Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy

Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy is meeting expected standards overall, with inclusion and personal development/wellbeing judged as strong. Safeguarding standards are met. Inspectors found an ambitious, caring school where pupils behave very well, attendance is improving, and pupils with SEND or other barriers are identified and supported effectively. The school is part of the Mulberry Schools multi-academy trust and serves a deprived catchment with a high proportion of disadvantaged pupils and above-average SEN support.

Strengths

• Embedded systems identify and support pupils with SEND and other barriers to learning.
• Strong partnership working with external specialists, including speech and language therapists and educational psychologists.
• The Mozart provision provides high-quality, individually tailored specialist support.
• Personal development and wellbeing are very well considered across the curriculum.
• Pupils develop mature understanding of health, safety, online safety and respectful relationships.
• An extensive enrichment programme includes visits, residentials and community performances.
• Pupils take on meaningful responsibilities such as school council, eco-warriors, playground friends and librarians.
• Behaviour is calm and purposeful, with warm relationships and consistently high expectations.
• Bullying is extremely rare and pupils trust staff to resolve concerns quickly.
• Early reading and phonics are prioritised, with well-matched books and swift catch-up support.
• A whole-school focus on spoken language helps pupils speak in full sentences and use complex vocabulary.
• Attendance is improving, with disadvantaged pupils attending better than their peers nationally.
• Governance is effective and leaders are ambitious for the school and community.
• Staff value professional development and leaders' work to manage workload and prioritise wellbeing.
• Parents and carers engage well and support recent improvements.

Areas for Improvement

• Variability in teaching leaves gaps in some pupils' understanding over time.
• Pupils' errors and misconceptions are not consistently identified and addressed.
• Some activities chosen for pupils do not match the ambition of the planned curriculum.
• Early writing development needs further work so pupils write with consistent precision and fluency.
• Early years adult-child interactions are variable, with missed opportunities to model and extend language.
• Leadership at all levels needs further development so newer leaders can contribute fully to improvement.
• Attendance remains a priority because overall absence and persistent absence are still above national averages, despite recent improvement.

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 Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy attended 93.7% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 20.1% 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 Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy 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 Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy had 17.9 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 26.9% 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, 15.1% of pupils at Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 9.2% 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 Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy received £11,260 and spent £11,021 for each of its 162 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £259,000 (£1,603 per pupil).

Across all 13 schools of Mulberry Schools Trust, income was £9,786 and spending £9,651 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 Tower Hamlets · Tower Hamlets local authority: places and applications

Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy is part of Mulberry Schools Trust, which runs 14 schools. The nearest others:

• Mulberry School for Girls London
• Mulberry Academy London Dock London
• Mulberry Academy Shoreditch London
• Mulberry Stepney Green Mathematics and Computing College London
• Mulberry UTC London
• Mulberry Wood Wharf Primary School London
• Mulberry Academy Woodside London
• Bexhill High Academy Bexhill-On-Sea
• Mulberry Silverdale Primary St Leonards-On-Sea
• Mulberry West St Leonards Primary St Leonards-On-Sea

What is Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy is Expected standard, from an inspection in July 2026.

When was Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy last inspected by Ofsted?

Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy was last inspected in July 2026.

How many pupils does Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy have?

Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy has 152 pupils on roll.

What age range does Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy cover?

Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy for pupils aged 3 to 11.

What are Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 59% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy?

Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy is at Gunthorpe Street, Aldgate, London, E1 7RQ.