Attainment and Attendance in Wealden

What the national model behind How to Pull the Right Lever says about the district’s secondary schools, within East 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 East 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

Wealden’s results are below the middle of England’s districts, on an intake less disadvantaged than England’s. Its 6 state secondary schools are in Crowborough, Eastbourne, Hailsham, Heathfield, Uckfield and Wadhurst.

  • Overall results: 45.1 in Attainment 8 in 2024/25, 162nd of 264 districts in England.
  • Disadvantage: 20.0% of pupils are disadvantaged, against 28.3% nationally.
  • Disadvantaged pupils average 34.0, below the national 37.8 (199th of 264).
  • The gap between disadvantaged pupils and the rest is 13.6 points, the 101st widest of 264.

The other findings:

  • For all pupils, Wealden is 0.2 points above England. The largest pieces in the national model are the level of disadvantage (+0.8) and absence (-0.8). The district’s schools add 0.2 points beyond what the model expects.
  • For disadvantaged pupils it is 2.2 points below England. The largest pieces are being in the South East (-1.3) and English as an additional language (-1.2), and the schools add 1.4 points beyond what the model expects.
  • No district effect can be found. Once intake, East Sussex’s county effect and the schools themselves are accounted for, nothing is left that all Wealden schools share.
  • 3 of the 6 schools are above expectation over 2021/22 to 2024/25. The strongest is Beacon Academy (+3.0); the weakest Hailsham Community College (-2.5).
  • Absence was 9.4% in autumn and spring 2025/26 (9.3% a year earlier), against 8.0% for England and 8.9% for East Sussex. Over 2021/22 to 2024/25 its schools ran 0.3 points above what their intakes predict, and Uckfield College more than a point above.
  • Reduced timetables run at 1.9 times the national rate, and suspensions at 1.0 times (21.9 episodes per 100 pupils, against 21.2). That counts episodes, not pupils: 7.3 pupils per 100 were suspended at least once, about 3.0 times each, against 7.3 per 100 and 2.9 times in England.
  • Disadvantaged groups are small, 33 to 53 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

Wealden is a district of East 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 East Sussex’s, shared with every school in the county.
  • What is particular to Wealden shows up in its schools’ own residuals, and in the district test of Section 6.
  • Absence and exclusions are summed over the district’s 6 schools, followed through any change of URN.

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

2 The district’s schools

Wealden’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
Beacon Academy Crowborough Academy 1662 15.5 39 9.1 4.7 50.2 40.2 Outstanding (Apr 2024) Outstanding (Apr 2024)
Willingdon Community School Eastbourne Maintained 1093 18.2 36 7.4 4.8 45.0 28.5 Good (Oct 2012) Remains Good (Jun 2023, ungraded visit)
Hailsham Community College Hailsham Academy 1615 25.5 53 10.0 2.8 35.4 27.8 Inadequate (Mar 2023) Inadequate (Mar 2023)
Heathfield Community College Heathfield Maintained 1437 17.7 41 10.5 4.7 50.5 47.0 Good (May 2023) Good (May 2023)
Uckfield College Uckfield Maintained 1602 13.9 33 10.6 4.8 46.9 23.8 Outstanding (Apr 2024) Outstanding (Apr 2024)
Uplands Academy Wadhurst Academy 736 29.4 35 9.0 4.6 42.5 36.6 Good (Jul 2013) Standards maintained (Jan 2025, ungraded visit)

3 of the 6 schools are maintained by East Sussex County Council. The academies are run as follows:

  • Beacon Academy, in Mark Education Trust;
  • Hailsham Community College, an academy whose trust is not recorded for 2024/25; it moved to Mark Education Trust after 2024/25;
  • Uplands Academy, in Mark Education Trust;
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 Wealden compares

Wealden against East Sussex, Brighton and Hove and England, 2024/25. Means of school-level figures.
Measure Wealden East Sussex Brighton and Hove England
Attainment 8, all pupils 45.1 43.8 45.5 46.8
Attainment 8, disadvantaged 34.0 33.0 33.9 37.7
Attainment 8, non-disadvantaged 47.6 47.5 49.6 49.9
Disadvantage gap (points) 13.6 14.5 15.7 12.2
Disadvantaged (FSM6) % 20.0 25.5 28.8 28.4
Overall absence % 9.4 9.7 11.3 8.6
Persistent absence % 25.4 26.4 30.6 23.9
Mean KS2 (centred) 4.40 3.79 4.71 4.47
EAL % 3.3 6.3 13.0 18.4
Figure 2: Attainment 8 for disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils in East Sussex’s districts, 2024/25, school means. The gap between the two is printed on each district’s line; Wealden is in bold.

Across the years the model covers, the gap was 16.3 points in 2021/22 and 13.6 in 2024/25. Wealden’s non-disadvantaged pupils were above England’s average in 2 of 4 years, and its disadvantaged pupils in 1.

4 What explains attainment in Wealden

Figure 3: Why average Attainment 8 differs from England’s, by factor, all school-years 2021/22 to 2024/25, for Wealden, East Sussex and Brighton and Hove. Approximate Attainment 8 points; the pieces sum to the total in each panel.
The decomposition for Wealden, in Attainment 8 points. ‘Place’ is East 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
Absence -0.79 -0.87 -0.63
English as an additional language -0.43 -1.19 -0.63
Prior attainment (KS2) -0.03 +0.06 +0.09
Place (region and local authority) -0.00 -1.03 +0.28
Ofsted rating +0.06 +0.09 +0.11
Other model terms +0.08 -0.38 +0.06
Unexplained (school residual) +0.21 +1.38 -0.51
Teacher workforce +0.33 +0.01 +0.32
Disadvantage (% FSM) +0.82 -0.29 +0.43

For all pupils, Wealden is 0.2 points above England. The pieces of at least a quarter of a point:

  • the level of disadvantage (+0.82);
  • absence (-0.79);
  • being in the South East (-0.46);
  • East Sussex’s county-wide effect (+0.46);
  • English as an additional language (-0.43);
  • the teacher workforce (+0.33);
  • and the district’s schools themselves (+0.21), beyond what the model expects.

For disadvantaged pupils, Wealden is 2.2 points below England. The pieces of at least a quarter of a point:

  • being in the South East (-1.32);
  • English as an additional language (-1.19);
  • absence (-0.87);
  • admissions (-0.30);
  • East Sussex’s county-wide effect (+0.29);
  • the level of disadvantage (-0.29);
  • and the district’s schools themselves (+1.38), beyond what the model expects.

The level of disadvantage counting against disadvantaged pupils is the Lever report’s most contested finding showing up locally. Across England, disadvantaged pupils do slightly better in schools with more disadvantaged pupils, once everything else is accounted for. The likely reason is that such schools organise around them, and spend pupil premium on provision that a handful of pupils cannot sustain. In Wealden, with 33 to 53 disadvantaged pupils in a year group, that is harder to do.

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 Wealden school is above expectation for its non-disadvantaged pupils while more than a point below it for its disadvantaged ones. Heathfield Community College, Uckfield College and Beacon Academy are 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)
Heathfield Community College +4.5 +14.0 +2.4 +3.1
Uckfield College +2.5 -3.1 +2.4 +12.5
Willingdon Community School -1.6 -4.1 -1.4 -26.0
Beacon Academy +5.7 +10.6 +4.0 +5.8
Hailsham Community College -6.9 -5.2 -7.2 +8.3
Uplands Academy -0.2 +2.2 -1.6 +5.8
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
Beacon Academy 45.3 35.6 45.2 40.2 34.4 39
Hailsham Community College 27.4 30.4 25.4 27.8 53
Heathfield Community College 31.8 45.8 41.3 47.0 36.6 41
Uckfield College 41.6 36.6 37.5 23.8 39.3 33
Willingdon Community School 36.4 35.9 40.3 28.5 29.6 36
Uplands Academy 32.0 36.6 40.1 35

6 Is there a Wealden 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 Wealden district effect, over and above East Sussex’s, with 95% intervals.
Specification Outcome Effect (%) 95% interval Significant
Published specification All pupils +0.9 -2.5 to +4.3 No
Published specification Disadvantaged +2.7 -1.4 to +6.9 No
Published specification Non-disadvantaged -0.2 -3.1 to +2.8 No
Published specification Absence (stage 1) +1.1 -5.9 to +8.7 No
With a school term All pupils +0.2 -3.0 to +3.6 No
With a school term Disadvantaged +0.8 -2.3 to +4.0 No
With a school term Non-disadvantaged -0.3 -3.6 to +3.1 No
With a school term Absence (stage 1) +0.1 -5.5 to +6.1 No

None of Wealden’s district effects can be told apart from zero on either specification. The district’s results are explained by its intake, East 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.
  • 9.4% absence in autumn and spring 2025/26, against 8.0% for England and 8.9% for East Sussex. A year earlier it was 9.3%.
  • Persistent absence is 24.0%, against 21.6% for England.
  • Against its intake, the district’s schools run 0.31 points above 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
Uckfield College 10.2 8.7 +1.5 5.3 1.9 1.01 0.24
Beacon Academy 9.6 8.8 +0.8 4.5 3.0 0.40 0.12
Hailsham Community College 11.0 10.2 +0.8 4.8 4.2 0.55 0.50
Uplands Academy 10.1 9.5 +0.7 4.1 1.8 0.73 0.24
Heathfield Community College 9.6 9.1 +0.6 4.4 3.4 0.32 0.11
Willingdon Community School 6.8 9.2 -2.4 4.0 1.9 0.34 0.14
  • Uckfield College runs more than a point above its predicted absence.
  • Willingdon Community School runs more than a point below its prediction.

Reduced timetables account for 0.56% of sessions, against 0.29% in England, 1.9 times the national rate. Uckfield College’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
Heathfield Community College Wealden 10.5 17.7 +2.1 +2.9 +0.0
Uckfield College Wealden 10.6 13.9 +2.1 +1.6 +0.0
Hailsham Community College Wealden 10.0 25.5 +1.2 +1.3 +0.4
Beacon Academy Wealden 9.1 15.5 +0.6 +0.7 +0.0
Uplands Academy Wealden 9.0 29.4 +0.5 +0.6 +0.8

5 of the 6 schools are above the national average absence in 2024/25. Bringing them to it would add up to 2.1 points for all pupils, as an indication of scale.

Suspensions were 21.9 episodes per 100 pupils in 2024/25, against 21.2 for England and 28.0 for East 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: 7.3 pupils per 100 were suspended at least once, about 3.0 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
Uplands Academy 736 53.4 14.7 1
Uckfield College 1602 26.8 7.6 1
Hailsham Community College 1615 19.4 8.5 1
Willingdon Community School 1093 17.3 6.7 0
Heathfield Community College 1437 14.9 6.2 2
Beacon Academy 1662 14.5 3.9 0

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
Heathfield Community College -5.3 +4.9 +3.6 +5.1 +2.8 +2.2 5
Beacon Academy +4.7 +3.1 +3.2 +0.5 -1.5 +2.0 5
Uckfield College +6.4 -1.0 +1.1 -1.2 -2.3 +0.6 5
Uplands Academy +0.3 -2.2 -1.5 -1.1 3
Willingdon Community School -0.3 -4.0 -1.6 -3.5 -3.2 -2.5 5
Hailsham Community College -0.4 -0.7 -4.6 -4.4 -2.5 4
Value added, disadvantaged pupils. Small groups; read across years.
School 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Mean Years
Heathfield Community College -6.4 +10.8 +9.7 +15.0 +2.4 +6.3 5
Beacon Academy +8.4 +0.4 +10.2 +3.9 -2.7 +4.0 5
Uplands Academy -0.2 +2.3 +4.1 +2.1 3
Uckfield College +5.4 -1.1 +2.8 -10.0 +3.0 +0.0 5
Hailsham Community College -3.5 +0.7 -2.9 -1.7 -1.8 4
Willingdon Community School -5.4 -1.4 +4.0 -8.2 -7.3 -3.7 5
Value added, non-disadvantaged pupils.
School 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Mean Years
Heathfield Community College -5.1 +3.9 +2.2 +2.7 +2.7 +1.3 5
Beacon Academy +3.9 +3.0 +1.3 -0.8 -1.9 +1.1 5
Uckfield College +5.9 -0.9 +0.2 -0.6 -3.8 +0.2 5
Willingdon Community School +1.5 -4.6 -2.7 -2.8 -2.2 -2.2 5
Uplands Academy -0.5 -3.5 -3.0 -2.4 3
Hailsham Community College -0.3 -1.9 -5.7 -5.7 -3.4 4

9 Questions for discussion

  1. Disadvantaged pupils. They average 34.0 in Wealden against 37.8 in England, and the district’s schools add 1.4 points for them beyond what the model expects. What do Heathfield Community College and Beacon Academy, above expectation for these pupils, do that the district’s other schools could share?
  2. Attendance is a modest lever. Absence costs the district 0.8 points against England for all pupils, and Uckfield College run more than a point above what their intakes predict.
  3. Schools, not the place. There is no Wealden district effect: the differences that matter are between its schools.
  4. Practice. In Wealden, reduced timetables run at 1.9 times the national rate. These are choices made within schools, and neighbouring districts make them differently.
  5. The county. East Sussex’s own effect for disadvantaged pupils is +0.9% (60th of 151), not distinguishable from zero. The county questions in the East 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.