Attainment and Attendance in Adur

What the national model behind How to Pull the Right Lever says about the district’s secondary schools, within West Sussex and alongside Brighton and Hove. Draft for discussion.

Author
Affiliation

Adam Dennett

Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London

Published

November 2, 2026

WarningDraft for discussion

One of the district documents for Sussex. It sits beneath the West Sussex document, and the district summary compares all of the districts. Every figure comes from published Department for Education data and the national models of How to Pull the Right Lever. Nothing uses pupil-level records. The commentary is written to a common pattern from the figures; read it as a starting point for discussion.

Summary

Adur’s results are above the middle of England’s districts, on an intake less disadvantaged than England’s. Its 2 state secondary schools are in Shoreham-by-Sea and Sompting.

  • Overall results: 48.4 in Attainment 8 in 2024/25, 80th of 265 districts in England.
  • Disadvantage: 19.9% of pupils are disadvantaged, against 28.3% nationally.
  • Disadvantaged pupils average 40.0, above the national 37.8 (72nd of 265).
  • The gap between disadvantaged pupils and the rest is 10.6 points, the 194th widest of 265.

The other findings:

  • For all pupils, Adur is 1.4 points above England. The largest pieces in the national model are Ofsted ratings (+1.0) and West Sussex’s county-wide effect (-0.7). The district’s schools add 1.4 points beyond what the model expects.
  • For disadvantaged pupils it is 0.9 points above England. The largest pieces are West Sussex’s county-wide effect (-1.5) and being in the South East (-1.3), and the schools add 4.1 points beyond what the model expects.
  • No district effect can be found. Once intake, West Sussex’s county effect and the schools themselves are accounted for, nothing is left that all Adur schools share.
  • 1 of the 2 schools is above expectation over 2021/22 to 2024/25. The strongest is Shoreham Academy (+3.5); the weakest The Sir Robert Woodard Academy (-0.6).
  • Absence was 7.8% in autumn and spring 2025/26 (7.9% a year earlier), against 8.0% for England and 8.1% for West Sussex. Over 2021/22 to 2024/25 its schools ran 0.3 points below what their intakes predict.
  • Reduced timetables run at 1.3 times the national rate, and suspensions at 0.4 times (7.6 episodes per 100 pupils, against 21.2). That counts episodes, not pupils: 3.4 pupils per 100 were suspended at least once, about 2.2 times each, against 7.3 per 100 and 2.9 times in England.
  • Disadvantaged groups are small, 43 to 59 pupils a year per school. Every school-level figure for them moves from year to year and should be read over several years.

1 About this analysis

Adur is a district of West Sussex, not a local authority, and that shapes what can be said:

  • The national models place schools in local authorities. The “local authority effect” in this document is West Sussex’s, shared with every school in the county.
  • What is particular to Adur shows up in its schools’ own residuals, and in the district test of Section 6.
  • Absence and exclusions are summed over the district’s 2 schools, followed through any change of URN.
  • Ranks. With 2 schools, Adur is placed among the 264 districts in England with five or more schools. A district this small moves a long way with one school’s results.

The methods are described in full in the East Sussex document.

2 The district’s schools

Adur’s state-funded secondary schools, coloured by overall absence in 2024/25. Choose another measure from the menu above the map; circle size is the school’s roll. Hover for figures and who runs each school.

Every state-funded secondary school in the district, 2024/25, with the size of its disadvantaged Year 11 group. Ofsted (model) is the rating the model uses, from the last graded inspection before September 2024. Ofsted, latest is the most recent judgement in Ofsted’s data as at 30 September 2026, which is a report card’s achievement and curriculum grades, the quality of education grade for an inspection between September 2024 and November 2025 that gave no overall grade, or otherwise the last graded inspection.
School Town Type Pupils FSM % Disadvantaged in Year 11 Absence % KS2 Att 8 Att 8 disadv. Ofsted (model) Ofsted, latest
Shoreham Academy Shoreham-by-Sea Academy 1777 15.0 43 7.4 4.7 54.8 47.7 Outstanding (Feb 2024) Outstanding (Feb 2024)
The Sir Robert Woodard Academy Sompting Academy 1412 24.9 59 9.3 4.4 42.0 32.2 Good (Oct 2021) Report card (Jan 2026): achievement Expected standard, curriculum and teaching Expected standard

None of the 2 schools is maintained by West Sussex County Council. The academies are run as follows:

  • Shoreham Academy, in United Learning Trust (sponsored);
  • The Sir Robert Woodard Academy, in Woodard Academies Trust (sponsored);
Figure 1: Who ran each school in 2024/25, and how far its results sat above or below the national model’s expectation over 2021/22 to 2024/25.

3 How Adur compares

Adur against West Sussex, Brighton and Hove and England, 2024/25. Means of school-level figures.
Measure Adur West Sussex Brighton and Hove England
Attainment 8, all pupils 48.4 46.4 45.5 46.8
Attainment 8, disadvantaged 40.0 33.5 33.9 37.7
Attainment 8, non-disadvantaged 50.6 48.9 49.6 49.9
Disadvantage gap (points) 10.6 15.4 15.7 12.2
Disadvantaged (FSM6) % 19.9 17.1 28.8 28.4
Overall absence % 8.3 8.7 11.3 8.6
Persistent absence % 22.8 23.9 30.6 23.9
Mean KS2 (centred) 4.55 4.26 4.71 4.47
EAL % 6.1 11.0 13.0 18.4
Figure 2: Attainment 8 for disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils in West Sussex’s districts, 2024/25, school means. The gap between the two is printed on each district’s line; Adur is in bold.

Across the years the model covers, the gap was 12.0 points in 2021/22 and 10.6 in 2024/25. Adur’s non-disadvantaged pupils were above England’s average in 4 of 4 years, and its disadvantaged pupils in 2.

4 What explains attainment in Adur

Figure 3: Why average Attainment 8 differs from England’s, by factor, all school-years 2021/22 to 2024/25, for Adur, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove. Approximate Attainment 8 points; the pieces sum to the total in each panel.
The decomposition for Adur, in Attainment 8 points. ‘Place’ is West Sussex’s effect plus the South East’s; ‘unexplained’ is what the district’s own schools add beyond everything the model accounts for.
Factor All pupils Disadvantaged Non-disadvantaged
Place (region and local authority) -1.20 -2.79 -1.48
Absence -0.37 -0.39 -0.28
Prior attainment (KS2) -0.33 -0.15 -0.21
English as an additional language -0.19 -0.53 -0.28
Other model terms +0.18 -0.26 +0.16
Disadvantage (% FSM) +0.26 -0.11 +0.16
Teacher workforce +0.60 +0.06 +0.60
Ofsted rating +0.99 +0.94 +0.96
Unexplained (school residual) +1.43 +4.14 +1.40

For all pupils, Adur is 1.4 points above England. The pieces of at least a quarter of a point:

  • Ofsted ratings (+0.99);
  • West Sussex’s county-wide effect (-0.74);
  • the teacher workforce (+0.60);
  • being in the South East (-0.46);
  • absence (-0.37);
  • prior attainment (-0.33);
  • the level of disadvantage (+0.26);
  • and the district’s schools themselves (+1.43), beyond what the model expects.

For disadvantaged pupils, Adur is 0.9 points above England. The pieces of at least a quarter of a point:

  • West Sussex’s county-wide effect (-1.47);
  • being in the South East (-1.32);
  • Ofsted ratings (+0.94);
  • English as an additional language (-0.53);
  • absence (-0.39);
  • admissions (-0.30);
  • and the district’s schools themselves (+4.14), beyond what the model expects.

5 The disadvantaged gap, school by school

Figure 4: Each school’s value added for its disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils, mean over the years available (2021/22 to provisional 2025/26). Above zero means better than the national model expects for similar pupils.

No Adur school is above expectation for its non-disadvantaged pupils while more than a point below it for its disadvantaged ones. Shoreham Academy is above expectation for both groups. The table below gives each school’s own persistent effect, from the model with a school term, which is the steadier measure.

Table 1: Each school’s own persistent effect on the national model with a school term (%), for each group of pupils and for absence beyond what its intake predicts. Positive absence is worse.
School All pupils Disadvantaged Non-disadvantaged Absence (stage 1)
The Sir Robert Woodard Academy -2.1 +4.4 -2.9 +4.2
Shoreham Academy +5.8 +9.1 +5.1 -5.9
Table 2: Attainment 8 of each school’s disadvantaged pupils, year by year (2025/26 provisional), with the size of the group in 2024/25. Small groups make single years unreliable.
School 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Disadvantaged pupils, 2024/25
Shoreham Academy 42.7 41.9 39.0 47.7 38.0 43
The Sir Robert Woodard Academy 39.2 31.3 36.1 32.2 37.0 59

6 Is there an Adur effect?

The district test of the East Sussex document adds a district level to the national model, with and without each school’s own record.

Table 3: The Adur district effect, over and above West Sussex’s, with 95% intervals.
Specification Outcome Effect (%) 95% interval Significant
Published specification All pupils +1.0 -3.1 to +5.3 No
Published specification Disadvantaged +3.5 -1.3 to +8.5 No
Published specification Non-disadvantaged +1.0 -2.6 to +4.7 No
Published specification Absence (stage 1) -1.2 -9.3 to +7.6 No
With a school term All pupils +0.2 -3.3 to +3.9 No
With a school term Disadvantaged +0.8 -2.5 to +4.2 No
With a school term Non-disadvantaged +0.3 -3.5 to +4.3 No
With a school term Absence (stage 1) -0.1 -5.9 to +6.2 No

None of Adur’s district effects can be told apart from zero on either specification. The district’s results are explained by its intake, West Sussex’s county effect and its individual schools.

Figure 5: Each school’s own persistent effect, from the model with a school term: Attainment 8 for all pupils, and absence beyond what its intake predicts.

7 Absence

Figure 6: Overall absence, autumn and spring terms, 2016/17 to 2025/26. Sessions-weighted; 2019/20 not collected.
  • 7.8% absence in autumn and spring 2025/26, against 8.0% for England and 8.1% for West Sussex. A year earlier it was 7.9%.
  • Persistent absence is 22.4%, against 21.6% for England.
  • Against its intake, the district’s schools run 0.25 points below what their pupils’ profiles predict, on average over 2021/22 to 2024/25.
Table 4: Each school’s absence against what its intake predicts, mean 2021/22 to 2024/25, and its reasons in the latest year (percentage of sessions).
School Absence % Predicted by intake % Above prediction Illness Unauthorised Reduced timetable Suspended
The Sir Robert Woodard Academy 9.8 9.7 +0.1 3.6 3.7 0.23 0.12
Shoreham Academy 8.2 8.8 -0.6 3.9 1.1 0.52 0.09
  • No school runs more than a point above its predicted absence.

Reduced timetables account for 0.38% of sessions, against 0.29% in England, 1.3 times the national rate. Shoreham Academy’s rate is the highest in the district.

Table 5: Predicted Attainment 8 gain if each school’s absence fell to the national school average (2024/25). Indicative only.
School District Absence % FSM % Gain, all pupils Gain, disadvantaged Gain from FSM to area average
The Sir Robert Woodard Academy Adur 9.3 24.9 +0.7 +0.7 +0.5

1 of the 2 schools is above the national average absence in 2024/25. Bringing it to it would add up to 0.7 points for all pupils, as an indication of scale.

Suspensions were 7.6 episodes per 100 pupils in 2024/25, against 21.2 for England and 16.2 for West Sussex. A rate per 100 pupils counts suspension episodes rather than pupils, and one pupil can be suspended several times in a year, so it is not a percentage of children: 3.4 pupils per 100 were suspended at least once, about 2.2 times each, against 7.3 per 100 and 2.9 times in England.

Table 6: Suspension episodes per 100 pupils, pupils suspended at least once per 100, and permanent exclusions, by school, latest year. One pupil can be suspended more than once, so the first rate runs well above the second.
School Pupils Episodes per 100 Pupils suspended per 100 Permanent exclusions
The Sir Robert Woodard Academy 1412 8.7 3.8 2
Shoreham Academy 1777 6.7 3.1 2

8 Contextual league tables

Value added, all pupils: observed Attainment 8 minus the national model’s expectation. 2025/26 is provisional.
School 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Mean Years
Shoreham Academy +2.7 +3.0 +3.9 +3.9 -0.9 +2.5 5
The Sir Robert Woodard Academy +0.4 -0.5 -0.1 -2.5 -1.1 -0.8 5
Value added, disadvantaged pupils. Small groups; read across years.
School 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Mean Years
Shoreham Academy +2.5 +5.2 +3.2 +10.5 -1.5 +4.0 5
The Sir Robert Woodard Academy +5.8 +0.0 +4.3 -0.4 +3.6 +2.7 5
Value added, non-disadvantaged pupils.
School 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Mean Years
Shoreham Academy +3.8 +2.9 +4.8 +2.9 +0.0 +2.9 5
The Sir Robert Woodard Academy -0.6 +0.4 -0.9 -2.3 -1.9 -1.1 5

9 Questions for discussion

  1. Disadvantaged pupils. They average 40.0 in Adur against 37.8 in England, and the district’s schools add 4.1 points for them beyond what the model expects. Both of its schools are above expectation for these pupils; what they do is worth sharing across West Sussex.
  2. Attendance is a modest lever. Absence costs the district 0.4 points against England for all pupils.
  3. Schools, not the place. There is no Adur district effect: the differences that matter are between its schools.
  4. Practice. Reduced timetables and suspensions are close to or below the national rate.
  5. The county. West Sussex’s own effect for disadvantaged pupils is -3.8% (131st of 151), distinguishable from zero, and it applies to every school here. The county questions in the West Sussex document apply here as well.

Notes on method

Methods and sources are those of the East Sussex document. District membership comes from each school’s postcode (ONS postcode directory, via postcodes.io). Absence and exclusions for the district are summed over its schools, including any predecessor or successor URNs. This document is generated from templates/district_report.qmd by R/20_district_reports.R, from data built by R/17_area_analysis.R, R/18_district_effects.R and R/19_trust_effects.R. Its format is described in AREA_REPORTS.md.