Hanwell Fields Community School

Hanwell Fields Community School is performing well overall. This was the school’s first routine inspection since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it remains a good school with several notable strengths. Pupils are described as thriving in a nurturing, compassionate community where they feel safe, behave well and achieve strongly. The curriculum is ambitious and builds progressively from Nursery to Year 6, with effective support for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND.

Strengths

• Pupils feel safe, cared for and confident that an adult will help them with any worries.
• Pupils behave with kindness and respect, and the school’s approach to managing behaviour is highly successful.
• Personal development is exceptionally strong, with an excellent enrichment programme and wide range of opportunities.
• Early years provision is outstanding, with expert language modelling and a vibrant, purposeful environment.
• Reading is central to school life, and phonics is taught expertly so pupils become fluent readers quickly.
• Pupils with SEND are identified rigorously and supported well, achieving strongly alongside their classmates.
• The curriculum is ambitious and well sequenced, with staff demonstrating strong subject knowledge.
• Leaders are methodical and implement improvements carefully, with effective support and challenge from the trust and governing body.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.
• Pupils develop responsibility, confidence and a strong moral compass through leadership roles and outdoor learning.

Areas for Improvement

• During some whole-class explanations and discussions, staff do not check pupils’ understanding as effectively as they could.
• Class discussions sometimes hear only from the most confident and fluent pupils, so misunderstandings are missed and some pupils have fewer opportunities to develop fluency and oracy.
• Some pupils do not always have enough opportunity to practise and embed new knowledge before moving on.

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 Hanwell Fields Community School attended 95.3% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 11.8% 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, 1.5% of pupils at Hanwell Fields Community 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 Hanwell Fields Community School had 19.6 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 10.8% 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, 21.1% of pupils at Hanwell Fields Community School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 2.2% 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 2024–25 Hanwell Fields Community School received £7,359 and spent £7,429 for each of its 452 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £404,000 (£894 per pupil).

Across all 93 schools of United Learning Trust, income was £8,687 and spending £8,616 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). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Banbury · Oxfordshire local authority: places and applications

Hanwell Fields Community School is part of United Learning Trust, which runs 98 schools. The nearest others:

• Hill View Primary School Banbury
• North Oxfordshire Academy Banbury
• Campion School Northampton
• Northampton Academy Northampton
• Orchard Meadow Primary School Oxford
• Pegasus School Oxford
• Windale Primary School Oxford
• George Eliot Academy Nuneaton
• Nuneaton Academy Nuneaton
• Hartshill Academy Nuneaton

What is Hanwell Fields Community School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Hanwell Fields Community School is Good, from an inspection in March 2025.

When was Hanwell Fields Community School last inspected by Ofsted?

Hanwell Fields Community School was last inspected in March 2025.

How many pupils does Hanwell Fields Community School have?

Hanwell Fields Community School has 454 pupils on roll.

What age range does Hanwell Fields Community School cover?

Hanwell Fields Community School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

What are Hanwell Fields Community School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 48% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Hanwell Fields Community School?

Hanwell Fields Community School is at Rotary Way, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX16 1ER.