Cottesbrooke Infant and Nursery School

About Cottesbrooke Infant and Nursery School

Cottesbrooke Infant and Nursery School sits in the Birmingham local authority, where the average Key Stage 2 score for primary schools is 63. As an infant school taking children only up to age seven, Cottesbrooke doesn’t publish KS2 results — its pupils leave before that benchmark — so direct academic comparison with the LA average isn’t possible. What is clear from the data is that the school is in high demand. For its 56 reception places in the 2025/26 admissions round, it received 92 applications, making it oversubscribed with a ratio of 1.64 applicants per place. Of those, 50 families put it as their first preference, and all 50 were offered a spot. That level of first-preference satisfaction suggests parents in Birmingham see it as a strong local option, even without the headline KS2 metric to lean on.

The school’s most recent graded Ofsted inspection, in 2013, rated it Good overall, with leadership and management also judged Good. A subsequent ungraded inspection in February 2022 confirmed the school remains Good. That’s a notable improvement from its previous graded inspection in 2011, when it was rated Requires Improvement across the board. The 2022 visit didn’t produce fresh sub-category scores, so we don’t have updated breakdowns for quality of education, behaviour, or early years provision. But the sustained Good rating over a decade — with an intervening upgrade — points to stable leadership under headteacher William Loughlin. With 35.1 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a community with above-average disadvantage, yet it has held its Good rating through two consecutive inspections.

Cottesbrooke offers a nursery provision for three-year-olds, which feeds into its main school for ages four to seven. Facilities include a sensory room, music rooms, a library, an ICT suite, and a gymnasium, plus playing fields and a chapel. Sports on offer range from gymnastics and dance to netball and cross country, and clubs include science, gardening, film, choir, and drama. The school’s SEND provisions cover specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, speech and language needs, social and emotional mental health, visual impairment, and autistic spectrum disorder — a broad offer for a small infant school. With 328 pupils against a capacity of 348, there is a little headroom, but the oversubscription data suggests places are tight. This is a school that suits families in Birmingham looking for a Good-rated infant setting with strong SEND support and a wide range of enrichment activities, particularly those who can secure a place early.

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