Lift Beacon, Loughborough

Ofsted's report card from its 21 April 2026 inspection grades Lift Beacon on 7 areas: 4 strong standard and 3 expected standard. Report cards replaced single-word judgements in November 2025, on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement.

Attendance and behaviour - Strong standard. "Attendance is a high priority across the school."

Inclusion - Strong standard. "Staff know pupils really well and understand their individual needs from the moment that they join the school."

Leadership and governance - Strong standard. "Leaders lead the school with clarity, conviction and a clear moral purpose."

Personal development and wellbeing - Strong standard. "Pupils develop confidence, resilience and a positive sense of who they are at this school."

Achievement - Expected standard. "Pupils achieve well from their starting points."

Curriculum and teaching - Expected standard. "The school provides a clear, well‑designed curriculum that starts in Nursery and builds step by step."

Early years - Expected standard. "Children enjoy a calm, happy and welcoming start to school in the early years."

Safeguarding standards were met.

Ofsted's next steps for the school: "Leaders should strengthen the effectiveness with which gaps in foundational knowledge and misconceptions are identified and addressed, including in writing, so that pupils demonstrate increasing accuracy, fluency and confidence and achieve as well as they could"; "Leaders should improve pupils' learning and achievement in the wider curriculum, so that expectations, depth and impact match that seen in reading, writing and mathematics".

The school runs a breakfast club and after-school care.

In 2025, 84% of Year 6 pupils at Lift Beacon reached the expected standard in reading and 84% in maths. At the average state primary the figures were 78% and 77% in Leicestershire and 77% and 75% across England.

Results rose from 57% in reading and 67% in maths in 2024.

For September 2026 entry, 26 families put Lift Beacon as their first choice and 59 named it as one of their preferences, for 27 places offered. It had fewer first-choice applications than places. Every family who put it first was offered a place there for 2026 entry.

The nearest other state primary schools to Lift Beacon are Sacred Heart Catholic Voluntary Academy (0.6 miles, Good, 89% reading, 86% maths); Outwoods Edge Primary School (0.7 miles, Good, 86% reading, 86% maths); Mountfields Lodge School (0.8 miles, Good, 66% reading, 63% maths); and Cobden Primary School & Community Centre (0.8 miles, Good, 57% reading, 61% maths).

Lift Beacon's 2025 results were higher than 2 of these 4 schools.

Lift Beacon is one of 62 schools run by Lift Schools, an academy trust.

Across the trust's primary schools, 79% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in 2024/25.

38.3% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well above the average state school (25%), and 27.7% speak English as an additional language, against 18.8% on average, according to the 2026 school census.

The largest ethnic groups are White British (59%), Asian (11%) and Mixed (8%).

In 2026, 48 pupils (12.7%) received SEN support and 54 (14.2%) had an education, health and care plan, against 16.2% and 4.6% at the average state school. The most common need among them is speech, language and communication needs.

Lift Beacon has a SEN unit for speech, language and communication needs and moderate learning difficulties: 36 places, 36 pupils on roll.

The nearest tram or metro stop is Loughborough Central (Great Central Railway), about 1050 metres away (roughly a 13-minute walk).

15 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Community Centre (opposite), 90 metres away.

Measured by the 2025 English Indices of Deprivation, the neighbourhood Lift Beacon stands in is among the 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in England. This describes where the school is, not where its pupils live.

In August 2026, police recorded 297 crimes within a mile of the school, most often violence and sexual offences, anti-social behaviour and shoplifting. That is well above the typical figure around schools in Leicestershire (58), as is usual near a town centre.

In 2024/25, Lift Beacon issued 2 suspensions, 0.6 for every 100 pupils (the average state school: 6.3), and no permanent exclusions.

The secondary schools closest to Lift Beacon are Woodbrook Vale School (1 mile), Limehurst Academy (1.1 miles), Rawlins (1.6 miles) and De Lisle College Loughborough Leicestershire (1.7 miles).