Southery Academy

About Southery Academy

Southery Academy is a small state primary in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, with 83 pupils on roll against a capacity of 98, meaning it runs below its physical limit. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals stands at 28.9%, well above the national average and a clear signal of the area’s socioeconomic profile. Despite the spare capacity, the school was oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, receiving 14 applications for 9 places, with all 9 first-preference offers accepted. That oversubscription ratio of 1.56 suggests strong local demand, even if the school doesn’t fill every desk. Headteacher Elaine Huntington leads a mixed, non-religious 4–11 setting with no nursery or sixth form provision. The school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, in late 2024, rated it Good across all graded categories — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision — a consistent improvement from its previous Good rating in 2019, which had weaker early years and leadership scores.

Academically, Southery’s Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 show a mixed picture. Just 41% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with a local authority average of 52%, placing the school 42nd out of 58 primary schools in the King’s Lynn and West Norfolk district and in the bottom half nationally. The maths expected standard was stronger at 71%, but reading lagged at 53% and writing at 65%. Only 6% of pupils achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths, though writing’s higher standard was a more respectable 18%. Average scaled scores in reading and maths both sat at 101, exactly the national baseline. Progress measures were not available in the data, so it’s hard to say whether pupils are catching up from lower starting points. The school’s ranking in the East of England region places it in the bottom 14% of primaries by this combined measure.

Facilities include playing fields, a sports hall, gymnasium, library, art studios, a forest school and even a chapel, which is unusual for a non-religious academy. Clubs cover coding, science, film and chess, and sports include gymnastics, athletics, netball and rounders. The school lists SEND provisions for social, emotional and mental health, speech and language, autistic spectrum disorder and other difficulties, though the Parent View survey showed no responses to the SEND support question, making it hard to gauge parental satisfaction in that area. Overall, the Parent View data from 23 respondents is notably divided: 61% would recommend the school, but only 39% strongly agreed their child is happy, and 22% disagreed that bullying is dealt with quickly. This is a school that suits families who value its small, community feel and broad facilities, but who are comfortable with below-average academic outcomes and a parent body that doesn’t speak with one voice.

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