Springside Primary School

Springside Primary School is a good school across all inspected areas: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. This was its first routine inspection since the COVID-19 pandemic and its first graded inspection since becoming an academy in 2022, so no overall effectiveness grade was given. The school is part of the Prestolee Multi Academy Trust. Pupils are warmly welcomed, well supported and behave politely and respectfully in a calm, orderly environment. The school places a strong emphasis on personal development, and pupils benefit from roles that help them support younger pupils and look after emotional well-being. Staff are skilled at meeting the needs of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), who flourish and achieve well.

Strengths

• Warm and caring environment with strong support for pupils, especially those with SEND
• Children settle quickly in the early years and benefit from a wide range of learning opportunities
• Established routines create a calm, well-ordered school where pupils are polite, respectful and well-behaved
• High focus on personal development, including assemblies, celebratory rewards and pupil roles
• Older pupils support younger pupils effectively as play leaders and lunchtime monitors
• Ambitious, well-organised curriculum that builds knowledge progressively from Nursery to Year 6
• Pupils recall useful knowledge with increasing ease, helping them learn new information successfully
• Curriculum development has helped teachers manage their workload more effectively
• Reading is central to the curriculum and includes high-quality literature that broadens pupils’ horizons
• Decisive action to improve phonics has given early years children a flying start in reading and writing
• Staff are well trained to identify and meet differing needs, including SEND, and make skilful adaptations
• Pupils with SEND flourish and achieve well
• Pupils understand the school’s rules and values and appreciate being part of a diverse community
• Positive relationships with the trust and local governing body, with trust support helping the school improve

Areas for Improvement

• Teachers do not consistently check pupils’ understanding before moving on to new learning
• Some teachers do not notice or address pupils’ misconceptions
• Support is sometimes not appropriately matched for pupils who find learning more difficult
• Some pupils’ writing is hampered by incorrect letter formation, affecting legibility and fluency
• Some pupils in Years 1 and 2 do not develop fluency and accuracy in reading as well as they could
• Reading difficulties affect some pupils’ access to the wider curriculum
• The school’s systems for checking the impact of the revised curriculum are at an early stage
• The school is not always clear where to focus support to help teachers deliver the curriculum most effectively
• Curriculum leaders are not consistently well equipped to check how well pupils are learning the intended curriculum

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 Springside Primary School attended 94.4% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 14.7% 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 Springside 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 Springside Primary School had 23.9 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 0.0% 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, 11.7% of pupils at Springside Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 3.3% 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 Springside Primary School received £6,900 and spent £6,706 for each of its 246 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £174,000 (£709 per pupil).

Across all 9 schools of Prestolee Multi Academy Trust, income was £6,887 and spending £6,506 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 Bury · Bury local authority: places and applications

Springside Primary School is part of Prestolee Multi Academy Trust, which runs 10 schools. The nearest others:

• Tottington Primary School Bury
• The Derby High School Lancs
• Bowness Primary School Bolton
• Prestolee Primary School Manchester
• Mesne Lea Primary School Manchester
• Barton Moss Community Primary School Manchester
• Waterloo Primary School Ashton-Under-Lyne
• Fiddlers Lane Community Primary School Salford
• Hollingworth Primary School Hyde

What is Springside Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Springside Primary School is Good, from an inspection in March 2025.

When was Springside Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Springside Primary School was last inspected in March 2025.

How many pupils does Springside Primary School have?

Springside Primary School has 239 pupils on roll.

What age range does Springside Primary School cover?

Springside Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

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

In 2025, 66% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Springside Primary School?

Springside Primary School is at Springside Road, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 5JB.