Ofsted inspected seven Trust academies between November 2025 and July 2026, the first full year of the inspectorate’s new approach. Those inspections produced 49 separate judgements: 19 graded Exceptional, 19 Strong and 11 Expected. Not one fell below the Expected standard, which Ofsted itself defines as a “high bar”.
Twenty-two academy trusts have been inspected four or more times under the new approach. The next highest of those recorded 67.4% of judgements at Strong or above. On Exceptional grades, the next highest trust nationally recorded nine against the Leigh’s 19.
Two of the Trust’s primary academies, Leigh Academy Oaks and Leigh Academy Cherry Orchard, were each graded Exceptional in six of their seven areas and Strong in the seventh. On the Trust’s analysis of reports published so far, these are the two strongest primary inspection outcomes in the country. No primary school nationally has been graded Exceptional in all seven areas, and only 13 of 804 primary inspections have produced even a single Exceptional grade.
Leigh Academy Halley recorded five Exceptional grades and two Strong, placing it among the five strongest secondary reports in England. Leigh UTC Dartford was awarded two Exceptional grades and five Strong, making it the top performing non-selective school in the South East last academic year. Leigh Academy Strood recorded five Strong and two Expected, and Leigh Academy Mascalls three
Strong and four Expected. Neither had previously been judged above Good across all areas. Leigh Academy Bexley, which the Trust took on following a sustained period of underperformance and being placed in Special Measures by Ofsted, was graded Strong in two areas and Expected in every other area.
Leadership and governance was graded Exceptional at four of the seven academies and Strong at the other three. Nationally, fewer than one in four inspections place leadership and governance above the Expected standard.
Simon Beamish, Chief Executive of Leigh Academies Trust, said:
“These reports belong to the staff, students and families of the academies concerned. Under the new Ofsted framework the bar for the top grade is deliberately very high, and to be judged Exceptional means inspectors believe other schools can learn from what you do. We began preparing a year before our first inspection under the new Toolkit, and we did that as a Trust rather than academy by academy. The Toolkit rewards coherence: whether curriculum thinking actually reaches the classroom, whether inclusion is a system rather than a set of interventions, whether governance can evidence its own impact. Seven inspections in a single year with not one grade below the Expected standard out of 49 tells you something about the consistency our academies have built. It did not happen by accident, and the people who did it deserve the credit”.
Tracey Trusler, Deputy CEO (Education) for LAT West, said:
“What has happened at Leigh Academy Halley is a radical transformation. This is a large, richly diverse academy where inspectors found attendance well above national averages, behaviour that supports learning, and inclusion running through everything. The International Baccalaureate curriculum is central to that. It gives students a coherent framework for thinking rather than a series of disconnected subjects, and it holds staff to a standard of curriculum design that stands up to the closest scrutiny. Five Exceptional grades is what that looks like when it is embedded over years rather than months.
The mission of Leigh UTC Dartford is to develop the STEM professionals of the future. We are immensely proud that Ofsted recognised the transformational impact that the school has on the life chances of the community”.
Emma Elwin, Deputy CEO (Education) for LAT East, said:
“Leigh Academy Oaks and Leigh Academy Cherry Orchard did not achieve these reports in isolation. Both are supported by our specialist primary curriculum team, whose work is to make excellence ordinary in every academy, every day. That means shared curriculum design, subject expertise available to every teacher, and the same expectations of what children can achieve whichever academy they attend. When inspectors say other schools can learn from what you do, they are describing practice that has been built deliberately and shared openly.”
Ofsted introduced its new inspection approach in November 2025. It replaced the single overall judgement with separate grades for achievement, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, leadership and governance, personal development and wellbeing, attendance and behaviour, and early years or post-16 where relevant. Each area is graded across five bands, from urgent improvement through to Exceptional.
Leigh Academies Trust operates 33 academies across Kent, Medway and South East London, serving more than 20,000 students. All academies use International Baccalaureate programmes as the framework for their curriculum, alongside the National Curriculum.
The full Ofsted reports are available on the Ofsted website. The Trust’s underlying analysis of national inspection outcomes under the new approach is available to journalists on request.
For more information about Leigh Academies Trust, please visit www.leighacademiestrust.org.uk
Academy
Ofsted report page
Leigh Academy Oaks reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/137881
Leigh Academy Cherry Orchard reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/21/142517
Leigh Academy Halley reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/145315
Leigh UTC Dartford reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/140987
Leigh Academy Strood reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/135964
Leigh Academy Mascalls reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/136847
Leigh Academy Bexley reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/149898
All Leigh Academies Trust reports are listed at reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/1000/3725. The Leigh Academy Cherry Orchard page will show the new report on publication.
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