New Mills Primary School

About New Mills Primary School

New Mills Primary School holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained since its most recent graded inspection in 2013 and confirmed in an ungraded inspection in 2023. The school’s most telling exam metric is the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined at Key Stage 2, which sits at 43 per cent. That is notably below the Derbyshire local authority average of 59 per cent, placing the school 205th out of 353 primary schools in the county. In the High Peak area specifically, it ranks 24th out of 34 schools, putting it in the bottom half of local primaries. The school’s overall ranking score of 43 places it in the bottom 50 per cent nationally, a reflection of the challenge it faces in lifting outcomes across the board.

Digging into the individual subject results, reading is the strongest area: 66 per cent of pupils met the expected standard, and 34 per cent reached the higher standard, with an average scaled score of 105. Writing and maths are weaker, with 57 per cent and 49 per cent achieving the expected standard respectively, and only 17 per cent hitting the higher threshold in each. The average maths score is 101, exactly the national baseline. Just 9 per cent of pupils reached the higher standard in all three subjects combined. These figures suggest the school is more effective at developing reading comprehension than numeracy or extended writing. Compared with its previous Ofsted rating of Requires Improvement in 2011, the school has clearly made progress, but the academic data indicates there is still ground to make up relative to other primaries in Derbyshire.

The school is oversubscribed: for 30 places in the 2025/26 intake, it received 36 first-preference applications and 68 total applications, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.27. This suggests strong local demand despite the middling results. Facilities include a library, music and art rooms, an ICT suite, a sensory room, and a chapel. Sports provision covers rounders, swimming, tennis, cricket, athletics and dance, while clubs include art, book club, coding and chess. The school’s SEND provision is broad, covering dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social and emotional mental health, speech and language needs, hearing and visual impairments, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. With 20.3 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a relatively disadvantaged intake. It will suit families who value a well-resourced, inclusive environment and are comfortable with academic results that trail the local average.

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