The FMS Inspection Score is FindMySchool's proprietary analysis based on official Ofsted and ISI inspection reports. It converts ratings into a standardised 1–10 scale for fair comparison across all schools in England.
Disclaimer: The FMS Inspection Score is an independent analysis by FindMySchool. It is not endorsed by or affiliated with Ofsted or ISI. Always refer to the official Ofsted or ISI report for the full picture of a school’s inspection outcome.
Burrowmoor is one of the bigger primaries in March, serving pupils from age 2 through Year 6, with capacity for 480 and a nursery on site. A lot of what families will want to know sits in the school’s recent improvement journey. The June 2022 Ofsted inspection of the predecessor school judged it Inadequate.
Since then, a March 2023 monitoring inspection reported that safeguarding was now effective, while wider work on curriculum consistency, behaviour routines, and reading continued.
Today’s leadership picture is different. The headteacher is Mrs Ruth Bailey, who took up post in September 2023 and leads the school as part of The Diamond Learning Partnership Trust.
For parents, that means two things: first, you are choosing a school with established scale and childcare wraparound options; second, you are also choosing the pace and credibility of improvement.
Burrowmoor’s identity is rooted in its community role and its size. It is not a small village primary where everyone knows everyone by week two. It is a multi-class setting with a nursery, and it has the practical machinery that comes with that, clear arrival routines, defined gates, and structured end-of-day collection.
A useful anchor point is the school’s own description of its site and evolution. The school states it was built in 1906 and has grown over time to reflect the community it serves. That matters because it signals a long-established presence in March, not a new free school still finding its feet.
The leadership structure is explicit on the school’s staffing information. Alongside the headteacher, there are assistant heads with responsibility for Key Stage 2, and for Early Years and Key Stage 1. For families, that division of responsibility can be reassuring in a larger school, particularly when consistency of classroom routines and curriculum implementation is a priority.
Pastoral and inclusion support is presented as a staffed, named team rather than a vague promise. The school lists an inclusion team including a SENDCo, EAL and speech and language practitioner support, Drawing and Talking Therapy, and ELSA practitioners. The implication is that pupils who need help with language acquisition, confidence, self-regulation, or emotions are more likely to find a defined pathway to support, rather than support being informal or ad hoc.
This is a school where parents should read results as a trend line and a trajectory, rather than a single snapshot. Two pieces of context matter.
First, the inspection history for the predecessor school highlighted weaknesses in curriculum design, reading, and behaviour. Second, the school has published statutory result summaries on its website for recent years, which are useful for parents precisely because they make progress visible over time.
In the school’s published figures:
In 2023 to 2024, 63% of children achieved a Good Level of Development (GLD), and 76% met the Year 1 phonics standard.
In 2024 to 2025, GLD is shown as 54%, while phonics is shown as 83%.
Example, phonics improves while GLD dips.
Evidence, the school’s published summaries show the phonics percentage rising from 76% to 83%, while GLD moves from 63% to 54%.
Implication, early reading looks like a defined improvement priority with visible impact, while early years outcomes still need sustained consistency. Parents of children entering Reception should ask how the nursery and Reception teams align language development, early maths, and wider readiness, not just phonics.
For 2024 to 2025, the school’s published results show:
Expected standard: Reading 55%, Writing 59%, Maths 43%, and combined Reading, Writing, Maths 32%.
Greater depth: Reading 13%, Writing 7%, Maths 7%, combined 0%.
Average scaled scores are shown as Reading 99.9 and Maths 97.5.
The England average for expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined is shown as 62% provided.
Example, the combined figure in 2024 to 2025 is below the England average, while reading sits close to the typical scaled score benchmark and maths is lower.
Evidence, combined is 32% versus an England average of 62%, and scaled scores are listed as 99.9 (reading) and 97.5 (maths).
Implication, parents should expect a school focused on rebuilding foundations, particularly in maths and in the consistency needed to lift the combined measure. If your child is currently behind, ask about targeted interventions and how progress is checked term by term. If your child is already high-attaining, ask what stretch looks like given the current greater depth picture.
The school also publishes Key Stage 1 percentages and Year 4 multiplication check outcomes. These are useful for indicating whether foundations are strengthening before Year 6, but parents should treat them as signals rather than endpoints, because the Key Stage 2 outcomes are ultimately where cumulative impact appears.
Curriculum breadth is visible from the school’s published curriculum pages, which include subjects such as phonics, PSHE, and Religion and Worldviews, alongside the usual core. That breadth only matters if sequencing and classroom delivery are consistent, and that has been the historic challenge.
A realistic interpretation is this: the school has been through a period where curriculum plans, staff training, and routines needed strengthening. The improvement work described in the monitoring period put particular emphasis on early reading and on raising expectations in lessons. Parents deciding now should look for evidence that the school has moved from designing plans to embedding them.
What does good embedding look like in practice?
Reading books that match pupils’ stages, with clear phonics progression.
Teachers revisiting prior learning, then building new knowledge in manageable steps.
Behaviour expectations applied consistently across classes, not varying by teacher.
When those elements lock together, the likely impact is fewer pupils drifting through gaps in learning, and fewer lessons disrupted by low-level behaviour that slowly chips away at progress.
Quality of Education
Inadequate
Behaviour & Attitudes
Inadequate
Personal Development
Inadequate
Leadership & Management
Inadequate
FMS Inspection Score calculated by FindMySchool based on official inspection data.
For a primary in March, most pupils will move on to local secondary options within Cambridgeshire, and families usually decide based on travel time, SEND fit, and curriculum breadth at secondary.
The more immediate transition point to think about at Burrowmoor is nursery to Reception. The school offers nursery provision with sessions and optional extended windows that align to the school day.
Example, a child can start at age 2, settle into routines, then progress into Reception in the same setting.
Evidence, the school operates nursery sessions and states it provides wraparound arrangements that can align with the 8:45 to 3:15 day.
Implication, for working parents, continuity can reduce childcare churn, but it also means you should ask how readiness for Reception is assessed, and how speech, language, and personal development are built systematically in nursery.
Reception entry is coordinated through the local authority route, with the school publishing the national closing date and offer date for the next cycle. For Reception intake, the school lists 15 January 2026 as the closing date, and 16 April 2026 as the national offer date.
The school’s admissions policy sets a published admission number (PAN) of 60 for Reception. If you are applying outside Reception, the school signposts in-year applications through the school or trust admissions route.
Demand is not extreme but it is meaningful. The most recent admissions data shows 34 applications for 18 offers, with an oversubscribed status and about 1.89 applications per place.
Example, there are nearly two applications per place in that snapshot.
Evidence, applications are 34 and offers are 18, with oversubscribed recorded.
Implication, families should not assume an automatic place, particularly in popular year groups. Use FindMySchool’s Map Search to check practical distance, and treat open events as a key part of your due diligence.
Open events are worth watching closely here. The school advertised open afternoons in early October for a prior admission round, which suggests this is a typical window. If you are planning for 2026 entry, expect open events to often fall in September or October, and check the school’s calendar for confirmed dates.
Applications
34
Total received
Places Offered
18
Subscription Rate
1.9x
Apps per place
Pastoral credibility matters most when a school has been rebuilding. The school lists specific wellbeing and support roles, including ELSA practitioners and a Drawing and Talking Therapy lead, which suggests structured emotional literacy and early intervention support.
From the improvement perspective, the key wellbeing question is whether behaviour expectations are now stable and consistently enforced. In practical terms, parents should ask:
How the school records and follows up bullying concerns
How classroom disruptions are handled day to day
What support looks like for pupils with SEND and for pupils learning English as an additional language
Good signs include consistent routines, clear escalation pathways, and a calm tone in staff communication. Weak signs include a sense that issues are handled differently depending on the class.
A larger primary can do enrichment well because it has scale. Burrowmoor highlights several child-facing strands that give the school a distinctive feel:
Forest School, referenced both in nursery information and the wider children’s area of the website.
School Council, positioned as a pupil leadership route.
Skipping Squad, a named activity strand rather than a generic after-school list.
Burrowmoor Buddies, which reads as a peer support or leadership scheme.
Example, this is not a school that simply says it has clubs, it names specific strands.
Evidence, Forest School, School Council, Skipping Squad, and Burrowmoor Buddies are presented as discrete elements in the children’s section and nursery messaging.
Implication, for pupils who thrive on belonging and roles, these structures can be a practical way to build confidence and responsibility, particularly important in a school focused on improving learning behaviours.
Wraparound childcare is also part of the offer. The school references BOOSC, and lists an out-of-school provision team with named staffing. This matters for working families, though you should confirm availability and booking arrangements directly with the school.
The core school day runs on a consistent structure across Reception to Year 6, with doors opening at 8:35am, registers taken at 8:45am, and collection at 3:15pm.
Nursery sessions are listed as 9:00am to 12:00 and 12:00 to 3:00pm, with optional early and late windows aligned to the main school day. The school also describes wraparound provision via BOOSC, and an out-of-school staffing team.
Transport-wise, this is a March location on Burrowmoor Road, so most families will think for walkability, drop-off practicality, and local traffic at peak times, rather than rail commuting. The best approach is to trial the route at 8:15am and 3:05pm, then decide whether the daily rhythm is workable for your household.
This is a state school with no tuition fees. Expect typical costs around uniform, trips, and optional clubs.
Inspection legacy and confidence. The most recent graded inspection outcome attached to the predecessor school was Inadequate, and improvement has been a multi-stage process. Parents should prioritise evidence of consistency, routines, and sustained staffing stability when visiting.
Results are rebuilding. The school’s published 2024 to 2025 Key Stage 2 combined expected standard figure is well below the England average. If your child is already thriving academically, ask how stretch and depth are delivered alongside catch-up priorities.
A large-school experience. With capacity around 480, this is not an intimate one-form entry setting. Many families like the social breadth and the staffing structure; others prefer a smaller feel.
Nursery to Reception transition. On-site nursery is a major advantage for continuity, but it is worth asking exactly how nursery routines and early learning link into Reception readiness, particularly for speech, language, and self-regulation.
Burrowmoor Primary Academy is best understood as a substantial March primary with wraparound practicality, a clear leadership reset since late 2023, and a school improvement journey that parents should track carefully. It suits families who value an on-site nursery, structured support roles, and a school that is openly focused on strengthening reading, behaviour routines, and curriculum consistency. The main question is not whether the school has plans, it is whether those plans are now embedded day to day across classes.
Burrowmoor is in a phase where families should look for evidence of sustained improvement. The predecessor school received an Inadequate outcome in June 2022, and subsequent monitoring work described progress alongside areas still needing momentum. The current leadership team has been in place since September 2023, so open events and recent published results are particularly important for judging trajectory.
There are no tuition fees, this is a state school. Families should budget for typical extras such as uniform, trips, and optional clubs.
Reception applications follow the local authority coordinated route. The school lists the national closing date as 15 January 2026, with offers released on 16 April 2026.
Yes. The school provides nursery provision from age 2, with sessions listed as 9:00am to 12:00 and 12:00 to 3:00pm, plus optional early and late windows aligned to the school day. For nursery fees and session options, check the school’s nursery information directly.
Doors open at 8:35am, registers are taken at 8:45am, and collection is at 3:15pm for Reception through Year 6. Nursery session times differ, so parents using nursery should check those session structures alongside any extended day options.
Get in touch with the school directly
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