Sandhills Community Primary School

Sandhills Community Primary School is an inclusive and caring school that is performing at the expected standard overall, with early years provision judged strong. Safeguarding standards are met. Pupils are happy, behave well and attend regularly, and they benefit from a broad curriculum, effective pastoral support and a wide enrichment offer. Leadership is ambitious, trust governance is effective, and the school has had significant recent change, including a new headteacher from September 2023 and a new senior leadership team.

Strengths

• Early years provision is strong, with children thriving and outcomes above national averages.
• Staff use high-quality interactions and a carefully designed early years curriculum.
• Reading and phonics are taught effectively, helping pupils read fluently.
• Vocabulary teaching is a strength, with systematic and precise instruction.
• Pupils behave well, and lessons and social times are calm and purposeful.
• Most pupils attend regularly, and leaders act promptly on attendance concerns.
• The school is inclusive, with early identification of need and strong support for pupils with complex SEND.
• Pastoral support is highly effective and helps pupils become resilient and independent.
• Personal development and enrichment are broad, including clubs, music, trips and pupil leadership.
• Leadership and trust governance are effective, with thoughtful workload and wellbeing support.
• Safeguarding standards are met.

Areas for Improvement

• Disadvantaged pupils' published outcomes are well below national averages, with a large disadvantage gap.
• Improvements in achievement need to be sustained, particularly for disadvantaged pupils in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Barriers to learning are not yet addressed consistently through systematic adaptations and interventions.
• Strategies promoting pupils' active participation in learning are not fully embedded.
• Handwriting skills are not yet consistent across the whole school.
• Pupils' ability to make connections across curriculum learning is less well developed.

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 Sandhills Community Primary School attended 95.2% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 11.2% 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, 0.5% of pupils at Sandhills 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 Sandhills Community Primary School had 19.6 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 22.7% 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, 15.5% of pupils at Sandhills Community Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 4.7% 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 Sandhills Community Primary School received £7,103 and spent £7,014 for each of its 217 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £213,000 (£981 per pupil).

Across all 30 schools of River Learning Trust, income was £8,007 and spending £7,763 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 Oxford · Oxfordshire local authority: places and applications

Sandhills Community Primary School is part of River Learning Trust, which runs 30 schools. The nearest others:

• Bayards Hill School Oxford
• Barton Park Primary School Oxford
• Horspath Church of England Primary School Oxford
• Cheney School Oxford
• Wheatley Park School Oxford
• New Marston Primary School Oxford
• Beckley Church of England Primary School Oxford
• The Swan School Oxford
• Larkrise Primary School Oxford
• The Oxford Academy Oxford

What is Sandhills Community Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Sandhills Community Primary School is Expected standard, from an inspection in October 2026.

When was Sandhills Community Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Sandhills Community Primary School was last inspected in October 2026.

How many pupils does Sandhills Community Primary School have?

Sandhills Community Primary School has 193 pupils on roll.

What age range does Sandhills Community Primary School cover?

Sandhills Community Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

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

In 2025, 57% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Sandhills Community Primary School?

Sandhills Community Primary School is at Terrett Avenue, Sandhills, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX3 8FN.