Sires Hill Primary Academy
Sires Hill Primary Academy is a free school in Didcot for boys and girls aged 2 to 11. It has 117 pupils and room for 510. About 4 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in England.
Darwin Drive, Didcot, OX11 9GY01235 250970sireshillprimaryacademy.org.ukMrs Alison Ashcroft headteacherAll details
Ofsted
Ofsted hasn't published an inspection for this school yet.
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Open to all. There is no entrance test.
376 places were empty (90% of the total), so almost everyone who applies gets in.
The last child to get a place lived 780 m away in 2026, 3.8 miles away in 2023. Children in care, brothers and sisters of current pupils, faith and other priority groups are placed first. After that, the closer you live, the better your chances. Type in your postcode to see how far away you are.
We measure in a straight line from the middle of your postcode to the school. The council measures its own way, and the cut-off changes every year. Use this as a rough guide, and read the council's admissions booklet before you apply.
How places were given out for September 2026. More children applied than there were places. The last place went to a child living 780 m from the school. Living closer than that didn't guarantee a place, but living much further away meant missing out that year. 38 families put it down as their first choice and 30 of them got in (79%).
| Entry | Places | Put it first | Applied at all | Got a place | First choices who got in | How far the last child lived | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Primary | 30 | 38 | 113 | 30 | 79% | 780 m | LA |
| 2025 Primary | 30 | 20 | 83 | 27 | 100% | – all offered | LA |
| 2024 Primary | 30 | 15 | 66 | 18 | 100% | – all offered | LA |
| 2023 Primary | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 100% | 3.8 miles | LA |
The distances are the council's own, usually measured in a straight line from home to the school gate. If the distance is getting shorter each year, the school is getting harder to get into. See which councils we have this data for.
What a home within 780 m of the school costs
Every home sold within that distance of the school (the typical cut-off over the last three years), of any type, from HM Land Registry records. If homes here cost more than the district average, that is the price people pay to live close enough to get in.
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: language and communications needs (10), emotional and mental health (5), Autistic spectrum disorder (1), Moderate learning difficulty (1), SEN support but no specialist assessment of type of need (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 117 | 75 | 27 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 3% | 0% | 0% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 26% | 28% | 22% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 16% | 0% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 0% | 0% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 95.9% of the time. Across similar schools in England it was 94.8%.
Attendance year by year
| Measure | 2024/25 | England |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 4.1% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 3.7% | – |
| 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ladygrove Park Primary School | Academy | 800 m | 423 | Good 2023 | 77 | Compare |
| All Saints Church of England Primary School | Academy | 0.7 miles | 421 | Not inspected | 86 | Compare |
| Manor Primary School | Academy | 1.2 miles | 318 | Good 2023 | 21 | Compare |
| Willowcroft Community School | Academy | 1.3 miles | 481 | Good 2024 | 72 | Compare |
| Stephen Freeman Primary School | Academy | 1.4 miles | 450 | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| Northbourne Church of England Primary School | Academy | 1.7 miles | 343 | Good 2022 | 59 | Compare |
| Long Wittenham (Church of England) Primary School | Academy | 1.7 miles | 66 | Requires improvement 2022 | 1 | Compare |
| Didcot Primary Academy | Academy | 1.9 miles | 451 | Not inspected | 91 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Sires Hill Primary Academy a good school?
We don't have enough published data to score Sires Hill Primary Academy yet.
How many pupils does Sires Hill Primary Academy have?
117 pupils aged 2 to 11 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 510 places, so it is 23% full.
Is Sires Hill Primary Academy oversubscribed, and how far away can you live?
Yes. For September 2026 the last place went to a child living 780 m away. 38 families put it down as their first choice and 30 of them got in. Children in care, brothers and sisters of current pupils and other priority groups come before distance, so the cut-off moves every year.
What is attendance like at Sires Hill Primary Academy?
Pupils were in school 95.9% 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 Sires Hill Primary Academy?
The average class had 20.3 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
- Darwin Drive, Didcot, OX11 9GY
- Telephone
- 01235 250970
- Website
- www.sireshillprimaryacademy.org.uk
- Headteacher
- Mrs Alison Ashcroft
- 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
- Omnia Learning Trust (4 schools)
- Local authority
- Oxfordshire
- Ward
- Didcot North East
- Constituency
- Didcot and Wantage
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 September 2023 (academy free school)
- URN
- 149696 · LAESTAB 9312040 · UKPRN 10093066
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.
- Admissions outcomes: Oxfordshire council's published allocation statistics (source), entry years 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026.
- House prices: HM Land Registry price paid data, December 2023 to December 2025, placed by postcode.
- 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.