national averages in public examinations”. Pupils with special educational needs and disadvantaged pupils “produce work of the same standard as their peers”.
On behaviour, the report says the school “is calm and orderly” and that pupils “have excellent attitudes” in lessons. That section was graded Expected standard rather than Strong because of attendance, which the report describes as “broadly in line with national averages”. It credits leaders with “recent improvements”.
Inspectors also noted the clubs on offer, from choir, chess and debate to football, badminton, table tennis, rugby and athletics, plus the Duke of Edinburgh award.
What the school has to improve
Ofsted set two next steps:
- make sure pupils “develop a secure and detailed knowledge” of the personal development programme and the citizenship curriculum, where the report found “some pupils do not have a detailed understanding” of some topics
- keep improving attendance, including for disadvantaged pupils, “so that pupils have high attendance”
The numbers behind it
The report card carries the data inspectors used. Nunnery Wood has 1,488 pupils aged 11 to 16, against a capacity of 1,500, which makes it well above the national average size of 1,063. 19.42% of pupils have been eligible for free school meals in the last six years, below the national 30.4%.
| Measure | Year | Nunnery Wood | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 2024/25 | 49.1% | 45.4% |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 2023/24 | 54.9% | 45.9% |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 2022/23 | 55.7% | 45.3% |
| Attainment 8 | 2024/25 | 49.7 | 46.1 |
| Progress 8 | 2023/24 | 0.46 | -0.03 |
| Disadvantaged pupils, grade 5 or above in English and maths | 2024/25 | 30.4% | 25.8% |
| Overall absence | 2024/25 | 8.6% | 8.4% |
| Persistent absence | 2024/25 | 22.8% | 23.4% |
Ofsted’s own comparison marks the 2024/25 English and maths figure as “close to average”. The two years before it were further ahead. Progress 8 has been “above” the national average in each of the three years shown, at 0.45, 0.49 and 0.46.
Absence is close to average. Just over one pupil in five missed 10% or more of their lessons in 2024/25.
What it means for you
If your child is starting secondary school in September 2027, the deadline to apply is Saturday 31 October 2026, through Worcestershire County Council. Offers go out on 1 March 2027. This report is the newest evidence on Nunnery Wood, and the full card, with every section and table, is free to read on the Ofsted site.
Parents of current pupils can give their own view through Ofsted’s Parent View survey.
Nunnery Wood is a single academy trust, run by headteacher Stephen Powell and overseen by a board of trustees. Holiday dates are on our Worcester school term dates page.
Sources
- Ofsted, Nunnery Wood High School report card, inspected 22 September 2026, published 20 October 2026
- Ofsted, Nunnery Wood High School inspection report, 9 and 10 March 2022
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