Burnley Brow Community School

About Burnley Brow Community School

Burnley Brow Community School sits within Oldham local authority, a mixed state primary for ages 3 to 11 that ranks 23rd out of 67 primary schools in the borough. That puts it in the top half of Oldham’s primaries, though it trails the three top-performing peers nearby: Christ Church CofE Primary School, St Martin’s CofE Junior Infant and Nursery School, and St Anne’s CofE Lydgate Primary School, each of which scores notably higher on the same ranking metric. The school is also within a kilometre of Westwood Academy, one of only four primaries in Oldham currently rated Outstanding by Ofsted. Burnley Brow itself holds a Good rating from its most recent graded inspection in 2014, confirmed by an ungraded visit in 2023 that found the school remains Good. Headteacher Helen Atkinson-Smith leads a school of 476 pupils, very close to its capacity of 480, and the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals stands at 31.8 per cent, well above the national average.

In the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 assessments, 65 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. That is comfortably above the Oldham local authority average of 58 per cent, and places Burnley Brow in the top 50 per cent nationally. The school’s average scaled scores in reading and maths both sit at 105, and 77 per cent of pupils met the expected standard in maths specifically, with 75 per cent doing so in reading and 70 per cent in writing. At the higher standard, the picture is more mixed: 25 per cent of pupils achieved a higher score in reading, 22 per cent in maths, but just 2 per cent in both writing and the combined measure. The school’s Ofsted breakdown shows that leadership and management, early years provision, and overall effectiveness were all rated Good in the 2014 graded inspection, with early years having previously been Outstanding in 2010.

The school offers a nursery provision and a range of facilities including a library, art studios, playing fields, a forest school, an outdoor playground and a chapel. Sports on offer include football, swimming, tennis and cricket, while clubs cover drama, art, choir, chess, science and eco. The school has identified SEND provisions for moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, and autistic spectrum disorder. For the 2025/26 intake, the school was oversubscribed: 79 applications for 55 places, with 53 first-preference offers made. That oversubscription ratio of 1.44 suggests a school that is popular locally, particularly among families who value solid above-average KS2 outcomes and a broad set of extracurricular activities within a large, diverse primary setting.

Key Details

Frequently Asked Questions About Burnley Brow Community School

Helpful Guides for Parents