Windhill Primary School

Windhill Primary School is a caring and inclusive school that inspectors found to be performing strongly overall. Safeguarding standards are met. Inclusion, leadership and governance, and personal development and wellbeing are particular strengths, while achievement, attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching, and early years are secure but have areas for further development. The school is a slightly larger-than-average primary with a pre-school on the same site, a well-above-average proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals, and above-average location deprivation. Leaders use additional funding well to remove barriers for disadvantaged pupils, who achieve well, especially in mathematics. Pupils with SEND and other barriers receive timely, effective support and make good progress from their starting points. Leaders are ambitious and accurate about the school's strengths and priorities. Governors work effectively with leaders, staff value the strong culture of professional learning and wellbeing support, and leaders share good practice locally, particularly around inclusion. The curriculum is ambitious, well sequenced and highly inclusive, and pupils with SEND learn well alongside their peers. Pupils are proud of their school, feel safe and happy, behave calmly and respectfully, and benefit from a broad personal development offer including trips, clubs, sports, leadership roles and careers awareness. Early years provision is warm and nurturing, with clear routines and a well-designed curriculum. The main areas for improvement are phonics, early years practice and oracy. Phonics outcomes remain lower than leaders expect, and the school's new phonics approach is still being embedded. In the early years, continuous provision is not consistently well organised and adult interactions are not consistently high quality, so some opportunities to develop children's language and communication are missed. Across the taught curriculum, opportunities for structured talk and oracy are sometimes missed, meaning pupils are not always supported to explain their thinking clearly. Attendance for disadvantaged pupils, although improving, remains below that of other pupils. Leaders have identified these priorities accurately and are taking focused action.

Strengths

• Inclusion is a strength, with barriers to learning identified swiftly and support put in place
• Pastoral care is highly effective in helping pupils regulate emotions and build resilience
• Pupils with SEND and other barriers make good progress from their starting points
• Disadvantaged pupils achieve well because leaders use additional funding effectively
• Leaders have an accurate understanding of the school's strengths and improvement priorities
• Governors are highly effective, ambitious, and hold leaders to account appropriately
• Staff benefit from an effective culture of professional learning and feel well supported
• Leaders collaborate with local schools and share good practice, particularly around inclusion
• Personal development is broad, with well-attended clubs, trips, sports and leadership roles
• Pupils are proud, feel safe and happy, and behave calmly and respectfully
• Bullying is rare and pupils trust staff to respond promptly to concerns
• The curriculum is ambitious, well sequenced and highly inclusive, with effective adaptations for SEND
• Pupils know and remember important knowledge across the wider curriculum
• Early years provision is warm and nurturing, with clear routines and a well-designed curriculum
• Pupils are well prepared for the next stage of education

Areas for Improvement

• Phonics outcomes remain lower than leaders expect, and the new phonics approach is not yet fully embedded
• Opportunities to develop spoken language and oracy are sometimes missed across the taught curriculum
• In the early years, continuous provision is not consistently well organised and adult interactions are not consistently high quality
• Some opportunities to develop children's language and communication are missed because interactions are inconsistent
• Attendance for disadvantaged pupils remains below that of other pupils, despite improvements
• Reading outcomes have been below national averages over the latest three-year period

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 Windhill Primary School attended 93.5% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 17.9% 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, 1.0% of pupils at Windhill 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 Windhill Primary School had 18.9 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 0.0% 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, 15.6% of pupils at Windhill Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 1.7% 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 Windhill Primary School received £7,577 and spent £7,203 for each of its 290 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £485,000 (£1,672 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 Mexborough · Doncaster local authority: places and applications

What is Windhill Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Windhill Primary School is Expected standard, from an inspection in October 2026.

When was Windhill Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Windhill Primary School was last inspected in October 2026.

How many pupils does Windhill Primary School have?

Windhill Primary School has 302 pupils on roll.

What age range does Windhill Primary School cover?

Windhill Primary School for pupils aged 2 to 11.

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

In 2025, 72% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Windhill Primary School?

Windhill Primary School is at Hollingworth Close, Mexborough, South Yorkshire, S64 0PQ.