 By April 2015, The Ongar Academy had recruited all of the staff required to open the school to Year 7 students.The Ongar Academy opened on 7 September 2015,

The Ongar Academy has received some criticism.During the pre-application consultation phase Twelve people (1.21% of respondents) stated they were against the establishment of the school, with primary reasons, such as impact on traffic, being unrelated to the proposal to establish a new secondary school.