Old Mill Primary School

Old Mill Primary School is performing in line with the expected standard overall, with safeguarding standards met. Pupils are generally achieving well, including disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND, and the school has a strong inclusive, caring ethos. Attendance is above the national average, behaviour is good, and pupils feel safe and valued. Early reading and phonics are prioritised effectively, and personal development is well catered for through PSHE, RSHE, enrichment activities, outdoor learning and pupil leadership roles. The main area needing attention is curriculum and teaching. Some pupils have not secured secure foundations in spelling and handwriting, and inconsistent feedback means errors in basic skills can recur. Leaders have introduced strategies to address this, but they are too recent to show impact. In the early years, staff do not always deepen children’s learning and vocabulary during play-based activities, and some checks on learning for pupils with SEND and on the curriculum do not give leaders a precise enough picture of impact. Leadership is otherwise a strength: staff feel valued, professional learning is strong, and the trust supports and challenges the school effectively. Leaders know the school’s priorities and have high ambitions for all pupils, but they need to monitor improvement work more accurately and ensure staff swiftly identify and resolve misconceptions so that standards are consistently strong.

Strengths

• Inclusive, nurturing ethos where pupils feel safe, happy and valued
• Pupils attend well above the national average, with effective systems to tackle absence
• Pupils behave well in calm, purposeful classrooms, and bullying is rare
• Strong early reading and phonics support helps pupils read accurately and fluently
• Disadvantaged pupils achieve well and benefit from enrichment and support
• Pupils with SEND are identified quickly and supported to access the curriculum and school life
• Broad personal development curriculum, including PSHE, RSHE and online safety
• Wide range of trips, clubs, outdoor learning and pupil leadership roles
• Ambitious, well-sequenced curriculum with secure subject knowledge and good modelling
• Staff feel valued and benefit from high-quality professional learning
• Trust provides effective support and challenge, and safeguarding culture is open and positive

Areas for Improvement

• Some pupils lack secure foundations in spelling and handwriting, leaving them less prepared for next steps
• Feedback quality is inconsistent, so errors in spelling, handwriting and sentence construction recur
• Recently introduced strategies for grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting are too new to show impact
• Early years staff do not consistently deepen children’s learning and vocabulary during play
• Checks on learning for a minority of pupils with SEND are not precise enough to show intervention impact
• Some curriculum checks do not give leaders an accurate picture of impact on pupils’ learning
• Leaders need to monitor improvement work more accurately to ensure consistently strong standards
• Staff need to identify and resolve misconceptions more swiftly

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 Old Mill Primary School attended 96.5% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 2.8% 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, 1.4% of pupils at Old Mill 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 Old Mill Primary School had 28.7 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 20.3% 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, 13.6% of pupils at Old Mill Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 0.8% 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 Old Mill Primary School received £5,375 and spent £6,024 for each of its 367 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £49,000 (£134 per pupil).

Across all 17 schools of Symphony Learning Trust, income was £6,407 and spending £6,172 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 Leicester · Leicestershire local authority: places and applications

Old Mill Primary School is part of Symphony Learning Trust, which runs 20 schools. The nearest others:

• Glen Hills Primary School Leicester
• Fairfield Community Primary School Wigston
• Thythorn Field Community Primary School Wigston
• The Meadow Community Primary School Wigston
• The Hall School Leicester
• Thornton Primary School Coalville
• Foxton Primary School Market Harborough
• Hugglescote Community Primary School Coalville
• Newcroft Primary Academy Loughborough
• Loatlands Primary School Kettering

What is Old Mill Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Old Mill Primary School is Needs attention, from an inspection in January 2026.

When was Old Mill Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Old Mill Primary School was last inspected in January 2026.

How many pupils does Old Mill Primary School have?

Old Mill Primary School has 367 pupils on roll.

What age range does Old Mill Primary School cover?

Old Mill Primary School for pupils aged 4 to 11.

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

In 2025, 73% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Old Mill Primary School?

Old Mill Primary School is at Station Road, Broughton Astley, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE9 6PT.