A school in Cambridge has been judged as ‘outstanding’ in most areas, following a recent inspection by Ofsted. Milton Road Primary School on Ascham Road was described as having “exceptionally high ambition for pupils”, who themselves show “impressive levels of confidence”.
The report was published on September 17, after an Ofsted visit in July. Behaviour and attitudes; personal development; leadership and management; and early years provision were all rated ‘outstanding’.
The quality of education was judged to be ‘good’. The report states: “Pupils delight in attending their warm and friendly school. They make sure that everyone is welcome, with ‘no outsiders’.
“Pupils work hard and are rightly proud of their achievements. They rise to the high expectations the school sets, including in their typically high standards of behaviour and positive achievement.
“Pupils know that school is a safe place. They trust staff to step in if they are worried.
“The school’s exceptionally high ambition for pupils is reflected in its mission statement, ‘We are CREW, not passengers’, representing the school’s values of Courage, Responsibility, Excellence and Wisdom.”
Following Ofsted’s last full inspection in 2019, every category was rated ‘good’. While there have been slight changes to the wording of the categories, all the same points were covered in 2019 as in 2025.
Before 2019, Milton Road Primary School was rated ‘requires improvement’ in all areas. This came after a 2016 visit.
Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are described in this year’s report as being “well-supported” by staff members and benefitting from “skilful” adaptations, which allow most of them to “learn successfully alongside their peers”.
Ofsted continues: “From the early years onwards, pupils build impressive levels of confidence progressively as they move through year groups. Consequently, they are well prepared for the next stage in education, including when they leave for secondary school.”
At the time of the inspection, Milton Road Primary School had 422 pupils between the ages of five and 11 on its registers.
The headteacher of the school, Rae Snape, said: “We are really pleased with the inspectors’ findings. It was an intensive, in-depth and thorough process and, whilst we recognise that there is still more work to be done, there is much to celebrate in this report.
“We are particularly delighted that the inspectors noted some of the things that are important to us, including that we are a warm and friendly school, that our arrangements to promote our pupils’ personal development are exemplary, and that our exceptionally high ambition for pupils is reflected in our mission statement, ‘We are CREW, not passengers’.
“Securing this positive outcome was a CREW effort and I am very grateful to the children, my colleagues, our parents, and carers, our governors and volunteers and our many wonderful friends and partners.”
