Windy Arbor Primary School

About Windy Arbor Primary School

Windy Arbor Primary School sits well below the Solihull local authority average for primary schools when it comes to the key headline metric of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths. The school’s figure of 53% is 14 percentage points lower than the LA average of 67%, a gap that places it 39th out of 59 primary schools in the borough and in the bottom 50% nationally. This is a school that serves a significantly more disadvantaged intake than many of its neighbours, with 57.8% of pupils eligible for free school meals, more than three times the national average. That context matters when interpreting the results, and the school’s most recent Ofsted inspection in 2018 rated it Good overall, a grade it has held consistently across its previous inspection in 2014 and the earlier 2009 inspection. Leadership and management were also judged Good, and an ungraded inspection in 2018 confirmed the school remains Good.

Looking more closely at the 2023/24 KS2 results, the picture is mixed across individual subjects. Reading saw 70% of pupils reach the expected standard, with 32% achieving a higher score, while maths was slightly lower at 68% expected and 17% higher. Writing lagged behind at 62% expected and just 12% at the higher level. The average scaled scores of 104 in reading and 103 in maths are both in line with national averages, suggesting that while fewer children are hitting the combined benchmark, those who do are performing solidly. Progress scores are not available in the data, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points. In the Solihull league table, Windy Arbor ranks 38th out of 42 primary schools on the combined expected standard metric, putting it in the bottom 10% of the LA. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is St Anne’s Catholic Primary School, 1.5 km away.

The school is oversubscribed for 2025/26, with 71 applications for 34 places and 33 first-preference offers, giving a ratio of 2.09 applicants per place. It has a nursery provision for children from age 3 and offers a broad range of facilities including a sports hall, art studios, music rooms, a sensory room, an ICT suite, a gymnasium and a chapel. Sports on offer include cricket, swimming, gymnastics, dance, athletics, cross country and tennis, and there are clubs for chess, art and choir. The SEND provision is extensive, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, autistic spectrum disorder, and a resourced provision. This is a school that will suit families who value a strong pastoral and SEND offer in a community with high levels of disadvantage, and who are comfortable with results that are below the LA average but consistent with the school’s intake profile.

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