Norman Cornish Academy
- Special
- Academy special converter
- Ages 11 to 16
URN 151483 · County Durham · HORIZONS SPECIALIST ACADEMY TRUST
Inspection
Ofsted management information, as at 30 September 2026.
Latest graded inspection
5 December 2023Overall effectiveness
Requires improvement
- Quality of education
- Requires improvement
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Requires improvement
- Personal development
- Requires improvement
- Leadership and management
- Requires improvement
- Safeguarding is effective
- Yes
This inspection was of the predecessor school, before it converted or reopened under its current URN.
Requires Improvement S5 Reinspection Visit 2
Under the earlier framework, inspections gave an overall effectiveness grade.
Read the reports on Ofsted’s website. Source: Ofsted, State-funded school inspections and outcomes: management information.
Key stage 4 results
Against County Durham and England, secondary schools.
Attainment 8
2025/26 (provisional)9.9
Not compared with mainstream schools.
The average of pupils' points across eight GCSE-level qualifications, with English and maths counted twice. Source: Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics, Key stage 4 performance, 2025/26.
English and maths: grade 4 or above
2025/26 (provisional)0%
Not compared with mainstream schools.
Pupils at the end of key stage 4 with grade 4 or above in both English and maths. Source: Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics, Key stage 4 performance, 2025/26.
English and maths: grade 5 or above
2025/26 (provisional)0%
Not compared with mainstream schools.
Pupils at the end of key stage 4 with grade 5 or above in both English and maths. Source: Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics, Key stage 4 performance, 2025/26.
Teachers
Against County Durham and England, special schools.
Pupils per qualified teacher
2025/265.1
- County Durham
- 8.5
- England
- 7.3
2.2 lower than England.
Full-time equivalent pupils for each full-time equivalent qualified teacher. Source: Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics, School workforce in England, 2025/26.
Teacher sickness absence
2024/25Not publishedNot published for this school
- County Durham
- 5.6 days
- England
- 5.0 days
Compared with all state-funded schools: DfE publishes this measure for all schools, not by phase.
Days lost to sickness absence in the school year, averaged across all teachers. Source: Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics, School workforce in England, 2024/25.
Finance
Academies report their accounts as part of their trust, so DfE publishes no school-level balance for this school. The trust’s figures are in DfE’s Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool.
See this school in the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool
About the school
- Pupils on roll
- 64
- Capacity
- 75
- Type
- Academy special converter
- Phase
- Special
- Age range
- 11 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Trust
- HORIZONS SPECIALIST ACADEMY TRUST
- Opened
- 1 February 2025
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Constituency
- Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor
- Special educational needs provision
- SEMH - Social, Emotional and Mental Health
- Deprivation of the area (IDACI)
- Decile 5 of 10 (1 is the most deprived tenth of neighbourhoods)
Address: Whitworth Lane, Spennymoor, DL16 7QW
Website: www.horizonstrust.org.uk/our-academies/the-meadows-academy
Telephone: 01388811178
Sources and corrections
Every figure on this page names its source and period. This release was built on 20 October 2026.
- Department for Education: Get Information about Schools: establishment data (GIAS establishment extract 2026-10-20)
- Ofsted: State-funded school inspections and outcomes: management information (Latest inspections as at 2026-09-30; All inspections, 2018/19; All inspections, 2019/20; All inspections, 2020/21; All inspections, 2021/22; All inspections, 2022/23; All inspections, 2023/24; All inspections, 2024/25; All inspections, 2025/26)
- Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics: Pupil absence in schools in England (absence-3term-school, 2013/14 to 2024/25 [pinned data set id])
- Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics: Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England (exc-school, 2006/07 to 2024/25 [pinned data set id]; exc-ap-school, 2013/14 to 2024/25 [pinned data set id]; exc-geography, 2006/07 to 2024/25 [pinned data set id]; exc-ap-geography, 2013/14 to 2024/25 [pinned data set id])
- Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics: Key stage 2 attainment (ks2-school, 2022/23 to 2024/25 [pinned data set id]; ks2-geography, 2015/16 to 2025/26 [pinned data set id])
- Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics: Key stage 4 performance (ks4-school, 2023/24 to 2025/26 [pinned data set id]; ks4-geography, 2018/19 to 2025/26 [pinned data set id])
- Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics: Schools, pupils and their characteristics (School census, January 2022 (performance tables, 2021 to 2022); School census, January 2023 (performance tables, 2022 to 2023); School census, January 2024 (performance tables, 2023 to 2024); School census, January 2025 (performance tables, 2024 to 2025))
- Department for Education, Explore Education Statistics: School workforce in England (ptr-school, 2010/11 to 2025/26 [pinned data set id]; ptr-geography, 2010/11 to 2025/26 [pinned data set id]; sickness-school, 2009/10 to 2024/25 [pinned data set id]; sickness-geography, 2009/10 to 2024/25 [pinned data set id])
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: English indices of deprivation 2025: Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (English indices of deprivation 2025, File 7 (2021 LSOAs))
Spotted something wrong? Report a correction with the school’s URN (151483). Fixes go out in the next weekly release.