Saxmundham Primary School

Saxmundham Primary School is performing well overall, achieving a 'Good' rating in all inspected areas including quality of education, behaviour, personal development, leadership, and early years provision. The school supports its pupils well, with particular emphasis on emotional well-being and academic achievement in English and mathematics. A strong commitment to ensuring that disadvantaged pupils thrive is evident, and the school's strategy for reading, starting from Reception, has created a positive reading culture. The school has also not been previously inspected under section 5, marking this as a significant moment in its educational journey.

Strengths

• Pupils feel happy and safe at school.
• Strong focus on creating fluent readers from an early age.
• Effective support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
• Wide range of extracurricular activities encouraging community involvement.
• Good attendance support and improvement strategies.

Areas for Improvement

• Some subjects do not adequately revisit prior learning before introducing new concepts.
• Reception children occasionally face challenges with tasks beyond their current understanding.

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 Saxmundham Primary School attended 94.9% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 12.1% 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, 10.2% of pupils at Saxmundham 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 Saxmundham Primary School had 19.1 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 32.6% 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, 23.4% of pupils at Saxmundham Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 7.5% 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 Saxmundham Primary School received £7,593 and spent £7,417 for each of its 247 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £330,000 (£1,338 per pupil).

Across all 10 schools of East Anglian Schools Trust Ltd, income was £7,560 and spending £7,510 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 Saxmundham · Suffolk local authority: places and applications

Saxmundham Primary School is part of East Anglian Schools Trust Ltd, which runs 11 schools. The nearest others:

• Leiston Primary School Leiston
• Easton Primary School Woodbridge
• Aldeburgh Primary School Aldeburgh
• Wickham Market Primary School Woodbridge
• Farlingaye High School Woodbridge
• Kyson Primary School Woodbridge
• Kesgrave High School Ipswich
• Bungay High School Bungay
• Castle EAST School Bungay
• Holbrook Academy Ipswich

What is Saxmundham Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Saxmundham Primary School is Good, from an inspection in May 2024.

When was Saxmundham Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Saxmundham Primary School was last inspected in May 2024.

How many pupils does Saxmundham Primary School have?

Saxmundham Primary School has 252 pupils on roll.

What age range does Saxmundham Primary School cover?

Saxmundham Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

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

In 2025, 63% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Saxmundham Primary School?

Saxmundham Primary School is at Brook Farm Road, Saxmundham, Suffolk, IP17 1XQ.