Waterloo Primary School

Waterloo Primary School is a richly diverse and welcoming school where pupils feel a genuine sense of belonging and safety. Leaders have refined the curriculum since the previous inspection, and teaching is improving, but published outcomes have not yet caught up with the quality of provision. The school serves a highly disadvantaged community with high mobility and a rising number of pupils with additional needs. Most areas of the school's work are evaluated at the expected standard, while achievement requires attention.

Strengths

• Pupils behave well and attend school regularly, with disadvantaged pupils attending more regularly than their peers nationally.
• Leaders know families well and provide practical, well-considered support to improve attendance.
• Pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils receive effective and timely support, and typically make good progress.
• The early years provision is welcoming and purposeful, with a strong focus on communication and language.
• Leaders, governors and trustees work effectively together and have an accurate understanding of the school's strengths and areas for improvement.
• The personal development programme is inclusive, coherent and responsive to pupils' needs.
• Pastoral support is purposeful and well considered, including a programme that helps pupils manage their feelings.
• The school's inclusive ethos and community feel are valued by parents and carers.
• Leaders find creative solutions to barriers such as the cost of activities so that every pupil can take part.

Areas for Improvement

• Pupils do not consistently build the important basic knowledge they need across the curriculum.
• Teachers do not consistently use their knowledge of pupils to pitch work at the right level, so higher-attaining pupils do not reach greater depth.
• Phonics is not taught to the same high standard across the early years and key stage 1, meaning some children do not receive the same quality of teaching.
• The proportion of pupils achieving the expected standard in the phonics screening check is below average.
• Outcomes in national tests in reading, writing and mathematics at the end of key stage 2 are below the national average.
• Pupils are not as well prepared for their next stage of education as they should be.
• Some pupils have gaps in important knowledge across the curriculum, particularly in writing.

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 Waterloo Primary School attended 94.9% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 14.2% 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, 1.7% of pupils at Waterloo 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 Waterloo Primary School had 14.5 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 5.5% 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, 17.4% of pupils at Waterloo Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 2.7% 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 Waterloo Primary School received £7,335 and spent £6,420 for each of its 337 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £238,000 (£709 per pupil).

Across all 9 schools of Prestolee Multi Academy Trust, income was £6,887 and spending £6,506 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 Ashton-Under-Lyne · Tameside local authority: places and applications

Waterloo Primary School is part of Prestolee Multi Academy Trust, which runs 10 schools. The nearest others:

• Hollingworth Primary School Hyde
• The Derby High School Lancs
• Springside Primary School Bury
• Prestolee Primary School Manchester
• Barton Moss Community Primary School Manchester
• Mesne Lea Primary School Manchester
• Tottington Primary School Bury
• Bowness Primary School Bolton
• Fiddlers Lane Community Primary School Salford

What is Waterloo Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Waterloo Primary School is Needs attention, from an inspection in June 2026.

When was Waterloo Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Waterloo Primary School was last inspected in June 2026.

How many pupils does Waterloo Primary School have?

Waterloo Primary School has 293 pupils on roll.

What age range does Waterloo Primary School cover?

Waterloo Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

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

In 2025, 49% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Waterloo Primary School?

Waterloo Primary School is at Worthington Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, OL7 9NA.