Severn Beach Primary School

Severn Beach Primary School is a kind, welcoming school where pupils feel safe, behave well and value their relationships with staff. Behaviour and attitudes, personal development and early years provision are good, and safeguarding is effective. Pupils benefit from a rich personal development offer, including extra-curricular activities and roles such as house captains and playground pals. The school is ambitious and, with trust support, has set out a clear curriculum, but this vision is not yet fully realised. The quality of education and leadership and management require improvement. In some subjects, curriculum implementation does not help pupils build and remember knowledge well enough, and teachers' checks do not consistently identify gaps or inform future learning. Phonics is a particular concern: published 2023 outcomes were significantly below national averages, the new programme is not yet delivered consistently, and some reading books are not well matched to pupils' phonics stage. The school also does not always use its monitoring systems precisely enough to understand what is working and evaluate impact. This is the school's first routine inspection since the COVID-19 pandemic, and under the September 2024 framework no overall effectiveness grade was given. The school is part of the Castle School Education Trust.

Strengths

• Pupils are polite and well mannered and follow school rules, contributing to a calm atmosphere.
• Children in the early years share, play and work well together.
• Pupils feel safe and value warm, respectful relationships with staff.
• The personal development offer is rich and varied, including extra-curricular activities and pupil roles.
• The school has effective systems to identify SEND needs, and precise support plans help pupils progress where support is effective.
• Attendance is managed effectively, and most pupils attend regularly.
• The school is ambitious and, with trust support, has ensured the curriculum makes clear what pupils need to know and when.
• Mathematics and early years teaching are implemented well, with staff modelling vocabulary and checking understanding.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.
• Trustees and local governors now have an accurate understanding of the school's strengths and areas for improvement.

Areas for Improvement

• Curriculum implementation does not yet enable pupils to build their knowledge well enough as they move through the school.
• In some subjects, pupils do not always remember important knowledge and struggle to make links to prior learning.
• The new phonics programme is not implemented consistently well.
• Staff do not routinely check pupils' understanding in phonics, and some reading books are not matched well enough to pupils' reading stage.
• Published 2023 phonics outcomes were significantly below national averages.
• In some wider curriculum subjects, teachers' checks are not used well enough to identify gaps in knowledge or inform future learning.
• Some pupils struggle to remember key learning in the longer term.
• The school does not always use its monitoring systems effectively to understand gaps in pupils' knowledge or evaluate the impact of its actions.
• Previously, governance oversight was not always rigorous enough to ensure improvements were made swiftly and evaluated accurately.

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 Severn Beach Primary School attended 92.5% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 19.8% 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, 1.3% of pupils at Severn Beach 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 Severn Beach Primary School had 29.1 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 0.0% 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, 20.4% of pupils at Severn Beach Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 4.5% 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 2024–25 Severn Beach Primary School received £7,022 and spent £7,007 for each of its 151 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £97,000 (£639 per pupil).

Across all 20 schools of Pathway Trust, income was £7,571 and spending £7,443 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). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Bristol · South Gloucestershire local authority: places and applications

Severn Beach Primary School is part of Pathway Trust, which runs 20 schools. The nearest others:

• Marlwood School Bristol
• The Castle School Bristol
• Downend School Bristol
• Lyde Green Primary School Bristol
• Mangotsfield School Bristol
• Tortworth Primary School Wotton-Under-Edge
• Cherry Garden Primary School Bristol
• Charfield Primary School Wotton-Under-Edge
• St Anne's Church Primary School Weston Super Mare
• Castle Batch Primary School Weston-Super-Mare

What is Severn Beach Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Severn Beach Primary School is Requires Improvement, from an inspection in December 2024.

When was Severn Beach Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Severn Beach Primary School was last inspected in December 2024.

How many pupils does Severn Beach Primary School have?

Severn Beach Primary School has 201 pupils on roll.

What age range does Severn Beach Primary School cover?

Severn Beach Primary School for pupils aged 2 to 11.

What are Severn Beach Primary School's SATs (KS2) results?

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

Where is Severn Beach Primary School?

Severn Beach Primary School is at Ableton Lane, Severn Beach, Bristol, South Gloucestershire, BS35 4PP.