Highfields Spencer Academy
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Highfields Spencer Academy is a free school in Derby for boys and girls aged 3 to 11. It has 258 pupils and room for 266. About 23 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, about the same as most schools in England. We give it 84 out of 100. That puts it above schools like it, ahead of 88% of the 50 schools most like it. Ofsted's last grade was inspected 2025, no overall grade.
Tutbury Avenue, Littleover, Derby, DE23 3UX01332 955599highfieldsspencer.org.ukMiss Brooke McCulloch headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 3 June 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.
Fewer than one place in twenty is empty, so in most years more families apply than there are places. Living close by, or already having a child here, makes a real difference. Pupil numbers have grown by 233% since 2021/22, so places are getting harder to come by.
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 Derbyshire 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 29.5 pupils (England 25.5); junior classes (Years 3 to 6) average 28.4 (England 27.3).
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: language and communications needs (11), emotional and mental health (10), Autistic spectrum disorder (9), Specific learning difficulty (6), Moderate learning difficulty (3).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 258 | 233 | 197 | 183 | 97 | 64 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 23% | 22% | 24% | 18% | 4% | 2% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 45% | 23% | 17% | 20% | 18% | 20% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 11% | 11% | 21% | 31% | 14% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 2% | 3% | 2% | 3% | 3% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 96.0% 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 | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 4.1% | 5.3% | 6.4% | 5.1% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 3.3% | 4.4% | 5.4% | 5.0% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 0.8% | 0.9% | 1.0% | 0.2% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 8.0% | 11.8% | 23.7% | 9.7% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 2.2 | 0.0 | 2.7 | 5.2 | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 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 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Griffe Field Primary School | Academy | 0.6 miles | 459 | Outstanding 2023 | 99 | Compare |
| Carlyle Infant and Nursery Academy | Academy | 1.1 miles | 182 | Good 2023 | 35 | Compare |
| Brookfield Primary School | Academy | 1.2 miles | 238 | Good 2023 | 47 | Compare |
| Gayton Junior School | Council | 1.2 miles | 359 | Good 2023 | 77 | Compare |
| St George's Catholic Voluntary Academy | Academy | 1.2 miles | 341 | Outstanding 2024 | 95 | Compare |
| Ridgeway Infant School | Council | 1.2 miles | 229 | Good 2023 | 15 | Compare |
| Grampian Primary Academy | Academy | 1.4 miles | 231 | Good 2022 | 29 | Compare |
| Stenson Fields Primary Community School | Council | 1.5 miles | 328 | Good 2022 | 8 | Compare |
Compared with schools like it
Our score compares Highfields Spencer Academy with the 49 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 49 schools are dotted all over the country, so we don't list them. What matters is where this school sits among them.
How the score was worked out
The score is out of 100. A 84 means that once everything below is added up, this school comes out ahead of 84% of primary schools in England. Results bounce around from year to year, especially in small schools, so we also show a likely range: 64 to 93. 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 | +0.03 | Ofsted grade, 1.3 years old |
| Progress pupils make | 0% | no data | – | |
| Direction of travel over five years | 10% | well above | +0.31 | results and attendance rising year on year |
| Attendance and behaviour | 10% | above | +0.16 | 2024/25; 175 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 Highfields Spencer Academy a good school?
Yes, going by the figures. Highfields Spencer Academy scores 84 out of 100. That is above schools that take in a similar mix of pupils, and ahead of 88% of the 50 schools most like it in England. The score could fairly be anywhere from 64 to 93, 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 Highfields Spencer Academy's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Highfields Spencer Academy not judged at its last full inspection on 3 June 2025.
How many pupils does Highfields Spencer Academy have?
258 pupils aged 3 to 11 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 266 places, so it is 97% full.
Is Highfields Spencer Academy oversubscribed?
Often. Fewer than one place in twenty was empty in 2024/25, so popular year groups fill up.
What is attendance like at Highfields Spencer Academy?
Pupils were in school 96.0% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 8% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Highfields Spencer Academy?
The average class had 28.1 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 25.4. 13% 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
- Tutbury Avenue, Littleover, Derby, DE23 3UX
- Telephone
- 01332 955599
- Website
- highfieldsspencer.org.uk
- Headteacher
- Miss Brooke McCulloch
- Type of school
- Free school (Free schools, free schools)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 3-11, with nursery
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Multi-academy trust
- The Spencer Academies Trust (27 schools)
- Local authority
- Derbyshire
- Ward
- Willington and Findern
- Constituency
- South Derbyshire
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 September 2020 (new provision)
- URN
- 147869 · LAESTAB 8302065 · UKPRN 10086475
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.