Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School

Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School is a very small primary with its own pre-school, serving a disadvantaged intake. The March 2026 inspection found that the school requires special measures because it is failing to provide an acceptable standard of education, and the people responsible for leading, managing and governing it are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement. Safeguarding standards are met, and pupils are safe, behave well, attend routinely and benefit from strong personal development and extracurricular opportunities. However, achievement is far too low, particularly in writing, and disadvantaged pupils have large gaps in outcomes. The strongest areas are pupils' behaviour, attendance, safety and personal development, including trips, clubs, pupil leadership and inclusion in school life. Teaching of early reading and mathematics is more effective than writing, and recent action by interim leadership has begun to improve key stage 2 teaching. But these improvements are at an early stage and are outweighed by deep-rooted weaknesses. Urgent improvement is needed in achievement, early years and leadership and governance. The writing curriculum is weak, spelling and handwriting are poor, and too many pupils leave without the essential knowledge they need for secondary school. Early years provision lacks oversight, expertise and training; children's learning is weak and they are not well prepared for key stage 1. Support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is inconsistent, and curriculum, teaching and inclusion require attention. The interim headteacher, appointed in September 2025, has taken some appropriate action, but leaders are overwhelmed by the scale of the issues and governance has only recently begun to provide better challenge. Governors are committed and staff and parents value communication and wellbeing, but the school's decline has not yet been halted.

Strengths

• Pupils typically attend well, supported by effective attendance tracking and swift intervention.
• Pupils behave well, are engaged in learning and show kindness and tolerance; bullying is rare.
• Pupils feel safe and have warm, trusting relationships with staff.
• Personal development is strong, with trips, residentials, assemblies and charity work preparing pupils for life in modern Britain.
• The school offers an extensive range of clubs and wider opportunities, including for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND.
• Pupils with SEND are fully included in school life and extracurricular activities.
• Early reading and mathematics teaching is more effective than writing, with recent success in phonics and mathematics.
• Staff are proud to work at the school, and leaders consider workload and wellbeing.
• Parents appreciate leaders' communication and positive relationships with families.
• Governors are passionate, committed and realistic about the school's performance, and now receive more accurate information.
• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture and concerns actively identified and managed.

Areas for Improvement

• Achievement is too low, with too many pupils leaving without essential reading, writing and mathematics knowledge.
• Writing is a significant weakness; spelling, handwriting and the writing curriculum are weak across the school.
• Very few pupils achieve the expected standard in writing at the end of key stage 2.
• No pupils in the last three years achieved the higher standard in the combined reading, writing and mathematics measure at key stage 2.
• Disadvantaged pupils underachieve, and the disadvantage gap is large.
• Curriculum and teaching quality is variable, and implementation of the writing curriculum is inconsistent.
• Staff are not well trained to teach writing effectively or match activities closely to pupils' stages of learning.
• Support for pupils with SEND is inconsistent; necessary adaptations are not routinely provided, so some pupils struggle to progress.
• Early years provision has declined sharply due to weak oversight, strategic vision and staff training.
• Early years staff lack child development knowledge and have low expectations; children are not well prepared for key stage 1.
• Leadership and governance require urgent improvement; leaders' pace of change has been too slow and capacity is insufficient.
• Over time, governance failed to hold the school to account effectively and could not halt the decline.
• The school has not used external support well, leaving significant gaps in staff subject knowledge.
• Teachers do not consistently use what they know about pupils' needs and starting points to plan well-matched teaching.
• Too many leadership decisions until recently were not made in pupils' best interests, including for disadvantaged pupils.
• Some younger pupils lose focus when the curriculum is not well suited to them.

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 Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School attended 94.5% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 16.9% 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 Barwick and Stoford Community 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 Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School had 16.1 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 25.0% 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, 17.2% of pupils at Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 8.6% 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 Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School received £12,715 and spent £12,846 for each of its 58 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £106,000 (£1,836 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).

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Yeovil · Somerset local authority: places and applications

What is Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School is Urgent improvement, from an inspection in September 2026.

When was Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School was last inspected in September 2026.

How many pupils does Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School have?

Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School has 58 pupils on roll.

What age range does Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School cover?

Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School for pupils aged 4 to 11.

What are Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 9% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School?

Barwick and Stoford Community Primary School is at South View, Barwick, Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 9TH.