Birch Wood (Melton Area Special School)
Special / other · Melton Mowbray · LE13 1HA
Earlier grade, confirmed by a later ungraded inspection
Ofsted's most recent (ungraded) visit confirmed the school remains Good. Ungraded inspections do not award a new grade.
Inspected 17 April 2024
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
246 pupils · 102% of 240 capacity (over capacity)
- School type
- Academy special converter
- Age range
- 4–19
- Gender
- Mixed
- Free school meals
- 41.5% of pupils
- Sixth form
- Yes
- Website
- www.birchwoodschool.co.uk
- URN
- 152239
Special educational needs
Needs this school records that it caters for, in the order it lists them.
- Specific Learning Difficulty
- Visual Impairment
- Other Difficulty/Disability
- Hearing Impairment
- Speech, Language and Communication Needs
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health
- Multi-Sensory Impairment
- Physical Disability
- Moderate Learning Difficulty
- Severe Learning Difficulty
- Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty
Attendance (2025/26 autumn term)
Autumn-term absence, DfE pupil absence data. Lower is better.
The area around the school
- Child poverty (IDACI)
- 7/10less deprived than most of England
- Overall deprivation (IMD)
- 9/10among the least deprived fifth of England
English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG), decile of the small area the school stands in: 1 is the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. IDACI counts only children in low-income families, which is the measure closest to the intake a school is likely to draw on.
| Census 2021 | This area | England |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with a degree or higher | 23.2% | 33.9% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 17% | 18.1% |
| In managerial or professional work | 28.9% | 33.2% |
| Households deprived in two or more ways | 11.5% | 18.1% |
| Residents in very good health | 42.3% | 48.5% |
| Homes owned by the occupier | 84.1% | 62.3% |
| Social housing | 1.5% | 17.1% |
| Privately rented | 14.3% | 20.5% |
| Detached houses | 15.3% | 22.9% |
| Flats | 1.3% | 22.2% |
| Homes with four or more bedrooms | 12.4% | 21.1% |
| Households with no car or van | 10.6% | 23.5% |
Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01025893 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,645 adults that the school stands in. These figures describe the area, not the pupils. Children travel in from further away, and for selective, faith and some other schools usually much further. Open Government Licence v3.0.
What homes cost nearby
- Median sale price
- £231,000182 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
- Typical range
- £196,000–£274,500the middle half of sales
- England median
- £300,000all sales over the same period
Homes around this school are cheaper than most school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 1 km across every state school.
Every residential sale registered with HM Land Registry within 1 km of the school (straight line) since January 2024, market sales of houses and flats only. A sale is dated by completion and registered weeks later, so the most recent months are incomplete. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Postcodes located with OS Code-Point Open: contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026; contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026; contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Roads around the school
- Child pedestrian casualties
- 1an urban school averages 2.0
- Collisions at school-run times
- 1an urban school averages 5.8
- All reported collisions
- 1an urban school averages 30.6
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 0an urban school averages 6.1
Every collision reported to the police within 500 m of the school in 2021–2025, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics (STATS19). "Child pedestrians" counts casualties aged under 16 on foot; "school-run times" means weekdays 07:30–09:00 and 15:00–16:30 outside August. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe: counts rise with traffic and with how built-up an area is, which is why the comparison is with other urban schools. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position. Open Government Licence v3.0.
Nearby schools
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