{"url":"/school/150918/south-molton-community-primary-school","disclaimer":"This is information only, not advice. It may have mistakes in it, or be out of date. Check with the school and the council before you decide anything.","urn":150918,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School","phase":"primary","type":"Academy converter","local_authority":"Devon","structure_change":{"kind":"became_academy","date":"2025-04-01","previous_urn":113168,"previous_name":"South Molton Community Primary School","in_words":"This school became an academy on 1 April 2025. Before that it was a community school, under its earlier school number, URN 113168.","note":"The same school under a new school number. Demand figures before the change are carried from the previous record and marked with held_as."},"about_the_school":{"facts":[{"label":"Type of school","value":"Academy"},{"label":"Academy trust","value":"The Harbour Schools Partnership"},{"label":"Became an academy","value":"1 April 2025. Before that it was a community school, under its earlier school number, URN 113168."},{"label":"Ages","value":"2 to 11"},{"label":"Boys or girls","value":"Boys and girls"},{"label":"Nursery classes","value":"Yes"},{"label":"Website","value":"http://www.southmoltonprimary.devon.sch.uk","url":"http://www.southmoltonprimary.devon.sch.uk"},{"label":"Telephone","value":"01769 572198","url":"tel:01769572198"},{"label":"School number (URN)","value":"150918"}],"website":"http://www.southmoltonprimary.devon.sch.uk","telephone":"01769572198","academy_trust":"THE HARBOUR SCHOOLS PARTNERSHIP","other_schools_in_trust":{"count":34,"nearest":[{"urn":151056,"name":"South Molton United CofE Primary School","distance_miles":0.6},{"urn":148020,"name":"North Molton Primary School","distance_miles":2.6},{"urn":146093,"name":"Landkey Community Primary Academy","distance_miles":7.9},{"urn":145809,"name":"Bratton Fleming Community Primary School","distance_miles":8.3},{"urn":137644,"name":"Orchard Vale Community School","distance_miles":8.9},{"urn":137012,"name":"Newport Community School Primary Academy","distance_miles":9.5},{"urn":146096,"name":"Eden Park Academy","distance_miles":9.5},{"urn":146094,"name":"The Park Community School","distance_miles":9.8},{"urn":150686,"name":"Shirwell Community Primary School","distance_miles":10.1},{"urn":145767,"name":"Holywell Church of England School","distance_miles":10.1}],"note":"Schools run by the same trust that have a page on this site, nearest first. Not a ranking."},"federation":null,"note":"From Get Information about Schools. Schools update their own entries, so these can be out of date."},"how_to_apply":{"apply_through":"the council where the family lives","in_words":["You apply through the council where you live, even for a school in another area. You do not apply to the school."],"find_your_council_url":"https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-primary-school-place","link_checked_on":"2026-09-23","closes":"2027-01-15","national_offer_day":"2027-04-16","council_page_for_residents":{"council":"Devon","url":"https://www.devon.gov.uk/children-families-education/education/school-admissions/apply-for-a-primary-school-place/","closes":"2027-01-15","checked_on":"2026-09-23"},"school_website":"http://www.southmoltonprimary.devon.sch.uk","school_telephone":"01769572198","note":"Links and dates can change. Your council's own website has the final word."},"address":{"line1":"North Road","town":"South Molton","postcode":"EX36 3BA","latitude":51.020317,"longitude":-3.84008},"ofsted":{"current_category_of_concern":null,"inspections":[{"framework":"oeif","framework_label":"Ofsted graded inspection (previous framework)","inspection_date":"2023-12-06","overall_effectiveness":"Good","category_of_concern":null,"note":"The current framework awards no overall grade; a previous-framework grade is not a school's current one."}]},"demand":{"entry_point":"reception","not_the_main_intake":null,"measure":"first preferences expressed divided by offers made","not_a_prediction":"It describes demand. It does not indicate whether any particular child would be offered a place.","movement":null,"includes_predecessor":{"schools":[{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}],"years":[2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023,2024,2025],"first_own_year":2026,"sentence":"Figures before 2026 are from this school's earlier record, under its old school number (URN 113168), before it became an academy. The government's school register links the two, and they are the same school."},"compared_with_its_own_past":{"intake_year":2026,"earlier_years":[2021,2022,2023,2024,2025],"direction":"fewer","headline":"Fewer families than its recent average put this school first","first_preferences":19,"first_preferences_average":27.0,"band_percent":10,"sentences":["In 2026, 19 families put this school first. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 27 a year.","In 2026, 32 families named this school somewhere on their list. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 44 a year.","In 2026, every family who put this school first was offered a place here (19 of 19). In 2021 to 2025 it was every family, every year.","In 2026, 1 of the 21 offers went to a child living outside Devon. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 0 a year.","Some of the earlier years are from this school's record under its old school number."],"in_words":["In 2026, 19 families put this school first. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 27 a year.","In 2026, 32 families named this school somewhere on their list. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 44 a year.","In 2026, every family who put this school first was offered a place here (19 of 19). In 2021 to 2025 it was every family, every year.","In 2026, 1 of the 21 offers went to a child living outside Devon. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 0 a year.","Some of the earlier years are from this school's record under its old school number."],"note":"Each figure is compared only with the same figure at this school in the 5 years before. \"About the same\" means within 10 in every 100 of the average."},"by_year":[{"intake_year":2026,"first_preferences":19,"all_preferences":32,"offers_made":21,"first_preferences_per_place":0.9,"national_percentile":24.0,"held_as":null},{"intake_year":2025,"first_preferences":29,"all_preferences":43,"offers_made":34,"first_preferences_per_place":0.85,"national_percentile":14.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2024,"first_preferences":22,"all_preferences":47,"offers_made":29,"first_preferences_per_place":0.76,"national_percentile":4.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2023,"first_preferences":30,"all_preferences":50,"offers_made":30,"first_preferences_per_place":1.0,"national_percentile":53.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2022,"first_preferences":29,"all_preferences":43,"offers_made":29,"first_preferences_per_place":1.0,"national_percentile":54.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2021,"first_preferences":25,"all_preferences":38,"offers_made":26,"first_preferences_per_place":0.96,"national_percentile":45.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2020,"first_preferences":22,"all_preferences":36,"offers_made":22,"first_preferences_per_place":1.0,"national_percentile":55.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2019,"first_preferences":44,"all_preferences":56,"offers_made":30,"first_preferences_per_place":1.47,"national_percentile":96.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2018,"first_preferences":38,"all_preferences":51,"offers_made":38,"first_preferences_per_place":1.0,"national_percentile":54.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2017,"first_preferences":25,"all_preferences":35,"offers_made":25,"first_preferences_per_place":1.0,"national_percentile":54.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2016,"first_preferences":35,"all_preferences":52,"offers_made":30,"first_preferences_per_place":1.17,"national_percentile":80.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2015,"first_preferences":49,"all_preferences":56,"offers_made":50,"first_preferences_per_place":0.98,"national_percentile":50.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}},{"intake_year":2014,"first_preferences":36,"all_preferences":43,"offers_made":36,"first_preferences_per_place":1.0,"national_percentile":50.0,"held_as":{"urn":113168,"name":"South Molton Community Primary School"}}]},"results":{"note":"Withheld figures appear as null, never zero. Progress measures are estimates published with a 95% interval.","key_stage_4":[],"key_stage_2":[]},"workforce":{"note":"Full-time equivalents, not headcounts. Teacher turnover only: carries no claim about heads or senior leaders.","by_year":[]},"catchment":{"status":"published","note":"none_published means we hold no zone for this school. It does not mean an address is outside one.","zones":[{"category":"PN","name":"South Molton Community Primary School","in_force_from":null,"area_km2":22.488,"live_postcodes":132,"postcodes_within_50m_of_edge":78,"overlaps_catchments_of":[]}]},"what_the_results_are_made_of":null,"how_big_the_school_is":{"year":2024,"places":315,"roll_compared_with_its_own_past":{"direction":"same","average":239.4,"earlier_years":[2018,2020,2021,2022,2023]},"pupils_on_roll":235,"unfilled_places":80,"pupils_over_capacity":0,"unfilled_percent":25.4,"sites":1,"first_year":2009,"years_held":15,"in_words":["In 2024 this school had 315 places and 235 children on roll.","80 places were unfilled, which is 25% of the school.","In 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 the school had 239 children on roll on average, against 235 in 2024. Some of those years are from its record under an earlier school number.","Its places have grown from 119 in 2009 to 315 in 2024.","Places are the whole school added up, every year group together. That is not the number of places a school offers to new children in one year."],"note":"Places are the whole school across every year group. This is not a published admission number and not the number of places offered to new children in a year."},"children_in_each_year_group":{"census_january":2026,"year_groups":[{"year_group":"Nursery 1","pupils":5},{"year_group":"Nursery 2","pupils":13},{"year_group":"Reception","pupils":32},{"year_group":"Year group 1","pupils":29},{"year_group":"Year group 2","pupils":29},{"year_group":"Year group 3","pupils":30},{"year_group":"Year group 4","pupils":32},{"year_group":"Year group 5","pupils":30},{"year_group":"Year group 6","pupils":42}],"note":"Children, not places, counted on one day in January. This is not a list of spare places: no capacity per year group is published anywhere, so there is nothing to subtract from, and in-year admission changes these counts all year. Ask the local council about a place during the school year."},"who_goes_to_this_school":{"academic_year":2025,"census_january":2026,"fsm_percent":30.2,"fsm_eligible":73,"headcount":242,"first_language_other_percent":8.3,"phase_median_fsm_percent":20.2,"comparison_group":"primary schools","in_words":["In January 2026, 73 of the 242 children here were known to be eligible for free school meals. That is 30 in every 100.","More children are eligible here than at half of primary schools in England, where the middle figure is 20 in every 100.","English was not the first language for 8 in every 100 children here. Across primary schools the middle figure is 10 in every 100.","This describes the children who go to this school. It is not a measure of the school. Most children go to a school near home, so it is mostly a fact about the streets around it.","This matters when reading results. Across the 15,153 schools we hold 2024 key stage 2 results for, the fifth with the fewest eligible children averaged 70% reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths. The fifth with the most averaged 48%.","Those are averages of many schools all over the country. This school's own results are further down this page exactly as published."],"note":"A description of the children who attend, not a measure of the school. Intake explains much of the spread in published results, so this belongs beside them and never instead of them. No result on this page is adjusted, weighted or ranked using it."},"if_you_are_refused_a_place":{"appeal_year":2026,"school_phase":"Primary","appeals_lodged":46,"appeals_heard":22,"appeals_successful":5,"successful_percent":22.7,"infant_class_rule_applies":true,"authority_name":"Devon","in_words":["In 2026, families in Devon lodged 46 appeals about a primary school place.","22 of them were heard by a panel and 5 succeeded, which is about 23 in every 100 heard.","The other 24 did not reach a panel. Most appeals that do not are withdrawn because a place comes up first.","Reception is an infant class, and the law caps an infant class at 30 children. A panel hearing an appeal about an infant class can only agree in three situations: the place was refused by mistake, the admission rules were not applied properly, or the decision was one no reasonable council would have made. It cannot simply decide that the child should have the place.","Of the 13 infant class appeals heard in Devon in 2026, 3 succeeded.","This is a record of decisions already made. A panel hears one case at a time and decides it on what that family sets out, so these figures do not indicate what would happen in any particular appeal.","These count appeals about every school in Devon, not this school. Nobody publishes appeal figures school by school."],"note":"Appeals about every school in this council area, not this school. The success share is taken over appeals HEARD by a panel, not over appeals lodged: about a third of lodged appeals never reach a panel. A record of past decisions and never a forecast of one."},"special_educational_needs":{"academic_year":2025,"census_january":2026,"total_pupils":242,"ehc_plan":5,"ehc_plan_percent":2.1,"sen_support":45,"sen_support_percent":18.6,"has_sen_unit":false,"has_resourced_provision":false,"national_ehc_plan_percent":3.5,"in_words":["In January 2026, 5 of the 242 children here had an education, health and care plan. That is 2 in every 100. Across schools in England the middle figure is 4 in every 100.","A further 45 were on SEN support, which is help arranged by the school without a plan. That is 19 in every 100, against a middle figure of 15 in every 100 across England.","A school named in a child's education, health and care plan has to admit that child. That duty holds even when the school is full, and it sits outside the rules that decide who gets a place when there are more children than places. Which school is named is decided with the council while the plan is being written, not through the normal application."],"note":"has_sen_unit and has_resourced_provision say only that the school runs one. The source records neither how many children it takes nor which kinds of need it is set up for, and neither may be inferred. A school named in a child's education, health and care plan must admit that child, outside the normal oversubscription rules."},"where_families_ranked_this_school":{"intake_year":2026,"places_offered":21,"offers_1st":19,"offers_2nd":1,"offers_3rd":0,"offers_lower_preference":1,"offers_other_route":1,"code":"School Admissions Code 2021","code_url":"https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2","in_words":["In 2026 this school made 21 offers: 19 to families who had named it first and 1 to a family who named it second.","1 offer went to a family who named it fourth or lower, or who was admitted another way.","A school is not allowed to treat a family differently because of where it sat on their list. The School Admissions Code says an admission authority must not give extra priority to children whose parents rank preferred schools in a particular order.","The order is used at the end, by the council, and not by the school. Where more than one school could take a child, the council offers the one the family put highest.","Leaving the other boxes empty does not change how this school considers an application. If none of the schools a family names can offer a place, the council has to offer one at a school that has room, and that school may be further away."],"note":"Offers by the preference position the family gave this school. An admission authority must not give extra priority for being ranked first (School Admissions Code 2021, paragraph 1.9c), so these counts are not a measure of anything the school did. The order is applied by the council at the end, only to choose between schools that could each offer a place."},"how_places_are_decided":null,"when_to_apply":{"entry_year":2027,"phase":"primary","closes":"2027-01-15","national_offer_day":"2027-04-16","has_closed":false,"closes_on_a_weekend":false,"code":"School Admissions Code 2021","code_url":"https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2","in_words":["Applications for a place starting in September 2027 close on 15 January 2027, the date the School Admissions Code sets for every council in England.","Councils send every offer for primary school places on the same day, 16 April 2027 or the next working day."],"note":"Set nationally and identical for every school in England admitting at this stage. Not a date this school chose. Apply through the council you live in, even for a school in another area."},"waiting_lists":{"in_words":["Being refused a place does not end the application. Every admission authority has to keep a waiting list until at least 31 December of the school year the child would have started, and some keep them for longer.","A waiting list is not a queue. The rules say a child cannot be given priority for having joined it earlier, or for having applied earlier. The list is put back in order against the school's own admission rules every time a child is added, so a place can move further away as well as nearer.","Councils differ on whether a refused child goes onto the list automatically. The council that sent the refusal is the only place that can say which it does."],"code":"School Admissions Code 2021","note":"A national rule, not this school's policy. A child cannot be given priority for joining a list earlier or applying earlier, and the list is reordered whenever a child is added, so a position can move either way."},"who_decides_who_gets_a_place":{"admission_authority":"school","body":"its academy trust","in_words":"This school sets its own admission rules, through its academy trust, rather than Devon setting them.","where_to_look":"Look on the school's own website for its admission arrangements. An admission authority has to agree its rules every year and publish them. The council still takes the application.","note":"Derived from the school's establishment type. The rules themselves are not reproduced: only the admission authority's own published arrangements are binding."},"how_places_were_allocated":[],"how_far_away_children_were_admitted_from":null,"how_the_places_were_shared_out":[],"sources":[{"label":"Department for Education: Get Information about Schools","detail":"School identity, type, phase, address, contact details and how it is run","url":"https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/","retrieved":"2026-09-02"},{"label":"GOV.UK: apply for a school place","detail":"Where to find your council's primary school application. Link checked 23 September 2026","url":"https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-primary-school-place","retrieved":null},{"label":"Ofsted: state-funded school inspections management information","detail":"Inspection outcomes, published monthly","url":"https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/monthly-management-information-ofsteds-school-inspections-outcomes","retrieved":"2026-09-14"},{"label":"Department for Education: school-level applications and offers","detail":"Preferences and offers, 2014 to 2026 intakes","url":"https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/primary-and-secondary-school-applications-and-offers","retrieved":"2026-09-14"},{"label":"Department for Education: school pupils and their characteristics","detail":"Children in each year group, January 2026 census","url":"https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics","retrieved":null},{"label":"Department for Education: school capacity","detail":"Places and pupils on roll, 2009 to 2024","url":"https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity","retrieved":null},{"label":"Devon: school admission zones","detail":"arcgis fetch 2026-09-14","url":"https://services-eu1.arcgis.com/ka8aUOhB0gOPX0Xb/arcgis/rest/services/DevonCC Primary School Designation Areas/FeatureServer/0/query?where=1=1&outFields=*&f=geojson","retrieved":"2026-09-14"}]}