The majority of the individual judgements were "good", including leadership and management, behaviour and safety and sixth form.

[6] In January 2017 Quintin Kynaston was inspected by Ofsted; the report published in April 2017 showed the school to be "Inadequate" in all areas apart from the Sixth Form which was deemed to be "Good".

As a consequence of the failings Her Majesty's Chief Inspector was of the opinion that the school needed to be placed in special measures.

The academy challenges the concept of an imposed curriculum citing Dylan William's education research.

These are studied in addition to the core subjects of English, maths, science, languages, humanities, PSHE and physical education.

[11] In May 2005, the school featured in a 30-minute BBC documentary, Head on the Block, made by the headteacher's sister Debbie Shuter.

[12][13] After being named Headteacher of the Year in a Secondary School in 2007,[14] and receiving a CBE in 2010, Shuter resigned in May 2013 and was replaced by Alex Atherton.

In May 2014 Shuter was banned for life from the classroom by the National College for Teaching and Leadership after admitting the misuse of public funds on various personal expenses during her tenure.

[17] In March 2015 Quintin Kynaston received unwelcome publicity with the revelation that Mohammed Emwazi, the ISIL killer who was portrayed in the media as "Jihadi John", had been a student at the school, leaving it in 2006.

The Section 5 Ofsted inspection of 10 December 2008 characterised QK as "an outstanding school and exceptionally well led by its inspirational headteacher".

Results at A-level are weaker – below the national average, however the school performs strongly in measures of contextual value added.