Southbroom Infants' School

Southbroom Infants’ School is a warm and welcoming infant academy that has moved from a previous Requires improvement grade to strong judgements across the board, with outstanding personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. Leaders have built a highly ambitious and engaging curriculum from Nursery onwards, and pupils achieve well and are well prepared for the next stage of education. The school’s work on reading, SEND support and attendance is particularly effective, and pupils behave calmly and positively. The school’s personal development offer is exceptional, with pupils benefiting from leadership roles, visits, performances and careers-related experiences that raise aspirations. Leadership across the White Horse Federation is a notable strength, and staff feel very well supported with workload and professional development. Safeguarding arrangements are effective. The main area for improvement is that in some subjects pupils are not given enough opportunities to develop their language and communication skills, which limits their ability to talk about their learning and use subject-specific vocabulary. This is the key next step for the trust and school to address so that pupils can deepen their understanding consistently across the curriculum.

Strengths

• Warm and welcoming environment where pupils feel valued, happy and safe
• High ambition for pupils with an exciting and engaging curriculum
• Highly effective curriculum that builds knowledge logically from Nursery
• Exceptional early years provision with strong communication and language development
• Reading is at the heart of the curriculum and pupils become confident readers
• Effective support for pupils with SEND from the start of Nursery
• Pupils behave well, follow routines and show positive attitudes to learning
• Attendance systems have been strengthened and individual attendance has improved
• Outstanding personal development opportunities that raise pupils’ aspirations
• Strong partnership with parents and carers to support learning at home
• Leaders across the trust support the school exceptionally well
• Staff feel well supported with workload and professional development
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective

Areas for Improvement

• In some subjects, pupils do not have enough opportunities to develop language skills and subject-specific vocabulary
• Pupils sometimes find it difficult to talk about what they know, limiting how deeply they build knowledge

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 Southbroom Infants' School attended 92.7% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 18.4% 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, 2.4% of pupils at Southbroom Infants' 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 Southbroom Infants' School had 14.0 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 52.8% 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, 29.6% of pupils at Southbroom Infants' School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 2.8% 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 Southbroom Infants' School received £9,812 and spent £10,904 for each of its 74 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £46,000 (£622 per pupil).

Across all 30 schools of The White Horse Federation, income was £7,712 and spending £7,474 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 Devizes · Wiltshire local authority: places and applications

Southbroom Infants' School is part of The White Horse Federation, which runs 30 schools. The nearest others:

• Devizes School Devizes
• Seend Church of England Primary School Melksham
• Melksham Oak Community School Melksham
• Forest and Sandridge Church of England Primary School Melksham
• Bowerhill Primary School Melksham
• The Manor CofE VC Primary School Melksham
• St George's Church of England Primary School, Semington Trowbridge
• Shaw CE Primary School Melksham
• St Mary's Broughton Gifford Voluntary Controlled Church of England Primary School Melksham
• Larkhill Primary School Salisbury

What is Southbroom Infants' School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Southbroom Infants' School is Good, from an inspection in July 2025.

When was Southbroom Infants' School last inspected by Ofsted?

Southbroom Infants' School was last inspected in July 2025.

How many pupils does Southbroom Infants' School have?

Southbroom Infants' School has 71 pupils on roll.

What age range does Southbroom Infants' School cover?

Southbroom Infants' School for pupils aged 2 to 7.

Where is Southbroom Infants' School?

Southbroom Infants' School is at The Green, Southbroom Road, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 5AA.