Castle Academy

Castle Academy is a larger-than-average primary school in central Northampton, part of East Midlands Academy Trust, serving a community with well-above-average location deprivation, a high proportion of pupils who speak English as an additional language, and a specially resourced provision for 10 pupils with speech, language and communication needs. Safeguarding standards are met, and inspectors found a harmonious school where pupils feel safe, behave exceptionally well and benefit from strong attendance and an extensive personal development programme. Attendance and behaviour and personal development and wellbeing are graded strong standard. The school is graded expected standard in achievement, curriculum and teaching, early years, inclusion, and leadership and governance. Pupils attain in line with national averages by the end of Year 6, with particularly strong mathematics results and improving reading and phonics. The curriculum is ambitious and well designed, and leaders provide effective training, governance and parental engagement. However, some aspects are not yet consistently strong: curriculum delivery and adaptations vary, additional group support can sometimes hinder learning, early years interactions are not consistently maximised, and monitoring of inclusion and disadvantaged-pupil strategies lacks rigour. Next steps focus on embedding consistent curriculum delivery, sharpening early years high-quality interactions, and robustly reviewing inclusion strategies so they have the intended impact, especially for disadvantaged pupils. Overall, this is a well-led, caring school with strong pastoral and behavioural foundations and clear capacity to improve further; no area was graded needs attention or urgent improvement.

Strengths

• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture where concerns are actively identified and managed.
• Attendance is strong, and persistent absence is consistently lower than national averages for all pupil groups.
• Pupils' behaviour is exemplary, with a calm, respectful environment highly conducive to learning.
• Personal development and wellbeing provision is extensive, deeply impactful and tailored to the school community.
• Pupils feel safe, valued and proud of their diversity, and bullying or discrimination is rare and dealt with promptly.
• Pupils attain in line with national averages by the end of Year 6 despite the challenging school context.
• Disadvantaged pupils attain at least in line with national comparisons overall, including strong mathematics outcomes.
• The curriculum is ambitious, well designed and sequenced logically across subjects.
• Leaders have improved mathematics and are strengthening reading and phonics, accelerating pupils' progress.
• Early years provision gives children a positive start, with warm relationships and rapidly improving phonics.
• Inclusion is a high priority, with additional needs identified quickly and suitable staff training in place.
• Leadership and governance are effective, with strong trust support, high-quality staff training and positive parental engagement.

Areas for Improvement

• Curriculum delivery is not consistently well embedded; agreed teaching strategies and adaptations are not always used effectively.
• Adaptations for some pupils lack precision, and additional group-work support can sometimes hinder rather than help learning.
• Early years staff do not consistently maximise high-quality interactions to extend children's learning.
• Monitoring of inclusion and disadvantaged-pupil strategies lacks rigour, so leaders do not identify ineffective approaches quickly enough.
• Tailored support for pupils' communication needs in the specially resourced provision needs to be strengthened and made more precise.

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 Castle Academy attended 95.5% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 10.0% 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, 0.7% of pupils at Castle 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 Castle Academy had 20.3 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 11.2% 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, 13.0% of pupils at Castle Academy were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 4.4% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

The school has a SEN unit with 9 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 Castle Academy received £7,347 and spent £7,315 for each of its 429 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £618,000 (£1,440 per pupil).

Across all 12 schools of East Midlands Academy Trust, income was £7,645 and spending £7,616 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 Northampton · West Northamptonshire local authority: places and applications

Castle Academy is part of East Midlands Academy Trust, which runs 12 schools. The nearest others:

• Northampton International Academy Northampton
• Stimpson Avenue Academy Northampton
• Hardingstone Academy Northampton
• Naseby Church of England Primary Academy Northampton
• Shepherdswell Academy Milton Keynes
• Orchard Academy Milton Keynes
• Culworth Church of England Primary Academy Banbury
• Wilbarston Church of England Primary School Market Harborough
• Boddington Church of England Primary Academy Daventry
• Chacombe CEVA Primary Academy Banbury

What is Castle Academy's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Castle Academy is Expected standard, from an inspection in June 2026.

When was Castle Academy last inspected by Ofsted?

Castle Academy was last inspected in June 2026.

How many pupils does Castle Academy have?

Castle Academy has 455 pupils on roll.

What age range does Castle Academy cover?

Castle Academy for pupils aged 3 to 11.

What are Castle Academy's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 69% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Castle Academy?

Castle Academy is at St George's Street, Northampton, Northamptonshire, NN1 2TR.