Batheaston Church School

Batheaston Church School is a Church of England school in the Bath and Wells Diocesan Academies Trust. This full section 5 inspection found the school performing securely overall, with safeguarding standards met. Early years and personal development and wellbeing are particular strengths: children get a highly positive start, reading is taught well from the outset, and pupils benefit from a strong pastoral and wider enrichment offer. Pupils behave well, feel safe, and attendance is in line with national averages. Achievement overall is in line with national expectations, with reading a notable strength and recent maths changes improving problem solving and reasoning. However, writing remains a key priority, and a small minority of foundation or wider curriculum subjects are not taught as consistently well as leaders intend, limiting the depth of pupils' knowledge in those areas. Disadvantaged pupils' achievement is lower than that of their peers, although it is improving, and leaders are working to raise attendance further for disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND. Leaders and governors understand the school's strengths and areas for improvement and are focused on making provision consistently strong across all phases. The main next steps are to ensure the intended curriculum in foundation subjects is implemented effectively and to monitor pupils' progress rigorously so barriers are addressed swiftly. The school has above-average proportions of pupils with EHC plans and SEN support, and it works effectively with families and external agencies to support them.

Strengths

• Early years gives children a highly positive start, with strong transition and family engagement.
• The early years curriculum is skilfully constructed and prioritises speech, language and early reading.
• Personal development and wellbeing provision is a clear strength, including spiritual, moral and cultural learning.
• Pupils take on meaningful leadership and citizenship roles, including sports leaders, librarians and school council members.
• Pupils behave well, show positive attitudes and respect, and bullying is rare.
• Pupils feel safe and know how to keep themselves safe and healthy.
• Reading achievement is a notable strength, with secure phonics and fluent readers.
• Recent maths curriculum changes are helping pupils problem solve and reason more securely.
• Inclusion is effective, with prompt identification of barriers and well-planned adaptations for pupils with SEND.
• Leaders use pupil premium and external agency support to help disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND.
• Staff are proud to work at the school and value leaders' care for workload and wellbeing.
• Parents are very positive and praise how happy their children are and staff dedication.
• Governance and trust oversight are clear, increasingly providing support and challenge.

Areas for Improvement

• Writing remains a key priority because not all pupils write legibly or spell and punctuate accurately.
• The new handwriting scheme is too recent for its full impact to be seen.
• A small minority of wider curriculum or foundation subjects are not taught as consistently well as intended.
• Pupils do not develop the same depth of understanding in some wider curriculum subjects.
• Disadvantaged pupils' achievement is lower than their peers', though improving.
• Some individual targets for pupils receiving interventions lack precision.
• Leaders cannot rigorously review the effectiveness of some interventions or adjust provision as sharply as they could.
• Progress monitoring across all curriculum areas needs a sharper focus to raise achievement consistently.
• Attendance still needs to improve for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND.
• In some subjects, pupils are not as well prepared for the next stage of education as they should be.

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 Batheaston Church School attended 94.7% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 12.4% 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 Batheaston Church 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 Batheaston Church School had 20.5 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 30.8% 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, 16.6% of pupils at Batheaston Church School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 6.1% 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 Batheaston Church School received £7,271 and spent £6,916 for each of its 194 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £79,000 (£405 per pupil).

Across all 45 schools of The Bath and Wells Diocesan Academies Trust, income was £7,160 and spending £7,193 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 Bath · Bath and North East Somerset local authority: places and applications

Batheaston Church School is part of The Bath and Wells Diocesan Academies Trust, which runs 46 schools. The nearest others:

• Bathampton Primary School Bath
• Bathford Church School Bath
• Swainswick Church School Bath
• St Saviours Junior Church School Bath
• St Saviours Infant Church School Bath
• Bathwick St Mary Church School Bath
• St Stephens Church School Bath
• St Andrew's Church School Bath
• St Michaels Junior Church School Bath
• Freshford Church School Bath

What is Batheaston Church School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Batheaston Church School is Expected standard, from an inspection in September 2026.

When was Batheaston Church School last inspected by Ofsted?

Batheaston Church School was last inspected in September 2026.

How many pupils does Batheaston Church School have?

Batheaston Church School has 181 pupils on roll.

What age range does Batheaston Church School cover?

Batheaston Church School for pupils aged 4 to 11.

What are Batheaston Church School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 64% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Batheaston Church School?

Batheaston Church School is at School Lane, Northend, Bath, Somerset, BA1 7EP.