Beaufront First School
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Beaufront First School is a council school in Hexham for boys and girls aged 4 to 9. It has 62 pupils and room for 75. About 2 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in England. We give it 11 out of 100. That puts it well below schools like it, ahead of 4% of the 50 schools most like it. Ofsted visited in April 2026 and gave it a report card, which is below.
Sandhoe, Hexham, NE46 4LY01434 602903beaufront.northumberland.sch.ukMrs Gemma Boucetla headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted visited on 21 April 2026. Instead of one overall word, it now gives a grade for each part of school life. Read the full report on Ofsted's website.
Ofsted says these new grades can't be lined up against the old one-word grades.
Earlier inspections (1)
| Date | Type | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 5 April 2022 | S5 Inspection | Good |
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
Northumberland council has drawn an official catchment area for this school. You can see it on the map below; it covers about 11 square kilometres. Living inside it moves your child up the queue when there are more applicants than places. It doesn't guarantee a place: the council's admissions rules decide the order.
Set your home postcode at the top of the page to see whether you live inside it.
About 7 places were empty, so most families who apply get in, though a popular year group can still fill up. Pupil numbers have stayed about the same since 2021/22.
Each council publishes its own figures on how many families applied and how far away the last child to get a place lived. We are adding councils one at a time. If you have a link to Northumberland council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
Who goes here
Who a school teaches matters. That is why our score compares it with schools that take in a similar mix of children, not with every school in the country.
Infant classes (Reception to Year 2) average 18.0 pupils (England 25.5); junior classes (Years 3 to 6) average 13.0 (England 27.3).
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: emotional and mental health (3), language and communications needs (3), Moderate learning difficulty (2), Hearing impairment (1), Other difficulty or disability (1), Physical disability (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 62 | 66 | 66 | 69 | 69 | 74 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 2% | 2% | 2% | 1% | 4% | 4% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 8% | 11% | 15% | 17% | 8% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 6% | 6% | 1% | 2% | 3% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 95.8% of the time. Across similar schools in England it was 94.8%.
Attendance year by year
| Measure | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 | 2020/21 | 2018/19 | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 4.2% | 4.1% | 4.3% | 7.1% | 2.9% | 3.6% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 3.0% | 3.6% | 3.4% | 6.8% | 2.7% | 3.2% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 1.2% | 0.6% | 0.9% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.4% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 3.5% | 3.6% | 5.4% | 20.0% | 5.1% | 0.0% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 3.0 | 10.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | – | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – |
Staff and money
From the government's count of school staff in November 2025 and the school's published accounts.
Money
From the council school accounts, year to March 2025. The per-pupil figures are compared with other primary schools in England that report their accounts the same way.
Reserves are the money left over at the end of the year, kept back for emergencies and big projects. Being in the red year after year is a warning sign. Very large reserves can mean money sitting in the bank instead of being spent on today's pupils. Academy figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000 and include a share of any money the trust holds centrally.
The area around the school
Crime figures come from police.uk. The police record each crime at the nearest of a fixed set of map points rather than the exact spot, so “within 500 m” is only rough. House prices are from HM Land Registry sales nearby over the last two years.
Nearby schools
The closest primary schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acomb First School | Council | 1.4 miles | 58 | Good 2023 | 52 | Compare |
| Hexham First School | Council | 1.9 miles | 68 | Good 2022 | 42 | Compare |
| Corbridge Middle School | Council | 2.0 miles | 367 | Report card 2026 | 54 | Compare |
| Hexham Middle School | Academy | 2.0 miles | 619 | Good 2024 | 72 | Compare |
| The Sele First School | Council | 2.1 miles | 390 | Good 2022 | 36 | Compare |
| St Mary's Catholic First School, Hexham | Academy | 2.2 miles | 81 | Good 2023 | 90 | Compare |
| Corbridge (VA) Church of England First School | Church of England | 2.4 miles | 143 | Good 2019 | 91 | Compare |
| St Joseph's Catholic Middle School, Hexham | Academy | 2.6 miles | 168 | Good 2023 | 80 | Compare |
Compared with schools like it
Our score compares Beaufront First School with the 46 schools in England whose pupils are most like its own. We match on family income, how many children are learning English, special needs, the neighbourhood, the size of the school and how it admits pupils. Those 46 schools are dotted all over the country, so we don't list them. What matters is where this school sits among them.
Nearby schools with a similar mix of pupils that score higher
Of those 46 schools, these are within 25 km and score at least five points more than Beaufront First School, nearest first. A school with the same kind of pupils and a higher score is the fairest sign that it gets more out of them.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broomhaugh (VA) Church of England First School | Church of England | 4.9 miles | 64 | Good 2023 | 69 | Compare |
How the score was worked out
The score is out of 100. A 11 means that once everything below is added up, this school comes out ahead of 11% of primary schools in England. Results bounce around from year to year, especially in small schools, so we also show a likely range: 5 to 27. That range is wide enough that the school could sit in the next band, so take the band as a rough guide rather than a verdict. Every part is judged against schools with a similar mix of pupils. For small schools we pull each part towards the group average, so one unusual year can't swing the score too far.
| What we looked at | How much it counts | Against schools like it | Effect on the score | Based on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results over three years | 0% | no data | – | |
| Ofsted inspection | 20% | well below | -0.96 | Ofsted report card, 0.4 years old |
| Progress pupils make | 0% | no data | – | |
| Direction of travel over five years | 10% | in line | +0.08 | results and attendance rising year on year |
| Attendance and behaviour | 10% | above | +0.23 | 2024/25; 57 pupils |
| Results, allowing for the mix of pupils | 0% | no data | – | |
| What parents say | 0% | no data | – |
Worked out on 13 September 2026 (method v1). Read how the score works, including every weight and the checks we run. Think a number is wrong? Tell us.
Questions parents ask
Is Beaufront First School a good school?
The figures are weak. Beaufront First School scores 11 out of 100. That is well below schools that take in a similar mix of pupils, and ahead of 4% of the 50 schools most like it in England. The score could fairly be anywhere from 5 to 27, so a few points either way between schools doesn't mean much.
What is Beaufront First School's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted no longer gives schools one overall grade. When it visited on 21 April 2026 it rated teaching as needs attention, achievement as needs attention, behaviour and attendance as as expected, leadership as needs attention.
How many pupils does Beaufront First School have?
62 pupils aged 4 to 9 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 75 places, so it is 83% full.
Is Beaufront First School oversubscribed?
Probably not. 7 places were empty in 2024/25 (9% of the total), so most families who apply get a place.
What is attendance like at Beaufront First School?
Pupils were in school 95.8% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 4% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Beaufront First School?
The average class had 15.5 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 25.4. No class had more than 30 pupils.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Sandhoe, Hexham, NE46 4LY
- Telephone
- 01434 602903
- Website
- www.beaufront.northumberland.sch.uk
- Headteacher
- Mrs Gemma Boucetla
- Type of school
- Council school (Community school, local authority maintained schools)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 4-9, with nursery
- Gender
- Mixed
- Local authority
- Northumberland
- Ward
- Hexham North
- Constituency
- Hexham
- Setting
- Smaller rural: Nearer to a major town or city
- URN
- 122222 · LAESTAB 9292227 · UKPRN 10080087
Where these figures come from
- School details: Department for Education, Get Information About Schools, refreshed daily (this page rebuilt 13 September 2026).
- Inspections: Ofsted management information, monthly; latest publication in our data 27 August 2026.
- Attendance: DfE pupil absence in schools in England, 2024/25 full year.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Staff: DfE school workforce census, November 2025.
- Class sizes: DfE schools, pupils and their characteristics, January 2026.
- Pupil premium: DfE allocations and conditions of grant, 2026 to 2027.
- Money: DfE financial benchmarking and insights tool, consistent financial reporting 2024/25.
- Catchment area: Northumberland council open data (Open Government Licence), reprojected to WGS84.
- Neighbourhood: police.uk street-level crime, HM Land Registry price paid data, NaPTAN bus stops, English Indices of Deprivation 2025.
- All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full list and update calendar.