Henbury Court Primary Academy

Henbury Court Primary Academy is a caring and welcoming school where pupils feel proud to belong and are well supported through positive relationships and clear routines. Behaviour and attitudes, personal development and early years provision are strong, with pupils demonstrating the school’s values, benefiting from a range of enrichment experiences, and receiving effective support for their emotional and social needs. Safeguarding arrangements are effective, and leaders have built a strong culture of teamwork while working with the trust to drive improvement at pace. However, the quality of education and leadership and management require improvement. The curriculum has been weak over time, and too many pupils leave Year 6 without the reading, writing and mathematics knowledge needed for secondary school, particularly in upper key stage 2. Recent curriculum changes are ambitious but not yet fully embedded, and in some subjects assessment is not used precisely enough to identify gaps or check that content is taught in sufficient depth. The inspection took place in October 2024 and was the school’s first routine inspection since the COVID-19 pandemic. The school joined Trust in Learning Academies in August 2023 and has a headteacher appointed in 2021. Inspectors recognised that the trust is providing expert support and that the school is moving forward, but the legacy of underachievement and inconsistent curriculum implementation remain priorities.

Strengths

• Pupils are proud to belong to a caring and welcoming school.
• Positive relationships help pupils demonstrate the school’s values.
• Pupils know they can share worries with an adult or use the worry box.
• Well-established routines and high behaviour expectations begin in the early years.
• Pupils show respect and tolerance and celebrate diverse cultural backgrounds.
• A structured phonics programme and ongoing checks help pupils remember sounds.
• Children in the early years develop a love of stories, songs and rhymes.
• Pupils with SEND have needs identified early and are well supported.
• Attendance is beginning to improve because the school works with families and acts swiftly.
• Specialist staff help pupils manage emotions, reducing poor behaviour.
• Pupils have positive attitudes to learning.
• Enrichment activities and leadership responsibilities prepare pupils for modern life.
• Leaders have cultivated a strong culture of teamwork and consider staff workload.
• Trustees and directors ask searching questions about the quality of education.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Areas for Improvement

• The curriculum has not equipped pupils with the knowledge they need to achieve well over time.
• Too many pupils leave Year 6 not ready for the demands of secondary education.
• A legacy of weak curriculum remains for some pupils, especially in upper key stage 2.
• Some pupils struggle with spelling, grammar and problem-solving because they have not mastered the basics.
• In some subjects, the school does not check effectively that teachers teach the curriculum as intended.
• Some staff do not cover curriculum content in sufficient depth, limiting pupils’ breadth of knowledge.
• Assessment is not used precisely enough in some subjects to identify and close gaps in pupils’ knowledge.
• The school has not checked the impact of the curriculum with enough rigour in some subjects.
• Published outcomes show that not enough pupils leave able to read, write or apply mathematics sufficiently well for their age.

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 Henbury Court Primary Academy attended 92.2% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 24.5% 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, 3.9% of pupils at Henbury Court Primary Academy 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 Henbury Court Primary Academy had 18.7 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 17.8% 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, 16.0% of pupils at Henbury Court Primary Academy were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 3.1% 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 Henbury Court Primary Academy received £8,237 and spent £8,382 for each of its 309 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £257,000 (£832 per pupil).

Across all 21 schools of Amplify Education, income was £8,102 and spending £8,050 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 Bristol · Bristol, City of local authority: places and applications

Henbury Court Primary Academy is part of Amplify Education, which runs 21 schools. The nearest others:

• Little Mead Primary Academy Bristol
• Fonthill Primary Academy Bristol
• Henleaze Junior School Bristol
• Henleaze Infant School Bristol
• Orchard School Bristol Bristol
• Nova Primary School Bristol
• Charlton Wood Primary Academy Bristol
• Filton Avenue Primary School Bristol
• Stoke Park Primary School Bristol
• Trinity Academy Bristol

What is Henbury Court Primary Academy's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Henbury Court Primary Academy is Requires Improvement, from an inspection in November 2024.

When was Henbury Court Primary Academy last inspected by Ofsted?

Henbury Court Primary Academy was last inspected in November 2024.

How many pupils does Henbury Court Primary Academy have?

Henbury Court Primary Academy has 294 pupils on roll.

What age range does Henbury Court Primary Academy cover?

Henbury Court Primary Academy for pupils aged 2 to 11.

What are Henbury Court Primary Academy's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 60% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Henbury Court Primary Academy?

Henbury Court Primary Academy is at Trevelyan Walk, Henbury, Bristol, BS10 7NY.