Ladybridge Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 21 July 2026

Pupils arrive each day to a warm greeting from caring staff who know them well. This makes them feel safe. Everyone belongs in this welcoming school because they are part of the Ladybridge family. This is reflected in the way that older pupils look after the youngest children by helping them play games at breaktimes and by reading with them in the library. These roles help older pupils to develop leadership skills and a mature sense of responsibility. Pupils are proud to model the school’s core values of resilience, responsibility and respect. They demonstrate positive behaviour and attitudes to learning. Even when they find work challenging, they try hard. Pupils are confident that if bullying should happen, staff will deal with it quickly and fairly. Pupils enjoy their lessons, however pupils’ achievement over time has not been high enough. This includes pupils’ attainment in national tests. Recent work by leaders to improve the curriculum and teaching is helping pupils to gain the knowledge they need, and this is beginning to have a positive impact. Pupils currently in the school are achieving better than pupils in previous years. This means that more pupils are ready for the next stage of their education. However, some pupils, who did not benefit from this curriculum earlier on in their schooling, still have gaps in their knowledge and basic skills, and this slows their progress. Too many pupils do not attend school often enough. Leaders and staff work closely with families to reduce the barriers that some pupils face. This is helping to improve attendance for some pupils. However, a significant number of pupils continue to miss too much school. As a result, these pupils do not achieve as well as they should. Pupils benefit from a very wide variety of enrichment activities designed to develop their talents and interests, broaden their knowledge of the arts and music and give them aspirations for the future.

What the school should improve

• Leaders should ensure that staff use their checks on learning consistently well to identify misconceptions and gaps in pupils' learning and address these effectively so pupils can build secure knowledge across the curriculum.
• At times, the activities that teachers design do not help pupils to demonstrate what they know. Leaders should ensure that teachers consistently design activities that help pupils to develop sufficient depth of knowledge.
• Leaders should continue their work to reduce rates of absence so that all pupils, including those who are disadvantaged, benefit fully from the academic opportunities the school offers and achieve as well as they can.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)