Lift Barton Hill

Barton Hill Academy is performing well overall, achieving a 'Good' rating in all areas except for outstanding early years provision. The school is highly inclusive and adept at meeting the needs of students with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The leadership is committed to ensuring that all students succeed, regardless of their backgrounds or starting points. Parents express strong satisfaction with the school's ability to nurture their children and foster a positive learning environment. However, there are areas for improvement in assessing students' prior knowledge to provide appropriately challenging tasks.

Strengths

• Outstanding early years provision
• Effective support for pupils with SEND
• Strong relationships between staff and families
• Detailed and well-sequenced curriculum
• Rigorous approach to reading and vocabulary development
• Positive engagement in extracurricular activities

Areas for Improvement

• Inconsistent assessment of students' prior knowledge leading to unchallenging tasks
• Imprecise internal checks on curriculum effectiveness

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 Lift Barton Hill attended 94.1% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 15.0% 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, 1.2% of pupils at Lift Barton Hill 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 Lift Barton Hill had 18.0 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 7.7% 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, 15.0% of pupils at Lift Barton Hill were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 7.2% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

The school has resourced provision with 10 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 2024–25 Lift Barton Hill received £8,114 and spent £8,285 for each of its 587 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £471,000 (£803 per pupil).

Across all 59 schools of Lift Schools, income was £8,746 and spending £8,644 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 Torquay · Torbay local authority: places and applications

Lift Barton Hill is part of Lift Schools, which runs 62 schools. The nearest others:

• Lift Broadlands Bristol
• Lift Offa's Mead Chepstow
• Lift Berkeley Berkeley
• Lift New Forest Southampton
• Lift Cam Woodfield Junior Dursley
• Lift Winton Andover
• Marling School Stroud
• Lift Callowell Stroud
• Lift Ryde Ryde
• Lift Hazelwood Swindon

What is Lift Barton Hill's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Lift Barton Hill is Good, from an inspection in November 2023.

When was Lift Barton Hill last inspected by Ofsted?

Lift Barton Hill was last inspected in November 2023.

How many pupils does Lift Barton Hill have?

Lift Barton Hill has 568 pupils on roll.

What age range does Lift Barton Hill cover?

Lift Barton Hill for pupils aged 3 to 11.

What are Lift Barton Hill's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 74% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Lift Barton Hill?

Lift Barton Hill is at Barton Hill Road, Torquay, Devon, TQ2 8JA.