Fordley Primary School

Fordley Primary School is a good school across all inspected areas: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. This was its first routine inspection since the pandemic and its first since 2013; it has a new headteacher, a restructured senior leadership team, and has faced significant disruption from building construction, with many classes now in modular buildings. Pupils are happy and safe, build positive relationships with staff, behave well, and benefit from an ambitious broad curriculum. Disadvantaged pupils make strong progress, SEND support is well identified and effective, phonics and reading are strong, and personal development and safeguarding are effective. Governors provide effective support and challenge and staff feel well supported. Leaders have acted swiftly to improve phonics outcomes, and most pupils achieve highly in reading by the end of key stage 2. However, writing is a clear weakness: staff do not consistently secure pupils’ early writing skills, including motor skills, pencil grip, letter formation and basic sentence construction, so pupils are sometimes moved on to complex writing before they are ready. In early years, some adult-child interactions are not precise enough to develop children’s language and learning effectively. Attendance is improving but remains a concern for some pupils who do not attend regularly enough.

Strengths

• Pupils feel safe and happy and have positive, caring relationships with staff.
• Pupils show resilience and respect, and bullying is not a problem in the school.
• Pupils have positive attitudes to learning, are attentive and take pride in their work.
• The school has an ambitious and broad curriculum designed to enable all pupils to achieve well.
• Frequent revisiting of prior learning helps pupils build knowledge over time.
• Disadvantaged pupils make strong progress in learning the curriculum.
• The school identifies pupils with SEND clearly and provides effective support, including external specialist help.
• Teachers receive focused training and demonstrate secure subject knowledge.
• Phonics teaching is consistent, and swift action improved provisional phonics outcomes in 2024.
• Most pupils achieve highly in reading by the end of key stage 2.
• Early years children benefit from warm relationships and a focus on language and communication from the two-year-old provision.
• Personal development prepares pupils well for life in modern Britain, including respect for difference and safety online and in the community.
• Extra-curricular clubs such as coding, fencing and archery help pupils develop talents and interests.
• Governors provide effective support and challenge, and leaders are considerate of staff workload and well-being.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Areas for Improvement

• Early writing skills, including motor skills, pencil grip, letter formation and basic sentence construction, are not consistently secured before pupils move to complex writing tasks.
• Some early years interactions between adults and children are not precise enough to develop children’s language and learning effectively.
• Some pupils do not attend school regularly enough, despite improving attendance.

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 Fordley Primary School attended 94.2% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 15.7% 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, 0.0% of pupils at Fordley 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 Fordley Primary School had 23.3 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 3.7% 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 Fordley Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 2.7% 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 Fordley Primary School received £6,874 and spent £6,744 for each of its 369 pupils. It ended the year with a deficit of £280,000 (-£760 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 Cramlington · North Tyneside local authority: places and applications

What is Fordley Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Fordley Primary School is Good, from an inspection in January 2025.

When was Fordley Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Fordley Primary School was last inspected in January 2025.

How many pupils does Fordley Primary School have?

Fordley Primary School has 377 pupils on roll.

What age range does Fordley Primary School cover?

Fordley Primary School for pupils aged 2 to 11.

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

In 2025, 60% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Fordley Primary School?

Fordley Primary School is at Dudley Drive, Dudley, Cramlington, Northumberland, NE23 7AL.