Orchard Junior School

Orchard Junior School is a caring, inclusive school where pupils feel safe and behave well. Safeguarding requirements are met, and attendance and behaviour are particular strengths: attendance is well above national averages, persistent absence is very low, and pupils are respectful, confident and well supported. Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and disadvantaged pupils are included well and benefit from effective pastoral care.

Strengths

• Attendance is well above national averages, with very few persistently absent pupils.
• Leaders track attendance closely and work with families to remove barriers early.
• Pupils behave well, treat each other with respect and take responsibility for fair play.
• Bullying is not tolerated and pupils trust staff to respond quickly and fairly.
• Pupils with SEND are well supported and included in all aspects of school life.
• The curriculum is broad, balanced, ambitious and inclusive.
• Pupils read fluently, write clearly and apply mathematics confidently by the end of Year 6.
• Disadvantaged pupils make positive progress from their starting points.
• Inclusion is central to the school’s work, with early and accurate identification of need.
• Leaders use pupil premium funding effectively to support learning, attendance and wellbeing.
• Staff and leaders share professional trust, and staff receive well-chosen professional development.
• Governors provide effective oversight and challenge while meeting statutory duties.
• Pastoral support is effective and helps pupils feel safe, understood and ready to learn.
• Pupils develop a secure understanding of how to keep themselves safe, including online.
• A range of clubs, trips and pupil leadership opportunities support personal development.
• Pupils are happy, settled and resilient, and leave ready for the next stage of education.

Areas for Improvement

• Pupils do not always secure arithmetic skills quickly enough to meet national averages in the Year 4 multiplication check.
• Some newer content from the wider curriculum is less secure.
• Pupils do not always have secure and detailed knowledge of protected characteristics and sometimes confuse aspects of their learning.
• Some areas of personal, social and health education are still under review.
• Curriculum implementation is not yet consistently high across all subjects.
• Pupil knowledge is not yet checked systematically enough to inform curriculum adaptations across all subjects.
• Leaders should continue to develop mathematical accuracy and fluency, particularly in multiplication.
• Leaders should continue to develop the implementation of the curriculum across all subjects.
• Leaders should ensure pupils develop a detailed and secure understanding of all aspects of the personal, social and health education curriculum.

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 Orchard Junior School attended 95.9% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 5.6% 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 Orchard Junior 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 Orchard Junior School had 21.5 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 8.0% 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, 17.5% of pupils at Orchard Junior School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 4.8% 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 Orchard Junior School received £6,405 and spent £6,361 for each of its 355 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £274,000 (£773 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 Southampton · Hampshire local authority: places and applications

What is Orchard Junior School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Orchard Junior School is Expected standard, from an inspection in July 2026.

When was Orchard Junior School last inspected by Ofsted?

Orchard Junior School was last inspected in July 2026.

How many pupils does Orchard Junior School have?

Orchard Junior School has 355 pupils on roll.

What age range does Orchard Junior School cover?

Orchard Junior School for pupils aged 7 to 11.

What are Orchard Junior School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 64% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Orchard Junior School?

Orchard Junior School is at Water Lane, Dibden Purlieu, Southampton, Hampshire, SO45 4SB.