Woodlands Primary Academy

Woodlands Primary Academy is a welcoming and inclusive school where pupils feel happy, safe and well known by staff. Behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision are all good, and safeguarding arrangements are effective. The school has recently emerged from a period of instability and has raised expectations, with the trust providing strong support and staff feeling valued and well supported.

Strengths

• Pupils feel happy, safe and respected in a vibrant and inclusive school community.
• Behaviour is good, with pupils attentive, courteous and rarely disrupting learning.
• Early reading and phonics are a high priority, and pupils become avid readers by Year 6.
• Pupils with SEND are identified effectively and the curriculum is adapted well to meet their needs.
• Personal development is strong, with a wide range of clubs, enrichment weeks and roles of responsibility.
• Attendance has improved significantly through partnership work with families.
• Leadership and governance are good, with effective trust support and accurate self-evaluation.
• Early years provision is good, helping children learn to interact positively from the start.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Areas for Improvement

• The quality of education requires improvement because the curriculum is not consistently implemented across all subjects.
• In some subjects, staff lack the skills to explain content clearly and design activities that help pupils learn well.
• Approaches to helping pupils revisit and remember essential knowledge are not used consistently.
• Some pupils do not develop a secure enough knowledge base to build new learning on.
• In a minority of subjects, weaker curriculum delivery prevents pupils from achieving as well as they should.

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 Woodlands Primary Academy attended 94.0% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 18.3% 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, 0.3% of pupils at Woodlands 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 Woodlands Primary Academy had 22.4 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 35.0% 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, 19.2% of pupils at Woodlands Primary Academy were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 3.8% 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 Woodlands Primary Academy received £7,372 and spent £6,828 for each of its 328 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £373,000 (£1,137 per pupil).

Across all 10 schools of South Pennine Academies, income was £8,124 and spending £8,234 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 Oldham · Oldham local authority: places and applications

Woodlands Primary Academy is part of South Pennine Academies, which runs 10 schools. The nearest others:

• Willowpark Primary Academy Oldham
• Greenacres Primary Academy Oldham
• Moor End Academy Huddersfield
• Beaumont Primary Academy Huddersfield
• Hillside Primary School Huddersfield
• Brambles Primary Academy Huddersfield
• Park Lane Academy Halifax
• Kirkheaton Primary School Huddersfield
• Orchard Primary Academy Dewsbury

What is Woodlands Primary Academy's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Woodlands Primary Academy is Requires Improvement, from an inspection in April 2025.

When was Woodlands Primary Academy last inspected by Ofsted?

Woodlands Primary Academy was last inspected in April 2025.

How many pupils does Woodlands Primary Academy have?

Woodlands Primary Academy has 292 pupils on roll.

What age range does Woodlands Primary Academy cover?

Woodlands Primary Academy for pupils aged 2 to 11.

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

In 2025, 40% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Woodlands Primary Academy?

Woodlands Primary Academy is at Woodlands Primary Academy, Broadbent Road, Oldham, Greater Manchester, OL1 4HU.