Walney Academy

Ofsted judged Walney Academy's quality of education as Requires improvement at its inspection in May 2025, on Ofsted's own scale.

Walney Academy has 468 pupils on roll.

In 2025-26 (DfE’s provisional figures), its average Attainment 8 score was 40.5: DfE’s measure of pupils’ results across eight GCSE-level subjects. Trends and the detail behind each figure are on the Results tab.

Walney Academy admits pupils aged 11 to 16.

Walney Academy is located in Barrow-in-Furness, LA14 3JT, Westmorland and Furness.

Walney Academy is a state school. In England you apply through the council where you live, using its common application form, even if the school is in another council area. The national closing date for secondary places is 31 October.

Distance did not decide places at Walney Academy for 2026-27 (Year 7): every applicant who applied on time was offered a place, so there was no cut-off distance. This changes year to year; check the current year's figures before relying on it.

When Walney Academy has more applications than places for 2025-26, they are offered in a published order of priority: 1. Looked after and previously looked after children — Looked after children, previously looked after children and children who were previously looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order); 2. Siblings — Children whose sibling attends Walney School at the time of the admission (this includes step siblings, foster siblings, adopted siblings and other children living permanently at the same address); 3. Catchment area — Children living in the catchment areas of South Walney Junior School, Vickerstown School, North Walney Junior School, Barrow Island Community Primary School and St Columba's Primary School. Children living in the catchment area of other Barrow primary schools, provided that Walney School is their nearest secondary school.*, and 2 further criteria. 68 places were offered at this entry point for 2025-26. Tie-break: If the school reaches its planned admission limit within any of these criteria then, for those in that criteria, priority will be given to those who live nearest to the school, that distance being measured in a straight line on a map from the front entrance of the school to the front door of the house.

According to the DfE School Census 2025-26, 96.4% of pupils at Walney Academy are recorded as White British. The full ethnic breakdown across all groups is available on the Pupils tab.