Pirehill First School

Pirehill First School is a nurturing, child-focused school where pupils are happy, safe and behave well. Safeguarding standards are met. Personal development and wellbeing is a standout strength: pupils have many wider opportunities, take on leadership roles, influence school decisions, and benefit from clubs, trips and discreet family support such as food and uniform banks. The school is well led by a new headteacher, deputy headteacher and SENCO, who have quickly identified priorities and are already making improvements. Staff feel supported, governance is skilled, and parents hold the school in high regard. Inclusion is also a clear priority, with pupils with SEND generally learning alongside their peers and receiving effective support.

Strengths

• Provides a nurturing, child-focused environment where pupils feel safe and happy.
• Promotes strong personal development and wellbeing through wide-ranging clubs, trips and leadership roles.
• Gives pupils meaningful voice, including successful campaigns for road safety and buddy benches.
• Develops pupils' understanding of tolerance and British values through democratic voting and PSHE.
• Supports families discreetly through food banks and uniform banks.
• Maintains positive relationships between staff and pupils, with pupils reporting that bullying is not an issue.
• Ensures pupils behave well in lessons and during social times.
• Offers a coherent and sequential curriculum that builds foundational knowledge.
• Supports pupils with SEND to learn alongside their peers through effective adaptations and skilled staff.
• Identifies additional needs quickly and works closely with families and nurseries.
• Uses additional funding effectively to create an inclusive environment and widen access to opportunities.
• Has new leaders who have quickly identified strengths and improvement priorities and are already making an impact.
• Benefits from a skilled, committed governing body that provides both support and challenge.
• Ensures staff feel supported with workload, wellbeing and professional learning.
• Is held in high regard by parents and has strong relationships with families.
• Provides well-planned early years provision with strong family engagement and good phonics development.

Areas for Improvement

• A small number of pupils, including some with SEND, have gaps because they leave lessons too regularly and catch-up is not routine.
• The school lacks a systematic way to track lesson withdrawals and how long pupils are out of class.
• Some pupils do not close gaps quickly enough, affecting their readiness for the next stage of education.
• Persistent absence remains for a small number of disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND.
• Classroom behaviour incidents are not analysed with the same detail as lunchtime incidents, especially for pupils with SEND.
• Formative assessment is not consistently used well enough to check that all pupils have grasped key concepts.
• Pupils with additional needs do not always secure vital reading, writing, mathematics and letter formation skills when they miss learning.
• Leaders should continue developing pupils' resilience so engagement is consistently strong across all subjects.
• Gaps in foundational knowledge need to be consistently identified and addressed.
• Attendance initiatives must now focus more sharply on the small group who remain persistently absent.

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 Pirehill First School attended 95.8% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 6.4% 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 Pirehill First 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 Pirehill First School had 22.2 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 25.0% 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, 16.3% of pupils at Pirehill First School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 3.3% 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 Pirehill First School received £7,053 and spent £6,795 for each of its 245 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £356,000 (£1,453 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 Stone · Staffordshire local authority: places and applications

What is Pirehill First School's Ofsted rating?

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

When was Pirehill First School last inspected by Ofsted?

Pirehill First School was last inspected in July 2026.

How many pupils does Pirehill First School have?

Pirehill First School has 245 pupils on roll.

What age range does Pirehill First School cover?

Pirehill First School for pupils aged 5 to 9.

Where is Pirehill First School?

Pirehill First School is at Tilling Drive, Walton, Pirehill First School Staffordshire County Council, Stone, Staffordshire, ST15 0AA.