Carmountside Primary Academy

Carmountside Primary Academy is a school with a strong personal development and inclusion offer, effective leadership and a caring, inclusive culture, but academic achievement and early years provision are not yet consistently strong enough. Safeguarding standards are met. The school serves a disadvantaged community with well-above-average free school meals and SEN support, is part of The Societas Trust, and has nursery and pre-school provision. Inspectors found personal development and wellbeing to be a significant strength, with an ambitious programme, extensive enrichment and leadership opportunities, highly effective pastoral support and strong preparation for transition. Attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, and leadership and governance were judged at expected standard; relationships, professional development, governance and trust support are notable strengths. However, achievement needs attention. Published key stage 2 results are below national averages in reading, writing and mathematics, and disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND do not achieve as well as they should. Although attendance is improving and persistent absence is reducing, both remain worse than national figures. The early years curriculum is nurturing and inclusive but not yet consistently effective, with some children struggling to sustain attention and engagement. Leaders know the school well and have taken effective action to improve the curriculum, but next steps include checking learning more consistently to address misconceptions, embedding the early years curriculum across all provision, and ensuring curriculum quality is consistent across subjects and year groups so outcomes improve.

Strengths

• Personal development and wellbeing are a significant strength, with a highly ambitious and well-considered programme.
• Pupils develop secure knowledge about relationships, health, equality, diversity, citizenship and staying safe.
• Older pupils are reflective, articulate and demonstrate maturity when discussing racism, discrimination and online safety.
• Leadership opportunities are extensive and meaningful, including school council, RUGS, ambassador roles and librarians.
• Enrichment is extensive, carefully tailored and systematically tracked so vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils access opportunities.
• Pastoral support is highly effective, with personalised interventions and strong relationships with staff.
• Transition arrangements and preparation for future life are strong, broadening aspirations and readiness for secondary school.
• Behaviour is typically positive, with respectful attitudes and notable relationships between adults and pupils.
• Bullying is not tolerated and pupils are confident staff deal with it effectively.
• Attendance has measurably improved, including a reduction in persistent absence, through effective systems and family support.
• The curriculum is ambitious and increasingly well sequenced, with a clear emphasis on reading, writing, communication, vocabulary and mathematics.
• Teachers generally deliver the curriculum well, and science is particularly well developed.
• Teaching strategies help pupils know and remember more, with effective questioning and well-planned professional development.
• Inclusion is a strength, with early identification of need and SEND pupils accessing the same ambitious curriculum and wider opportunities.
• Leaders have accurate self-knowledge, strong professional development and staff feel valued and proud to work at the school.
• Governors and trust leaders are passionate, provide rigorous challenge and strengthen improvement planning.
• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture and concerns actively identified and managed.
• Phonics outcomes have improved, and multiplication outcomes by the end of Year 4 are at least in line with national averages.
• Early years is nurturing and inclusive, with warm relationships, strong communication and language emphasis, and appropriate support for SEND.

Areas for Improvement

• Achievement needs attention, with key stage 2 published results below national averages and pupils leaving less prepared for secondary school than they should be.
• Improvements in curriculum implementation have not yet translated consistently into outcomes, especially for some disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND.
• Spelling accuracy, presentation and writing fluency require further work.
• The early years curriculum is not yet consistently effective, with some children finding it difficult to sustain attention and remain engaged.
• Early years curriculum implementation is relatively new and requires further embedding.
• Attendance remains below national figures, and persistent absence is above national averages, although improving.
• Teaching adaptations for pupils with SEND are not fully consistent, and leaders are working to address this.
• Staff should consistently check learning to spot mistakes and misconceptions quickly so pupils can correct them accurately.
• The intended early years curriculum should be delivered consistently well across all provision.
• Curriculum quality should be consistently high across subjects and year groups to improve pupils' achievement.

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 Carmountside Primary Academy attended 93.3% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 22.5% 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, 1.8% of pupils at Carmountside 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 Carmountside Primary Academy had 16.4 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 8.5% 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, 30.6% of pupils at Carmountside Primary Academy were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 1.0% 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 Carmountside Primary Academy received £7,854 and spent £7,602 for each of its 222 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £89,000 (£402 per pupil).

Across all 8 schools of The Societas Trust, income was £6,126 and spending £5,893 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 Stoke-On-Trent · Stoke-on-Trent local authority: places and applications

Carmountside Primary Academy is part of The Societas Trust, which runs 9 schools. The nearest others:

• Ball Green Primary Academy Stoke-On-Trent
• Burnwood Primary Academy Stoke-On-Trent
• Gladstone Primary Academy Stoke-On-Trent
• Ellison Primary Academy Newcastle
• Summerbank Primary Academy Stoke-On-Trent
• Goldenhill Primary Academy Stoke-On-Trent
• Ash Green Primary Academy Stoke-On-Trent
• Alsagers Bank Primary Academy Stoke-On-Trent

What is Carmountside Primary Academy's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Carmountside Primary Academy is Needs attention, from an inspection in September 2026.

When was Carmountside Primary Academy last inspected by Ofsted?

Carmountside Primary Academy was last inspected in September 2026.

How many pupils does Carmountside Primary Academy have?

Carmountside Primary Academy has 196 pupils on roll.

What age range does Carmountside Primary Academy cover?

Carmountside Primary Academy for pupils aged 2 to 11.

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

In 2025, 32% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Carmountside Primary Academy?

Carmountside Primary Academy is at Woodhead Road, Abbey Hulton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST2 8DJ.