Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School

Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School is a happy, welcoming school where pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, achieve well from their starting points. Inspectors found a calm, purposeful environment with high expectations for behaviour and learning, strong pastoral support and effective safeguarding. The school's SEND resource unit and adapted teaching class are notable strengths, providing bespoke support and a well-adapted curriculum for pupils with complex needs. This was the school's first section 5 inspection; it is an academy within Esteem Multi-Academy Trust and has recent executive headteacher and head of school arrangements. The curriculum is ambitious and coherent from Nursery to Year 2, and reading is a particular strength: children become competent early readers and pupils who struggle are helped to catch up. Attendance is monitored closely and improving, and staff feel exceptionally well supported with workload and wellbeing. Leaders, governors and the trust work well together. However, in a small number of subjects, staff do not always identify and correct pupils' misconceptions promptly, so some pupils move on before they are secure. The school also needs to broaden pupils' wider curriculum experiences so they can develop talents and interests beyond the classroom.

Strengths

• Pupils are happy and well cared for in a welcoming school community.
• The ambitious and coherent curriculum runs from Nursery to Year 2.
• Strong systems identify and support pupils with SEND.
• The SEND resource unit provides bespoke programmes and a well-adapted curriculum.
• The reading programme is effective from Reception and pupils develop secure phonics knowledge.
• Pupils behave well and show highly positive attitudes to learning.
• Staff have high expectations of pupils' achievement and behaviour, including pupils with SEND.
• Attendance is monitored closely and is improving through swift action.
• Pastoral support is a strength of the school.
• Pupils are respectful, well-mannered and understand how to stay safe.
• Pupils take pride in leadership roles such as kindness captains and school councillors.
• Staff are exceptionally positive about support for workload and wellbeing.
• The school, governors and trust work in harmony.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Areas for Improvement

• In a small number of subjects, staff do not identify and resolve pupils' misconceptions promptly, so some pupils move on before they are ready.
• The school does not have a carefully planned range of experiences to develop pupils' talents and interests, limiting wider curriculum opportunities.

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 Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School attended 92.2% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 26.1% 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, 0.0% of pupils at Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery 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 Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School had 14.4 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 40.2% 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, 21.3% of pupils at Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 25.8% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

The school has resourced provision with 29 pupils.

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 Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School received £10,040 and spent £13,164 for each of its 146 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £515,000 (£3,527 per pupil).

Across all 9 schools of Esteem Multi-Academy Trust, income was £26,475 and spending £26,077 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 Swadlincote · Derbyshire local authority: places and applications

Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School is part of Esteem Multi-Academy Trust, which runs 9 schools. The nearest others:

• The Fountains High School Burton-On-Trent
• The Fountains Primary School Burton-On-Trent
• St Clare's School Derby
• Stanton Vale School Nottingham
• Holbrook School for Autism Belper
• Bennerley Fields School Ilkeston
• Bracken Hill School Nottingham
• Peak School High Peak

What is Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School is Good, from an inspection in November 2024.

When was Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School last inspected by Ofsted?

Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School was last inspected in November 2024.

How many pupils does Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School have?

Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School has 155 pupils on roll.

What age range does Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School cover?

Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School for pupils aged 3 to 7.

Where is Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School?

Elmsleigh Infant & Nursery School is at Queen's Drive, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, DE11 0EG.