Great Wood Community Primary School

Great Wood Community Primary School is a small, community-focused primary within The Moorlands Primary Federation. Inspectors found a warm, inclusive school where pupils feel safe, valued and part of a family. Attendance is high, persistent absence is low, behaviour is calm and orderly, and pupils benefit from a broad personal development offer including music, sport, clubs and pupil leadership. Leaders are well connected to the local community, governance is effective, and disadvantaged pupils achieve well. By the end of key stage 2, pupils achieve highly in reading, writing and mathematics, with many reaching the higher standard. Safeguarding standards are met.

Strengths

• High attendance and very low persistent absence, including for pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils.
• Calm, orderly behaviour with rare disruption, bullying and discrimination; older pupils are strong role models.
• A coherent early years curriculum with engaging activities and warm, skilful staff interactions that develop language well.
• Strong leadership and governance rooted in the local community, with effective trust support and attention to staff wellbeing.
• A broad, inclusive personal development programme offering music, sport, clubs, pupil leadership and mental health support.
• Disadvantaged pupils achieve well and take part fully in school life.
• Pupils achieve highly by the end of key stage 2 in reading, writing and mathematics, with many reaching the higher standard.
• Pupils feel safe, valued and included, and most learn well across a broad curriculum.
• Leaders identify the right priorities, such as introducing a new phonics scheme.
• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture of safeguarding.

Areas for Improvement

• Some pupils with SEND do not make the progress they should from their starting points.
• Support plans and lesson adaptations for pupils with SEND lack precision and are not consistently implemented.
• Strategic oversight of inclusion is not swift enough to reduce some pupils' barriers to learning and wellbeing.
• Year 1 phonics results are lower than national outcomes, though a new programme is helping.
• Early years writing activities are not always matched precisely to children's phonics knowledge.
• Handwriting is not taught consistently across the school, so some pupils' writing lacks accuracy and fluency.
• Some pupils struggle to concentrate for longer periods.
• Achievement, curriculum and teaching, and inclusion require improvement.
• Leaders do not always identify and address barriers for pupils known to social care consistently enough.

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 Great Wood Community Primary School attended 96.5% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 5.4% 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, 0.0% of pupils at Great Wood Community 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 Great Wood Community Primary School had 21.5 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 22.2% 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, 7.9% of pupils at Great Wood Community Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 2.0% 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 Great Wood Community Primary School received £7,154 and spent £6,634 for each of its 105 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £219,000 (£2,083 per pupil).

Across all 12 schools of The Moorlands Primary Federation, income was £8,246 and spending £7,899 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 Stoke-On-Trent · Staffordshire local authority: places and applications

Great Wood Community Primary School is part of The Moorlands Primary Federation, which runs 14 schools. The nearest others:

• Bishop Rawle CofE Primary School Stoke-On-Trent
• Dilhorne Endowed CofE Primary School Stoke-On-Trent
• The Valley Primary School Stoke-On-Trent
• St Werburgh's CE (A) Primary School Stoke-On-Trent
• St Leonard's Church of England First School Stoke-On-Trent
• Talbot First School Uttoxeter
• St John's CofE Primary School Wetley Rocks, Stoke-On-Trent
• Waterhouses CofE Primary Academy Stoke-On-Trent
• St. Peter's Church of England First School Uttoxeter
• Ilam Church of England Primary School Ashbourne

What is Great Wood Community Primary School's Ofsted rating?

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

When was Great Wood Community Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Great Wood Community Primary School was last inspected in June 2026.

How many pupils does Great Wood Community Primary School have?

Great Wood Community Primary School has 101 pupils on roll.

What age range does Great Wood Community Primary School cover?

Great Wood Community Primary School for pupils aged 4 to 11.

What are Great Wood Community Primary School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 79% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Great Wood Community Primary School?

Great Wood Community Primary School is at Vicarage Road, Upper Tean, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST10 4LE.