Brandwood Primary School

Brandwood Primary School is performing well overall, with all key areas graded as good. The school has established a positive community ethos, where pupils feel safe and happy to learn. An encouraging atmosphere, fostered by strong relationships between staff and students, supports effective learning. The school is committed to ensuring that all pupils, including those with special educational needs, achieve well, particularly in early reading and phonics, which are given a high priority. The recent inspection noted the school's good performance and effective leadership, highlighting the need for continued development in curriculum clarity for some subjects.

Strengths

• Strong emphasis on community values and inclusivity.
• Positive relationships between pupils and staff create a safe learning environment.
• High expectations for pupil behavior and engagement during lessons.
• Effective systems for identifying and supporting pupils with special educational needs.
• Well-structured phonics program leading to confident early readers.
• Ambitious and high-quality texts across different genres encourage a love of reading.
• Good arrangements for safeguarding are in place.

Areas for Improvement

• Curricular clarity is less consistent in one or two subjects.
• Some teachers lack clarity on what content to teach and when in certain subjects.
• In a few subjects, teachers do not effectively check pupil understanding of prior learning.

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Brandwood Primary School attended 95.5% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 10.9% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 13.0%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 0.4% of pupils at Brandwood Primary School were suspended at least once (nationally 1.1%). No pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Brandwood Primary School had 21.3 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 8.4% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 15.7%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 18.1% of pupils at Brandwood Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 2.8% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded primary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2025–26 Brandwood Primary School received £7,378 and spent £7,550 for each of its 437 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £13,000 (£30 per pupil).

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24).

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Bolton · Bolton local authority: places and applications

What is Brandwood Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Brandwood Primary School is Good, from an inspection in March 2023.

When was Brandwood Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Brandwood Primary School was last inspected in March 2023.

How many pupils does Brandwood Primary School have?

Brandwood Primary School has 463 pupils on roll.

What age range does Brandwood Primary School cover?

Brandwood Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

What are Brandwood Primary School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 56% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Brandwood Primary School?

Brandwood Primary School is at Brandwood Street, Brandwood Street, Bolton, Lancashire, BL3 4BG.