Silverstone UTCOfsted report card, 29 Sept 2026

Silverstone UTC

Address: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TL Unique reference number (URN): 139690

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, pupils are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect schools for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The school has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. All legal requirements are met. Not met: The school has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Achievement Expected standard

This is a highly inclusive school that generally starts educating pupils at age 14. Some pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) have had significant disruption to their learning before they entered the school. As a university technical college, there is a distinct focus on ensuring that pupils are well prepared for future careers. In spite of the complexity of the school's context, leaders absolutely ensure that pupils move onto appropriate destinations when they leave key stage 4. Pupils are well prepared for their next steps.

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Achievement Expected standard

Disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND make secure progress from their starting points, often exceeding the ambitious targets that they have been set.

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Achievement Expected standard

The development of pupils' learning foundations has improved in recent times. More pupils are developing the knowledge and fluency in word reading and in mathematics, which enables them to progress successfully to more complex learning.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Leaders have an acute understanding of the school’s complex context. Pupils generally join the school at age 14. Many, particularly disadvantaged pupils, those known to social care and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), have experienced disruption to their learning. Some have previously had low attendance or have not attended school at all. Despite these challenges, leaders work relentlessly to ensure that pupils develop a sense of belonging and want to attend and learn.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Leaders greet pupils daily and take a bespoke approach to addressing barriers to attendance. As a result, attendance has improved. The proportion of pupils who are persistently absent, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND, has also reduced. Leaders rightly continue to prioritise further reducing persistent absence.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Pupils’ behaviour is well managed. Staff are well trained and set high expectations that pupils generally meet. The behaviour approach is clearly understood and adapted to meet pupils’ needs, including those pupils with SEND or complex needs. This includes the 'Pit Lane' provision, where therapeutic support is available. Suspensions have reduced significantly.

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Attendance and behaviour Expected standard

Pupils typically demonstrate positive attitudes to learning and engage appropriately in the wider life of the school. In lessons, they are purposefully involved in learning. Pupils said that they feel safe, including from bullying and harassment.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

As a university technical college, leaders are passionate about ensuring that pupils and students, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, achieve, succeed, and are ready for the world of work. The curriculum is well sequenced and is underpinned by specialist areas such as engineering. It ensures that pupils' knowledge and practical skills deliberately build over time so that previously taught content is brought back into pupils' thinking and is remembered. The school has significant links with industry and local business. This ensures that pupils, many of whom have faced significant barriers to their learning, gain 'real life' knowledge and experience. Pupils relish these opportunities.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

The curriculum has improved since the previous inspection and is now more consistently well taught. Many teachers demonstrate strong subject knowledge and relevant professional expertise. Teachers with industry experience are also able to make authentic links between classroom learning and the workplace, helping pupils understand the relevance of their studies. Leaders have worked with external experts to improve provision in mathematics and English to ensure that pupils gain the appropriate foundations to their learning. Consequently, pupils' knowledge and understanding in these areas has improved.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders have taken decisive action to improve the curriculum and teaching. The whole ‑ school teaching and learning strategy has brought greater consistency to pupils’ learning experiences. However, checks of pupils’ learning do not always identify gaps or misconceptions quickly enough. When this happens, teachers do not adapt learning well enough to meet some pupils’ needs.

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Inclusion Expected standard

Leaders show a real sense of determination to remove barriers to ensure the pupils and students, including pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities, disadvantaged pupils and those with other vulnerabilities, enjoy school and achieve. Pupils join the school at key points, usually in Years 10 and 12. They arrive from a wide variety of geographic locations, schools and contexts. Some have experienced disruption to their education. It can take time for leaders to fully understand pupils' needs because of this complexity. Even so, leaders work tirelessly to build a detailed and accurate understanding of pupils, both pastorally and academically. Once leaders identify pupils’ needs, they act quickly to secure appropriate support, including from external agencies. Leaders are now taking a more strategic approach to this work to ensure that the intervention and support provided to the most vulnerable pupils has maximum impact.

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Inclusion Expected standard

External funding is used wisely to support the needs of disadvantaged pupils. The introduction of the 'Pit Lane' provision has had an extremely positive impact on pupils' pastoral care, attendance, outcomes and behaviour. Pupils describe this provision as a place to find effective help and care.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders have managed a great deal of change in a relatively brief amount of time. They have worked with moral integrity to ensure that pupils and students in the sixth form, many of whom have barriers to learning, receive a positive learning experience and move successfully to employment training or education. They have an accurate view of the strengths of the school and the next steps. There has been a lot of work to do but now leaders are at the stage where they can forge ahead and take an increasingly strategic approach to continue the school's improvement journey. There have been changes to governance. This has acted to further improve the leadership of the school. Trustees are expert and have the specialist knowledge and experience. There is a clean line of accountability and appropriate oversight of the schools core functions. Additionally trustees act in the best interests of pupils. They show great commitment and

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

passion to ensure the school's continued success.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Staff express great confidence in the leadership of the school. They value the improvements that have been made to the school and to their workload and wellbeing. They said that leaders listen and care, and are responsive. Staff have experienced many professional development opportunities that they have found to be beneficial, and particularly value the teaching and learning handbook that is produced by staff and updated annually. Some leaders, including middle leaders, are not yet fully effective in their role.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Many parents and carers are complimentary about the impact the school has had on their child, particularly parents of pupils who have previously experienced disruption to their learning. They describe pupils whose lives have been 'totally turned around' due to the wider experiences, opportunities and care received from staff, describing the school as amazing.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Pupils develop secure and detailed knowledge through the personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum. They speak with maturity about how they keep themselves safe, including from online bullying. Leaders have planned the PSHE curriculum with care, ensuring that it reflects pupils’ needs and the local context. There is a spiral approach so that key themes are revisited and developed over time. Citizenship, aspects of the law, employability skills, company values, careers and wider personal development are woven through the programme. Leaders also use student voice, such as the request for a specific knife crime lesson, to ensure that the curriculum is meeting pupils' needs. Although pupils could identify protected characteristics and give examples of how these are promoted, pupils' understanding of fundamental British Values is less secure.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders create many meaningful and fantastic opportunities for pupils to broaden their experiences, talents and interests. Careers advice and guidance is a strength as are the vast array of wider opportunities to prepare pupils for their next steps, including meaningful engagement with industry and local employers through visits and work experience. Many pupils want to attend the school because of these opportunities, some of which are life changing.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Fewer girls than boys attend the school and significant action is taken to ensure that their voice is heard. The girls' forum is active and has changed aspects of the school's provision, including changing the location of toilets in the school building and raising important issues such as preventing misogyny.

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Personal development and wellbeing Expected standard

Leaders’ approach to pastoral care is a strength of the school. Pupils value the wide range of adults that they can turn to when they need help, including within the 'Pit Lane', where specialist help can be found. Pupils feel safe in school and express strong confidence that staff respond quickly and effectively when they ask for help.

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Post-16 provision Expected standard

The sixth form provides a broad and purposeful post ‑ 16 experience. Students, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those with barriers to their learning, access a range of appropriate curriculum pathways that prepare them extremely well for suitable destinations when they leave the provision. The curriculum is structured to build students’ knowledge and skills from their starting points effectively. Many students choose the school because of its curriculum offer, particularly engineering, and the wider opportunities that the school provides.

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Post-16 provision Expected standard

The quality of teaching in the sixth form is improving. Students benefit from teachers who are expert in their subject areas. Some students join the sixth form in Year 12. The curriculum enables them to consolidate gaps in prior learning while continuing to meet the demands of their post ‑ 16 courses. However, in a few subjects further checks are needed to make sure that students' learning needs are fully met.

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Post-16 provision Expected standard

Leaders provide an extensive range of opportunities to prepare students for their next steps. These include an annual careers fair, industry engagement and the engineering project day, which help students understand university, apprenticeship and employment routes. Students also access racing, robotics and 'robot wars'. They contribute positively to wider school life through the student council, the girls’ forum and lunch ‑ and ‑ learn activities. These experiences strengthen their wider contribution to the school community and deepen their sense of responsibility and belonging. They are great role models and ambassadors for school.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils and sixth ‑ form students express a strong sense of pride in attending Silverstone UTC. Many, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, have previously experienced disrupted education. They describe how the opportunities available to them and the care they receive have ‘turned their lives around’. The school’s values of determination, integrity, kindness and pride are clearly reflected in pupils’ improved attitudes and conduct. Pupils leave the school extremely well prepared for their future destinations in employment, training or education.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils generally behave well, and lessons are calm. Most pupils within social time interact with each other in a calm and positive way. Staff greet pupils daily and show high levels of care. Pupils who struggle to manage their behaviour receive expert support and settle to learning as a result. The 'Pit Lane' provision, although relatively new, is genuinely appreciated. Pupils say there are many trusted adults in school. They do not fear bullying or harassment and report that staff listen to their needs and resolve issues quickly.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils’ attendance is improving. Increasing numbers of pupils who previously did not attend school, or who had very low attendance, are now in school learning and benefiting from staff’s considerable pastoral care. Pupils gain exciting opportunities to broaden their talents and interests through links with industry, local companies and motorsport. Careers advice and guidance is an effective feature of pupils’ learning. Apprenticeship workshops, the annual careers fair and engagement with universities and further education providers ensure that pupils are well prepared for their next steps.

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What it's like to be a pupil at this school

Pupils benefit from a wide range of trips and events. Their views are heard and have shaped improvements within the school, including changes to the curriculum. These experiences strengthen pupils’ personal development and reinforce their sense of responsibility and belonging.

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Next steps

Leaders should ensure that they embed highly effective teaching and assessment across the school so that the needs of pupils and students in the sixth forms are identified swiftly and that all groups of pupils make positive and sustained progress across the curriculum and achieve consistently well. Leaders should continue their work to further improve pupils’ attendance, and continue to ensure that pupils behave consistently well and continue to show self-discipline and dedication to their learning. Leaders should ensure that the personal development and wellbeing of pupils is further enhanced by a better understanding of fundamental British values in modern Britain. School leaders should ensure that they continue to identify the right priorities to continue the school's improvement, and make sure a strategic approach is taken to this work. Leaders should ensure that staff receive the leadership training and development required

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Next steps

to be as effective as is needed within the leadership roles that they hold.

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About this inspection

Inspectors carried out this full inspection under section 5 of the Education Act 2005.

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About this inspection

This school is part of The Silverstone Academy Trust, which means other people in the trust also have responsibility for running the school. The trust is overseen by a board of trustees, chaired by Benjamin Ward. The principal is the accounting officer.

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About this inspection

Following our renewed inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

Inspectors met with the principal and senior leaders. The lead inspector met with the chair and vice chair of the trust board and trustees.

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About this inspection

The inspectors confirmed the following information about the school:

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About this inspection

The school has undergone significant change since the last inspection. The principal and deputy principal took up posts in 2022, new trustees are in place including the chair and vice

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Team inspectors:

Sally Wicken, Ofsted Inspector April Wright, Ofsted Inspector Jules Gordon, Ofsted Inspector

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Facts and figures used on inspection

This was the data available at the time of the full inspection, taken from different sources . More recent data may have been published since the full inspection took place.

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The inspector(s) used this data during the full inspection on 29 September 2026

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils currently at this school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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550

The school makes use of one alternative provisions.

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550

The school meets the requirements of the provider access legislation, which requires schools to provide pupils in Years 8 to 13 with information and engagement about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.

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What does this mean?

The total number of pupils who can attend the school and how this compares to other schools of this phase in England.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with an education, health and care plan. This covers pupils with more support than is available through special educational needs support.

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What does this mean?

The proportion of pupils with reported special educational needs support at the school.

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What does this mean?

Based on the English indices of deprivation (2019) and the school's location, we have calculated whether the school is located in a more or less deprived area.

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What does this mean?

Whether school has Resourced provision or SEND unit (if applicable).

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English and maths GCSE

Percentage of pupils who achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSE.

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Attainment 8

A measure of pupils' point scores across 8 subjects including maths (double weighted), English (double weighted if both language and literature are taken), 3 EBacc measures and 3 GCSE or technical measures.

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Disadvantaged pupils' performance

Disadvantaged pupils are those who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years and children looked after.

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Disadvantaged pupils' English and maths GCSE grade 5 or above

Percentage of disadvantaged pupils achieving grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSE.

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Disadvantaged pupils' Attainment 8

A measure of disadvantaged pupils' point scores across 8 subjects including maths (double weighted), English (double weighted if both language and literature are taken), 3 EBacc measures and 3 GCSE or technical measures.

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national average

2022/23 (final) 32.2 35.0 Close to average

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Disadvantaged pupils' performance gap

Disadvantaged pupils are those who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years and children looked after. The school disadvantage gap is the difference between the performance of the school's disadvantaged pupils compared to the performance of all non-disadvantaged pupils nationally.

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Disadvantaged pupils' English and maths GCSE grade 5 or above

Percentage of disadvantaged pupils who achieved grade 5 or above in English and maths GCSE.

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Disadvantaged pupils' Attainment 8

A measure of disadvantaged pupils' point scores across 8 subjects including maths (double weighted), English (double weighted if both language and literature are taken), 3 EBacc measures and 3 GCSE or technical measures.

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Destinations after 16

Percentage of pupils staying in education or employment for at least 2 terms after the end of secondary school (key stage 4).

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A-level average point score

The average points that students achieved per A-level entry.

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A-level value added

A score showing students’ progress between the end of key stage 4 and the end of their academic qualification studies.

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Overall absence

The percentage of all possible mornings and afternoons missed due to absence from school (for whatever reason, whether authorised or unauthorised) across all pupils.

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Persistent absence

The percentage of pupils missing 10% or more of their possible mornings and afternoons.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other schools can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The school reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The school is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The school needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care. services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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