Bury Church of England High School
Academy converter · 802 pupils
93% stayed in education · Attainment 8 49.1
Academy sponsor led
Unsworth Academy
- Pupils on roll
- 953of 935 places
- Free school meals
- 31.4%
- Year 11 cohort 2025
- 189
- Ofsted
- Improved significantly, 24 April 2025Read the Ofsted report
Results below include those reported under the school’s previous registration: Castlebrook High School (URN 105363, until 28 November 2016).
What the data says
Unsworth Academy has no sixth form. Of the 162 pupils who finished Year 11 there in 2023, 33% moved to a sixth form college, 49% to a further education college and 7% started an apprenticeship.
Photography is unusually popular at GCSE: 41% of the year group took it, against 6% of pupils across England.
Sixth form colleges are the main next step: 33% of leavers went to one, roughly twice the England rate of 13%.
GCSE results in 2025 were in line with the national picture: Attainment 8 of 45.4 against 46.1 across England and 43.4 in Bury, with 38% of pupils getting grade 5 or above in both English and maths (England 45%).
Where pupils went after Year 11
Destinations of the 2023 Year 11 leavers, measured the following year: the share in a sustained place for at least two terms. Compared with all state-funded schools in Bury and England.
School sixth formSixth form collegeFurther education collegeOther educationApprenticeshipEmploymentNo sustained destination
| Measure | Unsworth Academy | Bury | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils in the cohort | 162 | 2,219 | 607,348 |
| Any sustained destination | 93% | 93% | 92% |
| Stayed in education | 83% | 88% | 86% |
| — school sixth form | 0% | 2% | 34% |
| — sixth form college | 33% | 41% | 13% |
| — further education college | 49% | 44% | 37% |
| — other education | 1% | 1% | 2% |
| Apprenticeship | 7% | 3% | 3% |
| Employment | 4% | 2% | 3% |
| No sustained destination | 6% | 5% | 6% |
| Destination unknown | 1% | 2% | 3% |
GCSE results 2025
| Measure | Unsworth Academy | Bury | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attainment 8 (average points per pupil) | 45.4 | 43.4 | 46.1 |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 38% | 39% | 45% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 63% | 62% | 65% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate subjects | 20% | 28% | 41% |
| EBacc average point score | 3.88 | 3.78 | 4.09 |
| Disadvantaged pupils in the cohort | 27% | 28% | 28% |
| Attainment 8 — disadvantaged pupils | 38.2 | 33.4 | 34.9 |
| Attainment 8 — other pupils | 48.0 | 47.4 | 50.4 |
| Pupils with high prior attainment (Key Stage 2) | — | — | — |
| English as an additional language | 11% | 17% | 19% |
Progress 8 is not available for 2025 and 2026: these cohorts had no Key Stage 2 tests in 2020 and 2021, so there is no baseline. Attainment 8 shows results without taking pupils’ starting points into account.
Subjects taken at GCSE
Entries in 2025 as a share of the Year 11 cohort, and the share of entries graded 7–9 and 4–9, compared with all entries in England.
| Subject | Entries | Share of cohort | England | Grades 7–9 | England | Grades 4–9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mathematics | 187 | 99% | 88% | 17% | 22% | 71% |
| English Language | 186 | 98% | 89% | 18% | 20% | 65% |
| English Literature | 182 | 96% | 86% | 14% | 21% | 70% |
| Combined Science | 159 | 84% | 65% | 9% | 9% | 64% |
| Geography | 97 | 51% | 41% | 23% | 25% | 53% |
| Photography | 78 | 41% | 6% | 24% | 19% | 94% |
| Spanish | 67 | 35% | 19% | 31% | 27% | 73% |
| History | 57 | 30% | 41% | 30% | 26% | 63% |
| Art and Design | 36 | 19% | 7% | 22% | 24% | 89% |
| Chemistry | 24 | 13% | 23% | 46% | 47% | 100% |
| Physics | 24 | 13% | 23% | 38% | 46% | 100% |
| Biology | 24 | 13% | 23% | 42% | 45% | 100% |
| Design and Technology | 20 | 11% | 11% | 0% | 23% | 75% |
| Computer Science | 14 | 7% | 13% | 14% | 30% | 86% |
| Religious Studies | 13 | 7% | 31% | 23% | 32% | 46% |
| Italian | 1 | 1% | 0% | — | 53% | — |
Technical awards and other Key Stage 4 qualifications
| Subject | Entries | Share of cohort | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Building / Construction Operations (General / Combined) | 53 | — | — |
| Sports Studies | 33 | — | — |
| Speech and Drama | 23 | — | — |
| Hospitality / Catering Studies | 22 | — | — |
| Computer Appreciation / Introduction | 16 | — | — |
| Music performance: Group | 5 | — | — |
Where Unsworth Academy is
Other secondary schools in Bury are shown for comparison; darker blue means more Year 11 leavers stayed in education. The last distance at which this school offered places is not yet on file — it comes from Bury’s allocation statistics.
Other secondary schools in Bury
Hazel Wood High School
Academy sponsor led · 671 pupils
83% stayed in education · Attainment 8 35.7
Manchester Mesivta School
Voluntary aided school · sixth form · 233 pupils
93% stayed in education · Attainment 8 39.3
Parrenthorn High School
Academy converter · 1,025 pupils
90% stayed in education · Attainment 8 44.5
Philips High School
Academy converter · 868 pupils
88% stayed in education · Attainment 8 50.3
St Gabriel's RC High School, a Voluntary Academy
Academy sponsor led · 1,027 pupils
91% stayed in education · Attainment 8 46.0
Sources: Department for Education school and college performance tables 2024/2025 (Key Stage 4 and 16–18 results, subject entries, destination measures for 2023 leavers); Get Information About Schools register as at 19 September 2026; Ofsted management information as at 31 August 2026. Small numbers are suppressed by DfE and shown as “—”. How to read these figures.