Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School)
Grange Drive, Melton Mowbray, LE13 1HA
This school is closed (it closed in November 2025).
It was replaced by Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School). That page has the school's current information.
- Phase
- Special schools
- School type
- Community special school
- Ages
- 4 to 19
- Gender
- Mixed
- Headteacher
- Mr Philip Leaney
- SEN provision
- SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty, VI - Visual Impairment, OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability, HI - Hearing Impairment, SLCN - Speech, language and Communication, ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder, SEMH - Social, Emotional and Mental Health, MSI - Multi-Sensory Impairment, PD - Physical Disability, MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty, SLD - Severe Learning Difficulty, PMLD - Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty
- Constituency
- Melton and Syston
- Setting
- Urban: Further from a major town or city
- Capacity
- 240
- Pupils on roll
- 245
- URN
- 134640
- Local authority
- Leicestershire
About this school
Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) was a community special school in Melton Mowbray. It taught children aged 4 to 19 and had 245 pupils on roll.
Ofsted did not inspect it under the current framework.
Ofsted judgement
Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) has not been inspected by Ofsted yet. It opened in its current form in September 2004, and new or converted schools usually wait a few years for their first inspection.
Exam results
Key stage 2 (end of primary school)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 2 | 8 | 15 | 8 |
| Met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Reached the higher standard in reading, writing and maths | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Expected standard in reading | 0% | 7% | 13% |
| Expected standard in maths | 0% | 0% | 13% |
| Expected standard in grammar, punctuation and spelling | 0% | 0% | 13% |
| Average scaled score in reading | 93.0 | 91.0 | 92.0 |
| Average scaled score in maths | 82.0 | 86.0 | 91.0 |
| Reading progress | -4.40 | - | - |
| Writing progress | -6.90 | - | - |
| Maths progress | -7.20 | - | - |
Progress measures ended nationally after the 2022/23 school year, when the key stage 1 assessments they were based on were stopped. Blank progress figures in later years are not missing school data.
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 20 | 25 | 19 |
| Attainment 8 score | 3.9 | 4.1 | 8.1 |
| Progress 8 score | -1.34 -2.01 to -0.67 | -1.40 -2.05 to -0.75 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 5% | 0% | 0% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.7 |
Progress 8 is paused nationally for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 school years. Those pupils sat no key stage 2 tests during the Covid pandemic, so there is no starting point to measure progress from. A blank figure here is not missing school data.
Trends over time
How Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Leicestershire average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 0% | 60.8% | 57.9% |
| 2023/24 | 0% | 60.1% | 58.8% |
| 2024/25 | 0% | 61.4% | 60.3% |
Department for Education KS2 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | Leicestershire average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 3.9 | 37.5 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 4.1 | 37.1 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 8.1 | 36.9 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 11% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 11.5% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 9.4% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 224 |
| 2023/24 | 228 |
| 2024/25 | 245 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 41.21%
- English as an additional language
- 1.2%
- Overall absence
- 9.44%
- Persistent absence
- 24.34%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School)0.0 miles
Academies · Melton Mowbray
-
The Grange Therapeutic School6.4 miles
Special schools · Oakham
-
Brooke Priory School8.1 miles
Independent schools · Oakham
-
Oakham School8.4 miles
Independent schools · Oakham
-
The Shires at Oakham8.7 miles
Special schools · Should be blank
Other schools in Melton Mowbray
- Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) Academies
- Ab Kettleby Primary School Primary
- Asfordby Hill Primary School Primary
- Brownlow Primary School Primary
- Captains Close Primary School Primary
- Frisby Church of England Primary School Primary
- Great Dalby School Primary
- Harby Church of England Primary School Primary
- Hose Church of England Primary School Primary
- Long Clawson Church of England Primary School Primary
- Old Dalby Church of England Primary School Primary
- Saint Francis Catholic Primary School Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) teach?
- Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) taught children aged 4 to 19. It was a special school in Melton Mowbray.
- Has Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) been inspected?
- Ofsted has not inspected Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) under its current framework, so no current judgement is shown. That is common for newer schools and is not a mark against a school.
- How big is Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School)?
- Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School) had 245 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 4 to 19.
- How have Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School)'s results changed over recent years?
- Its share of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths was 0% in 2022/23 and 0% in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- What are Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School)'s exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School)'s key stage results are shown in the results section on this page, with the last three years so you can see the trend rather than a single year.
School details come from the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register. Inspection outcomes come from Ofsted, and exam results from the Department for Education's school performance service. This page was last updated on 9 January 2026.