Swanlea School was one of the first schools in the country to be awarded Business and Enterprise specialist status by the DCFS in 2002, and after inspection by OFSTED (April 2024) Swanlea was judged to be outstanding in all areas for the third consecutive time.
The school holds the Healthy Schools Award, Investors in People Award, Artsmark Silver Award, are Stonewall School Champions and is a UCL Beacon School in Holocaust Education.
There are over 90 permanent teaching staff and more than 100 support/administrative staff working here.[citation needed]
Swanlea School has had two Headteachers, Linda Austin and Brenda Landers. Linda Austin retired in January 2011 after 18 years of service, and was awarded an OBE for services to Education in the Queen's birthday honours list in 2011. Brenda Landers became the Executive Headteacher in 2023, and Kabir Miah was appointed to the Head of School role in 2024.