Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery

Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery is a welcoming, inclusive school where pupils are happy, safe and achieve well. Inspectors found all key judgements to be good, including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. This marks a clear improvement from the previous requires improvement judgement, and leaders including governors have successfully addressed earlier shortcomings. The school has an ambitious curriculum, strong early years provision and effective support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Reading and phonics have improved, personal development is a strength, behaviour is typically good, attendance strategies are effective, and safeguarding arrangements are effective. Parents are overwhelmingly positive and staff are well trained and happy. The new headteacher took up her permanent post in March 2024.

Strengths

• Pupils are happy, safe and well supported in a welcoming and inclusive school.
• Staff build nurturing relationships with pupils and pupils have meaningful leadership roles.
• The curriculum is ambitious and varied, and pupils take pride in their work.
• Provision for pupils with SEND is a considerable strength of the school.
• Children in early years get a strong start and are well prepared for Year 1.
• Phonics is taught with precision and consistency, and early reading has improved.
• Personal development is a strength of the school.
• Behaviour expectations are high and lessons are calm and orderly.
• Effective attendance strategies have improved regular attendance and punctuality.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.
• Staff are well trained and happy, and parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school.

Areas for Improvement

• In a small number of subjects, assessment is not developed effectively.
• Teachers are less adept at spotting and resolving pupils' misconceptions, leading to gaps in knowledge.
• Implementation of the non-core curriculum is still being refined.
• Some learning activities do not match curriculum aims well enough for all pupils to build knowledge 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 Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery attended 93.7% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 20.3% 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, 5.6% of pupils at Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery 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 Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery had 14.6 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 8.0% 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, 17.3% of pupils at Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 5.2% 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 Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery received £13,257 and spent £13,078 for each of its 173 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £312,000 (£1,801 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 Somerset · Somerset local authority: places and applications

What is Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery is Good, from an inspection in November 2024.

When was Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery last inspected by Ofsted?

Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery was last inspected in November 2024.

How many pupils does Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery have?

Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery has 173 pupils on roll.

What age range does Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery cover?

Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery for pupils aged 3 to 9.

Where is Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery?

Knights Templar Community Church School & Nursery is at Liddymore Road, Watchet, Somerset, TA23 0EX.