Northbrook Primary Academy

About Northbrook Primary Academy

Northbrook Primary Academy in South Ribble is a state primary for mixed pupils aged 4 to 11, and it’s clearly a school that local families want to get into. For the 2025/26 admissions cycle, the school was oversubscribed with a ratio of 3.09 applications per place, receiving 68 total applications for just 22 spots. Of those, 21 were first-preference applications, and exactly 21 first-preference offers were made, meaning every family who put it first got a place. That level of demand suggests a strong local reputation, though there’s no parent-view survey data available to back that up directly. The school has a nursery provision, which may also feed into its popularity. Headteacher Jillian Shorrocks leads a relatively small school of 185 pupils against a capacity of 195, so there’s a little breathing room, but not much. With 40.5% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the intake is significantly above the national average, reflecting the community it serves.

Academically, Northbrook’s most recent Ofsted inspection in May 2024 rated it Requires Improvement overall, a step up from its previous Inadequate rating in 2019. The improvement is real: behaviour and attitudes, and personal development, both scored Good, while quality of education, leadership and management, and early years provision all sit at Requires Improvement. In the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results, 56% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, which is below the Lancashire local authority average of 60%. The school ranks 22nd out of 35 primary schools in South Ribble on that metric, placing it in the bottom half locally and nationally in the bottom 65th percentile. Individual subject scores are mixed: maths is a relative strength, with a high average score of 107 and 48% of pupils reaching the higher standard, while reading and writing are weaker, with 0% achieving higher in writing. Progress measures are not available, so it’s hard to say how much value the school adds.

The school offers a decent range of facilities including a sports hall, gymnasium, library, ICT suite, and a forest school, plus playing fields and an outdoor playground. Sports on offer include swimming, netball, tennis, athletics and football, and there are clubs such as gardening, art, film, eco and coding. SEND provision is broad, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, speech and language needs, hearing impairment, autistic spectrum disorder, and social, emotional and mental health support. For families considering alternatives, the nearest Outstanding-rated primary is Euxton Primrose Hill Primary School, 3.1 km away. Northbrook is a school that has clearly turned a corner from its previous Inadequate rating, and its oversubscription suggests confidence from local parents. It may particularly suit families who value the forest school and strong behaviour culture, and who are comfortable with a school still working through its improvement journey.

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