Frant Church of England Primary School

Frant Church of England Primary School is a small, welcoming school that provides a highly positive environment for its pupils. Inspectors found strong standards in attendance and behaviour, early years provision, inclusion, and personal development and wellbeing. Pupils are happy, confident and well-behaved; attendance is above national averages, persistent absence is low, and children in the early years get off to a strong start. Safeguarding standards are met, and the school has an open culture of safeguarding.

Strengths

• Attendance is above national averages, including for disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND.
• Persistent absence remains low over time.
• Pupils' behaviour is consistently positive and they have highly positive attitudes to learning.
• Excellent relationships with families enable swift identification and support for attendance issues.
• Early years provision provides a highly positive start, with high expectations and effective transition arrangements.
• The early years curriculum is thoughtfully sequenced and the environment promotes independence, creativity and purposeful play.
• Staff in early years are highly knowledgeable and build secure, caring relationships.
• Phonics teaching is effective, helping children develop their writing and spelling.
• Inclusion is at the heart of the school, with swift identification of needs and effective adaptations.
• Pupils with SEND and disadvantaged pupils achieve well from their starting points.
• Personal development is exceptionally well catered for, with a purposeful and ambitious PSHE curriculum.
• Pupils are highly positive, considerate and responsible citizens who respect others.
• A rich range of experiences, visits and clubs broaden pupils' horizons.
• High-quality pastoral support ensures pupils' wellbeing is well cared for.
• Leaders have reliable monitoring systems and an accurate understanding of the school's strengths and priorities.
• Governance is effective, with knowledgeable governors providing appropriate challenge and support.
• Staff morale is high, and leaders protect staff workload.

Areas for Improvement

• The new approach to teaching writing is not yet embedded consistently across the school.
• Pupils' writing skills, including spelling and handwriting, require further development.
• Recent national test outcomes in mathematics and combined reading, writing and mathematics have been below national averages in some years.
• Teaching is not yet highly effective across all areas, which limits pupils' achievement.
• Achievement, curriculum and teaching, and leadership and governance are judged at expected standard rather than strong.
• Further time is needed to ensure the writing curriculum is embedded consistently.

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Frant Church of England Primary School attended 96.0% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 7.1% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 13.0%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 0.0% of pupils at Frant Church of England Primary School were suspended at least once (nationally 1.1%). No pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Frant Church of England Primary School had 16.7 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 10.2% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 15.7%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 8.3% of pupils at Frant Church of England Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 1.0% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded primary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2025–26 Frant Church of England Primary School received £8,087 and spent £8,265 for each of its 373 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £273,000 (£733 per pupil).

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24). This school files a single return with the other schools in its federation, so the figures are for the whole federation.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Tunbridge Wells · East Sussex local authority: places and applications

What is Frant Church of England Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Frant Church of England Primary School is Expected standard, from an inspection in September 2026.

When was Frant Church of England Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Frant Church of England Primary School was last inspected in September 2026.

How many pupils does Frant Church of England Primary School have?

Frant Church of England Primary School has 96 pupils on roll.

What age range does Frant Church of England Primary School cover?

Frant Church of England Primary School for pupils aged 4 to 11.

What are Frant Church of England Primary School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 50% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Frant Church of England Primary School?

Frant Church of England Primary School is at Church Lane, Frant, Tunbridge Wells, East Sussex, TN3 9DX.