Captains Close Primary School

Captains Close Primary School is a happy, calm and caring school where pupils feel safe and relationships between pupils and staff are warm. Inspectors found the school good across quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. The school provides an ambitious and engaging curriculum that is mostly well planned and taught, and pupils generally develop secure knowledge. Most pupils behave well, enjoy learning and benefit from a wide range of clubs, events and responsibilities that support their broader development. Staff are proud to work at the school and feel well supported by leaders and the Discovery Schools Academies Trust, which knows the school's strengths and areas for improvement. Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Strengths

• Pupils feel happy, safe and cared for in a calm environment with warm staff relationships.
• Pupils are friendly, polite and kind, and generally follow the school's behaviour code.
• Pupils have positive attitudes to learning and develop useful technology and online safety skills.
• The school offers a wide range of sporting, musical and citizenship experiences and responsibilities.
• The curriculum is ambitious and engaging, and is mostly well planned and taught.
• Teachers explain concepts clearly, check learning and adapt activities well for pupils with SEND.
• Phonics and reading are now taught consistently well after urgent action to improve precision and rigour.
• Children settle quickly in the early years and learn routines that support independence.
• Personal development is well considered, including assemblies that explore British values and active citizenship.
• Staff feel well supported, value professional development and show strong team spirit.
• Leaders and the trust have a clear understanding of strengths and areas for improvement and provide appropriate support.

Areas for Improvement

• Revised curriculum plans for a few foundation subjects are not yet embedded, so pupils' knowledge is less secure and they sometimes recall activities rather than intended learning.
• In the early years, staff do not check children's engagement and learning through independent activities well enough.
• Early years staff do not use assessment information consistently well to plan activities that build on children's knowledge.
• The revised behaviour policy is not yet consistently understood and embedded, with occasional inconsistencies in how staff apply it.
• Pupils' attendance is not as high as it should be, although support is improving persistent absence.

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 Captains Close Primary School attended 92.8% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 16.3% 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, 1.3% of pupils at Captains Close 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 Captains Close Primary School had 16.1 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 21.4% 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, 19.0% of pupils at Captains Close Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 12.7% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

The school has a SEN unit with 11 pupils and resourced provision with 11 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 Captains Close Primary School received £9,769 and spent £11,864 for each of its 159 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £141,000 (£888 per pupil).

Across all 20 schools of Discovery Schools Academies Trust Ltd, income was £9,576 and spending £9,975 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 Melton Mowbray · Leicestershire local authority: places and applications

Captains Close Primary School is part of Discovery Schools Academies Trust Ltd, which runs 21 schools. The nearest others:

• Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) Melton Mowbray
• Sileby Redlands Community Primary School Loughborough
• Keyham Lodge School Leicester
• Merrydale Junior School Leicester
• Mowmacre Hill Primary School Leicester
• Ash Field Academy Leicester
• Woolden Hill Primary School Leicester
• Millgate School Leicester
• Braunstone Community Primary School Leicester
• Fossebrook Primary School Leicester

What is Captains Close Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Captains Close Primary School is Good, from an inspection in November 2024.

When was Captains Close Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Captains Close Primary School was last inspected in November 2024.

How many pupils does Captains Close Primary School have?

Captains Close Primary School has 189 pupils on roll.

What age range does Captains Close Primary School cover?

Captains Close Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

What are Captains Close Primary School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 55% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Captains Close Primary School?

Captains Close Primary School is at Saxelby Road, Asfordby, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, LE14 3TU.