Freehold Community Academy

About Freehold Community Academy

Freehold Community Academy is a state primary school in Oldham, serving 459 pupils aged 3 to 11, which is above its official capacity of 420. It sits in the middle of the local authority's primary school rankings, placing 36th out of 67 schools, putting it in the bottom half of Oldham's primary sector. For context, the top-performing peers in the borough are Christ Church CofE Primary School, St Martin's CofE Junior Infant and Nursery School, and St Anne's CofE Lydgate Primary School. The school is led by headteacher Nicola Maher and has no religious character. In its most recent graded Ofsted inspection in 2018, it was rated Good overall, with leadership and management also judged Good. A subsequent ungraded inspection in November 2023 confirmed the school remains Good and noted it is improving. The early years provision was separately rated Good in that same graded inspection.

Academically, the school's Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 show that 56% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. This is slightly below the Oldham local authority average of 58%. The school's ranking score of 56 places it in the bottom 50% nationally, at the 66th percentile. In individual subjects, 66% reached the expected standard in reading, 72% in maths, and 77% in writing. At the higher standard, 18% achieved it in reading, 16% in maths, and 11% in writing, while just 5% hit the higher threshold across all three subjects. Average scaled scores were 103 in both reading and maths. The school has a relatively high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at 35.5%, which may provide context for its outcomes compared with more affluent local schools.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including a music room, forest school, gymnasium, ICT suite, outdoor playground, and a chapel. Sports provision covers cross country, rounders, cricket, swimming, gymnastics, dance, and netball, while clubs include choir, drama, film club, eco club, gardening, and chess. The school has a nursery provision and supports pupils with a range of special educational needs, including moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, hearing impairment, and autistic spectrum disorder. For the 2025/26 intake, the school was oversubscribed: 67 applications were received for 50 places, with 50 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.34. This suggests it is a popular choice locally, particularly for families seeking a Good-rated school with strong SEND support and a forest school programme.

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