Orchard Grove Primary School
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Orchard Grove Primary School is a free school in Taunton for boys and girls aged 2 to 11. It has 130 pupils and room for 472. About 8 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in England. We give it 97 out of 100. That puts it well above schools like it, ahead of 93% of the 50 schools most like it. Ofsted visited in June 2026 and gave it a report card, which is below.
Egremont Road, Taunton, TA3 7FD01823 711014orchardgrove.bep.acMr Richard Healey headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted visited on 2 June 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.
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Open to all. There is no entrance test.
382 places were empty (91% 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 Somerset 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.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: language and communications needs (9), Moderate learning difficulty (4), emotional and mental health (2), Hearing impairment (1), Other difficulty or disability (1), Physical disability (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 130 | 64 | 15 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 9% | 3% | 0% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 33% | 30% | 27% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 13% | 27% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 2% | 0% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 97.6% of the time. Across similar schools in England it was 94.8%.
Attendance year by year
| Measure | 2024/25 | England |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 2.4% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 2.0% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 0.4% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 0.0% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 0.0 | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop Henderson Church of England Primary School, Taunton | Church of England | 1000 m | 423 | Good 2023 | 64 | Compare |
| Trull Church of England VA Primary School | Church of England | 0.8 miles | 244 | Good 2022 | 90 | Compare |
| Bishops Hull Primary School | Academy | 1.0 miles | 205 | Good 2023 | 74 | Compare |
| Parkfield Primary School | Council | 1.0 miles | 436 | Good 2020 | 61 | Compare |
| North Town Academy | Academy | 1.6 miles | 470 | Good 2023 | 45 | Compare |
| St George's Catholic School | Roman Catholic | 1.6 miles | 219 | Good 2023 | 58 | Compare |
| Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School | Academy | 1.8 miles | 363 | Good 2023 | 19 | Compare |
| Staplegrove Church School | Academy | 1.9 miles | 206 | Good 2022 | 62 | Compare |
Compared with schools like it
Our score compares Orchard Grove Primary School with the 44 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 44 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 97 means that once everything below is added up, this school comes out ahead of 97% 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 100. 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% | above | +0.66 | Ofsted report card, 0.3 years old |
| Progress pupils make | 0% | no data | – | |
| Direction of travel over five years | 0% | no data | – | |
| Attendance and behaviour | 10% | well above | +0.38 | 2024/25; 22 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 Orchard Grove Primary School a good school?
Yes, going by the figures. Orchard Grove Primary School scores 97 out of 100. That is well above schools that take in a similar mix of pupils, and ahead of 93% of the 50 schools most like it in England. The score could fairly be anywhere from 87 to 100, so a few points either way between schools doesn't mean much.
What is Orchard Grove Primary School's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted no longer gives schools one overall grade. When it visited on 2 June 2026 it rated teaching as strong, achievement as strong, behaviour and attendance as strong, leadership as strong.
How many pupils does Orchard Grove Primary School have?
130 pupils aged 2 to 11 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 472 places, so it is 28% full.
Is Orchard Grove Primary School oversubscribed?
Probably not. 382 places were empty in 2024/25 (91% of the total), so most families who apply get a place.
What is attendance like at Orchard Grove Primary School?
Pupils were in school 97.6% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 0% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Orchard Grove Primary School?
The average class had 21.7 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
- Egremont Road, Taunton, TA3 7FD
- Telephone
- 01823 711014
- Website
- orchardgrove.bep.ac
- Headteacher
- Mr Richard Healey
- 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
- Blackdown Education Partnership (14 schools)
- Local authority
- Somerset
- Ward
- Comeytrowe & Trull
- Constituency
- Taunton and Wellington
- Setting
- Urban: Further from a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 September 2023 (academy free school)
- URN
- 149764 · LAESTAB 9332056 · UKPRN 10093065
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.