Grace Cook Primary School
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Grace Cook Primary School is a free school in Stowmarket for boys and girls aged 2 to 11. It has 203 pupils and room for 270. About 10 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in England. We give it 95 out of 100. That puts it well above schools like it, ahead of 98% of the 50 schools most like it. Ofsted's last grade was inspected 2025, no overall grade.
Fuller Way, Stowmarket, IP14 1GG01449 833094gracecook.omat.org.ukMrs Lisa Mayes headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 4 February 2025, back when it gave schools one overall grade. Read the report on Ofsted's website.
Not judged Between September 2024 and November 2025, Ofsted graded each area but stopped giving one overall word.
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Open to all. There is no entrance test.
104 places were empty (50% of the total), so almost everyone who applies gets in.
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 Suffolk 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 30.0 pupils (England 25.5); junior classes (Years 3 to 6) average 16.7 (England 27.3).
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: language and communications needs (12), SEN support but no specialist assessment of type of need (7), emotional and mental health (7), Autistic spectrum disorder (6), Other difficulty or disability (2), Hearing impairment (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 203 | 182 | 104 | 24 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 10% | 7% | 4% | 17% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 4% | 6% | 13% | 17% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 13% | 11% | 0% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 3% | 1% | 0% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 95.1% of the time. Across similar schools in England it was 94.8%.
Attendance year by year
| Measure | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 4.9% | 5.0% | 7.4% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 4.0% | 3.7% | 5.6% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 0.9% | 1.3% | 1.8% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 12.5% | 10.3% | 35.7% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 6.6 | 7.7 | 0.0 | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 1 | 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 academy accounts return, year to August 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood Ley Community Primary School | Council | 570 m | 307 | Report card 2026 | 37 | Compare |
| Chilton Community Primary School | Academy | 0.7 miles | 133 | Not inspected | 25 | Compare |
| Abbot's Hall Community Primary School | Academy | 1.1 miles | 366 | Not inspected | 58 | Compare |
| Cedars Park Community Primary School | Academy | 1.6 miles | 389 | Good 2023 | 64 | Compare |
| Crawford's Church of England Primary School | Academy | 1.6 miles | 90 | Good 2023 | 33 | Compare |
| Combs Ford Primary School | Academy | 1.8 miles | 299 | No overall grade 2025 | 6 | Compare |
| Trinity Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School | Church of England | 2.0 miles | 177 | Not inspected | 85 | Compare |
| Great Finborough Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School | Church of England | 2.0 miles | 108 | Good 2022 | 33 | Compare |
Compared with schools like it
Our score compares Grace Cook Primary School with the 50 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 50 schools are dotted all over the country, so we don't list them. What matters is where this school sits among them.
No school with a similar mix of pupils within 25 km scores clearly higher.
How the score was worked out
The score is out of 100. A 95 means that once everything below is added up, this school comes out ahead of 95% of primary schools in England. Results bounce around from year to year, especially in small schools, so we also show a likely range: 87 to 99. 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% | in line | +0.12 | Ofsted grade, 1.6 years old |
| Progress pupils make | 0% | no data | – | |
| Direction of travel over five years | 10% | well above | +0.75 | results and attendance rising year on year |
| Attendance and behaviour | 10% | in line | +0.07 | 2024/25; 80 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 Grace Cook Primary School a good school?
Yes, going by the figures. Grace Cook Primary School scores 95 out of 100. That is well above schools that take in a similar mix of pupils, and ahead of 98% of the 50 schools most like it in England. The score could fairly be anywhere from 87 to 99, so a few points either way between schools doesn't mean much. Its results have been getting better over the last five years.
What is Grace Cook Primary School's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Grace Cook Primary School not judged at its last full inspection on 4 February 2025.
How many pupils does Grace Cook Primary School have?
203 pupils aged 2 to 11 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 270 places, so it is 75% full.
Is Grace Cook Primary School oversubscribed?
Probably not. 104 places were empty in 2024/25 (50% of the total), so most families who apply get a place.
What is attendance like at Grace Cook Primary School?
Pupils were in school 95.1% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 13% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Grace Cook Primary School?
The average class had 24.7 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 25.4. 14% of classes 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
- Fuller Way, Stowmarket, IP14 1GG
- Telephone
- 01449 833094
- Website
- www.gracecook.omat.org.uk
- Headteacher
- Mrs Lisa Mayes
- Type of school
- Free school (Free schools, free schools)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 2-11, with nursery
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Multi-academy trust
- Orwell Multi Academy Trust (7 schools)
- Local authority
- Suffolk
- Ward
- Chilton
- Constituency
- Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 September 2022 (academy free school)
- URN
- 149067 · LAESTAB 9352230 · UKPRN 10090872
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, academy accounts return 2024/25.
- 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.