Peak Forest Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

About Peak Forest Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

Peak Forest Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School is a small village primary in the High Peak, with just 32 pupils on roll against a capacity of 49. That means the school is running at roughly 65% of its physical capacity, which is not unusual for a rural primary, but it does mean there is plenty of space for new families. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals stands at 15.6%, which is slightly below the national average for primary schools and suggests a relatively low-deprivation intake. Despite the spare capacity, the school was oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, receiving 13 applications for 9 places — an oversubscription ratio of 1.44. All 8 first-preference applicants were offered a place, so if you live nearby and put it first, your chances look strong. The school is a Church of England voluntary controlled primary, so while it has a religious character, admissions are managed by the local authority rather than the church itself.

Academically, the school’s most recent graded Ofsted inspection in 2015 rated it Good overall, with Good for leadership and management and Good for early years provision. A subsequent ungraded inspection in January 2025 confirmed that standards have been maintained. That is a solid, stable picture. The previous graded inspection in 2013 had rated the school Requires Improvement, so the improvement to Good and the sustained performance since then is a positive trajectory. For key stage 2 outcomes, the local authority average for primary schools is 59, which gives you a benchmark, though individual school results for Peak Forest are not in the data. The school does not have a sixth form, as it is a primary, and there are no exam results to report beyond the Ofsted judgement. What you can take from this is a school that has been reliably Good for a decade, with no recent signs of slippage.

The school offers a decent range of facilities for a small primary: a library, art studios, music rooms, an ICT suite, a gymnasium, and even a chapel. Sports provision includes netball, football, dance, cross country, tennis, rounders, and cricket, and there are clubs for book, science, and art. SEND provision is notably broad for a school of this size, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, speech and language needs, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder — so it is well set up to support a range of additional needs. For families looking for a small, Church of England primary in a rural Derbyshire setting, with strong SEND support and a track record of Good Ofsted ratings, Peak Forest is a solid choice. Just be aware that oversubscription means you will want to list it as a first preference.

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