Ashbury Meadow Primary School

Ashbury Meadow Primary is a friendly, caring school where pupils feel safe and behave well. Inspectors found warm relationships, sensible conduct around school and in lessons, and strong personal development, including local trips, clubs, safety education, respect for difference, wellbeing and career role models. Attendance work with parents and safeguarding arrangements are effective. The quality of education and leadership are the main areas for improvement. Many curriculums are newly organised around key knowledge, but delivery is uneven, assessment is not used sharply enough, and pupils do not consistently recall or build knowledge over time. Pupils with SEND are not identified accurately and staff do not always adapt learning well, including in the school's two specially resourced provisions. Phonics is inconsistent and struggling readers do not get strong enough support. Leadership and governance do not yet have an accurate view of weaknesses, and evaluation and training are not driving improvement effectively; staff workload from recent changes was not fully considered. Early years also needs improvement because curriculum delivery is uneven. This was the school's first routine inspection since the pandemic and since it was previously exempt as outstanding; it has two resourced provisions for social, emotional and mental health and for communication, language and interaction.

Strengths

• Pupils are friendly, happy and feel safe because staff build warm, caring relationships.
• Pupils behave well, follow instructions and rarely disrupt learning.
• Attendance is supported successfully through close work with parents and carers.
• Personal development is strong, with pupils learning safety, respect for diversity and wellbeing strategies.
• Local trips, clubs, gardening, robotics and charity work enrich pupils' experiences.
• Many new subject curriculums are thoughtfully organised around key knowledge.
• The school supports teachers to develop their subject knowledge.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Areas for Improvement

• Assessment is not used effectively enough, so misconceptions and gaps in pupils' knowledge go unaddressed.
• Pupils with SEND are not identified accurately, and staff do not always adapt learning to meet their needs.
• Curriculum delivery is uneven, including in early years, and essential content is not revisited well enough.
• Phonics teaching is inconsistent, reading books do not always match learned sounds, and support for struggling readers is not high quality.
• Leadership and governance lack robust oversight and an accurate picture of the school's weaknesses.
• Training is not having the intended impact, and the workload impact of curriculum changes was not fully considered.
• Early years provision requires improvement because delivery of the curriculum is uneven.

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 Ashbury Meadow Primary School attended 94.6% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 15.9% 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 Ashbury Meadow 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 Ashbury Meadow Primary School had 20.4 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 34.4% 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, 16.3% of pupils at Ashbury Meadow Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 9.7% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

The school has resourced provision with 26 pupils.

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 Ashbury Meadow Primary School received £8,631 and spent £8,681 for each of its 465 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £266,000 (£572 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

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What is Ashbury Meadow Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Ashbury Meadow Primary School is Requires Improvement, from an inspection in March 2025.

When was Ashbury Meadow Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Ashbury Meadow Primary School was last inspected in March 2025.

How many pupils does Ashbury Meadow Primary School have?

Ashbury Meadow Primary School has 465 pupils on roll.

What age range does Ashbury Meadow Primary School cover?

Ashbury Meadow Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

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

In 2025, 32% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Ashbury Meadow Primary School?

Ashbury Meadow Primary School is at Rylance Street, Beswick, Manchester, M11 3NA.