New Close Primary School

About New Close Primary School

New Close Primary School is a state-funded mixed primary in Wiltshire, serving 159 pupils aged 4 to 11. Within the local authority’s 159 primary schools, it ranks 107th on the key stage 2 expected standard measure, placing it in the bottom half of the county. The top-performing peers in Wiltshire include Stanton St Quintin Primary and Nursery School, The Holy Trinity Church of England Primary Academy, and Sutton Veny CofE School, all of which sit well above New Close on the same metric. The school is led by headteacher John Bullen and has no religious character. It is oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, with 36 applications for 20 places and 17 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.8. That level of demand suggests a solid local reputation, even if the school’s ranking doesn’t place it among the county’s academic leaders.

In its most recent Ofsted inspection, carried out in March 2022, New Close Primary was rated Good across all five graded categories: overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. The early years provision was also rated Good. This marks a significant improvement from the previous inspection in January 2017, when the school was judged Inadequate overall, with leadership and management also rated Inadequate. At key stage 2, 50% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, which is below the Wiltshire average of 58%. Reading and maths average scores were 103 and 104 respectively, and 67% of pupils reached the expected standard in each of those subjects individually. Only 8% of pupils achieved the higher standard across all three subjects, and the school ranks in the bottom 50% nationally on this measure.

Facilities include a sensory room, ICT suite, music rooms, forest school, library and chapel, and the school offers a range of clubs such as eco club, chess, choir, gardening, book club and science club. Sports on offer are football, cricket, swimming and dance. The school has a broad set of SEND provisions, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disability, autistic spectrum disorder, and other difficulties. With a nursery provision on site, it suits families looking for continuity from early years through to Year 6. The school is oversubscribed, so parents should be prepared for a competitive admissions process. It will appeal particularly to those who value the range of SEND support and the forest school and sensory room facilities, and who are comfortable with a school that has improved its Ofsted rating but sits below the local average on academic outcomes.

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