Middleton Community Primary School

About Middleton Community Primary School

Middleton Community Primary School’s headline metrics sit well below the Suffolk local authority average for primary schools, which stands at 58% of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at Key Stage 2. The school’s own figure for 2023/24 is just 29%, a gap of 29 percentage points. This places it 206th out of 253 primary schools in the county and in the bottom 50 nationally by the same measure. The school is small — just 19 pupils against a capacity of 75 — and a quarter of its children (26.3%) are eligible for free school meals, which is above the national average. So while the headline results are low, they need to be read in the context of a very small cohort where a single child’s performance can swing percentages dramatically. The school’s most recent graded Ofsted inspection, in December 2019, rated it Good overall, a significant improvement from its previous Requires Improvement rating in 2015.

Looking more closely at the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results, the picture is mixed. In reading, 71% of pupils met the expected standard and 14% reached the higher standard — both figures that would be respectable in any school. In writing, 71% also met the expected standard, though no child reached the higher level. Maths was the weak spot: only 43% met the expected standard and none achieved the higher standard, with an average scaled score of 98. Progress scores are not available in the data, so it’s not possible to say whether pupils are making strong gains from their starting points. The school’s most recent ungraded inspection in May 2025 confirmed that standards are being maintained across the board, with Good ratings for quality of education, personal development, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management. That suggests the school is stable and delivering consistently, even if the raw attainment numbers look low compared with the LA average.

Middleton Community Primary is a Church of England school with a chapel on site, though it has no formal religious character designation. Its facilities are surprisingly generous for a small rural school: a library, sensory room, forest school area, sports hall, art studios, and playing fields. The school offers a range of sports including cross country, gymnastics, cricket, netball, rounders and swimming, plus clubs such as choir, coding and gardening. It has identified SEND provisions for social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, and autistic spectrum disorder. Admissions for 2025/26 show the school was not oversubscribed: it offered 2 places, received 2 applications, and made 1 first-preference offer. This is a school that would suit families looking for a small, inclusive setting with strong pastoral support and a broad extracurricular offer, particularly if they are comfortable with academic results that sit below the county average.

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