St Louis Catholic Academy

St Louis Catholic Academy is a primary Catholic academy within Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Multi Academy Trust. This was its first routine section 5 inspection, following a previous section 8 inspection in 2019, and inspectors took the pandemic into account. Pupils are safe, behave well and attend regularly, and they love coming to school. The quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, leadership and management, and early years provision are all good, while personal development is outstanding. The curriculum is ambitious and well sequenced, reading is taught effectively, and pupils benefit from a rich range of activities and leadership opportunities. Safeguarding is effective. The main area for improvement is support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities: training and adaptations are recent and inconsistently applied, so some pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they should. Leaders are aware that recent curriculum revisions have increased staff workload and are supporting staff through the transition. A new headteacher takes up post in April 2025.

Strengths

• Pupils are safe and have very strong relationships with trusted adults
• Pupils behave well and attend regularly
• The curriculum is ambitious, well sequenced and taught effectively
• Reading is taught successfully from Nursery and Reception
• Learning is exciting, interactive and promotes deep subject knowledge
• Personal development provision is exceptional and builds cultural awareness
• Pupils have extensive opportunities to extend talents and interests
• Pupils take on meaningful leadership and community roles
• Staff enjoy working at the school
• Trust oversight and local governance are strong
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective

Areas for Improvement

• Support for pupils with SEND is inconsistent because recent training on adapting learning is not yet applied reliably
• Some pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they should
• Some learning activities do not yet accommodate the full range of learners' needs
• Recent curriculum revisions have increased staff workload, although leaders are addressing this

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 St Louis Catholic Academy attended 96.1% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 5.2% 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, 0.0% of pupils at St Louis Catholic 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 St Louis Catholic Academy had 20.6 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 12.2% 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, 7.0% of pupils at St Louis Catholic Academy were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 2.3% 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 2024–25 St Louis Catholic Academy received £6,667 and spent £6,567 for each of its 291 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £363,000 (£1,250 per pupil).

Across all 8 schools of Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Multi Academy Trust, income was £7,225 and spending £7,189 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 Newmarket · Suffolk local authority: places and applications

St Louis Catholic Academy is part of Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Multi Academy Trust, which runs 11 schools. The nearest others:

• St Felix Roman Catholic Primary School, Haverhill Haverhill
• St Laurence Catholic Primary School Cambridge
• St Alban's Catholic Primary School Cambridge
• St Benedict's Catholic School Bury St Edmunds
• St Edmund's Catholic Primary School Bury St Edmunds
• St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Sudbury
• St Pancras Catholic Primary School Ipswich
• St Mark's Catholic Primary School Ipswich
• St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Ipswich Ipswich
• St Alban's Catholic High School Ipswich

What is St Louis Catholic Academy's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for St Louis Catholic Academy is Good, from an inspection in March 2025.

When was St Louis Catholic Academy last inspected by Ofsted?

St Louis Catholic Academy was last inspected in March 2025.

How many pupils does St Louis Catholic Academy have?

St Louis Catholic Academy has 300 pupils on roll.

What age range does St Louis Catholic Academy cover?

St Louis Catholic Academy for pupils aged 3 to 11.

What are St Louis Catholic Academy's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 64% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is St Louis Catholic Academy?

St Louis Catholic Academy is at Fordham Road, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 7AA.