Shirley Warren Primary & Nursery School

About Shirley Warren Primary & Nursery School

Shirley Warren Primary & Nursery School received a Requires Improvement rating from Ofsted in its most recent inspection, which took place in 2025. The inspection judged every category — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision — as Requires Improvement, with no area rated higher. This marks a continuation of the same overall rating the school held in its previous inspection in 2022, when it was also judged Requires Improvement. The most telling academic metric comes from the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results: just 28% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. That figure is well below the local authority average of 55% for Southampton primary schools. Only 2% of pupils reached the higher standard in all three subjects. The school ranks 38th out of 42 primary schools in the local authority, placing it in the bottom 50 nationally on this measure.

Looking more closely at the individual subject scores, reading was the strongest area: 57% of pupils reached the expected standard and the average scaled score was 101. Writing followed closely with 55% at the expected level. Maths was weaker, with 43% meeting the expected standard and an average scaled score of 98. The proportion of pupils achieving the higher standard in any single subject was low — 10% in reading, 7% in maths and just 3% in writing. Progress scores were not available in the data, so it is difficult to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils' starting points. Parent opinion is notably divided: in the Parent View survey covering September 2024 to September 2025, only 55% of the 44 respondents would recommend the school to another parent. On the question of whether their child is happy, 66% either agreed or strongly agreed, but 34% disagreed or strongly disagreed.

The school is oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, with 65 applications for 39 places and all 36 first-preference applicants offered a place. It serves a community with high levels of disadvantage — 37.2% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well above the national average. The school has a nursery provision for children aged two and offers a range of facilities including a forest school, sensory room and music rooms. Clubs include coding, chess, choir, gardening and eco club, while sports on offer are gymnastics, swimming, cricket, netball and athletics. SEND provision covers a broad spectrum, including autistic spectrum disorder, speech and language communication needs, and social, emotional and mental health difficulties. However, the Parent View data shows that 67% of respondents whose children have SEND disagreed or strongly disagreed that the school gives them the support they need. For families considering this school, the academic outcomes and parent feedback suggest it may be a challenging environment, though the oversubscription indicates local demand remains strong.

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