Ivingswood Academy

Ivingswood Academy is a small primary academy in the Kings Education Trust. This was its first section 5 inspection; its predecessor school had been judged inadequate, and the school has since experienced leadership and staffing turbulence, with a new senior leadership team in place from September 2024. Pupils are happy, feel safe and are proud of their school, and relationships between staff and pupils are warm. Behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management are stronger than the quality of education and early years provision, which require improvement. The school has maintained a focus on improvement and has made successful changes to behaviour, reading and mathematics, including a well-considered phonics approach and stronger maths curriculum. The curriculum is broad, ambitious and well sequenced overall, and pupils benefit from good enrichment, clubs and opportunities for responsibility. Safeguarding is effective, and governance and trust support are sound. However, pupils do not yet consistently receive a good-quality education. Teaching and activities are sometimes not focused precisely enough on the intended knowledge, and pupils' achievement is affected by historic underachievement and gaps in knowledge. Support for pupils with SEND is inconsistent, writing is not taught well enough, and the early years curriculum does not clearly build towards the early learning goals. Leaders also need sharper analysis of attendance and behaviour to inform planning and accountability.

Strengths

• Pupils are happy, feel safe and are proud to belong to the school.
• Warm, positive relationships between staff and pupils.
• Most pupils behave sensibly and respond well to clear expectations.
• Pupils who need emotional support are helped kindly and sensitively.
• A wide range of clubs and enrichment activities contributes well to pupils' enjoyment.
• The school has improved behaviour and attitudes despite leadership and staffing turbulence.
• Recent actions to address low key stage 2 outcomes are leading to improvements in reading and mathematics.
• The mathematics curriculum is well developed and helps pupils understand, remember and apply key concepts.
• The phonics approach is well considered and gives children a secure start in reading.
• Personal development teaches respect, tolerance and equality through the curriculum and enrichment.
• Governance and trust oversight are sound, and staff well-being is considered.
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Areas for Improvement

• Weaknesses in curriculum and teaching mean pupils do not consistently receive a good-quality education.
• Support for pupils with SEND is inconsistent, particularly for pupils with very significant needs.
• Teaching and the curriculum are not consistently adapted to meet the diverse needs of pupils with SEND.
• The approach to teaching writing is not fully effective, with too little focus on handwriting and sentence construction.
• Gaps in pupils' writing knowledge are not systematically addressed, so weaknesses persist into key stage 2.
• The early years curriculum does not clearly identify the knowledge children need to work towards the early learning goals.
• Early years activities during independent learning are not targeted well enough on children's next steps.
• Learning activities are sometimes not well matched to what teachers intend pupils to learn.
• Pupils are not achieving consistently well because of historic underachievement and gaps in knowledge.
• Leaders' analysis of attendance and behaviour is not precise or robust enough to inform strategy and trust accountability.

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 Ivingswood Academy attended 91.7% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 28.9% 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, 5.1% of pupils at Ivingswood Academy 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 Ivingswood Academy had 16.5 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 31.0% 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, 28.2% of pupils at Ivingswood Academy were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 5.4% 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 Ivingswood Academy received £8,818 and spent £8,621 for each of its 147 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £130,000 (£887 per pupil).

Across all 4 schools of Kings Education Trust, income was £7,517 and spending £7,350 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 Chesham · Buckinghamshire local authority: places and applications

Ivingswood Academy is part of Kings Education Trust, which runs 4 schools. The nearest others:

• Waterside Primary Academy Chesham
• Great Kingshill Church of England Combined School High Wycombe
• Hughenden Primary School High Wycombe

What is Ivingswood Academy's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Ivingswood Academy is Requires Improvement, from an inspection in February 2025.

When was Ivingswood Academy last inspected by Ofsted?

Ivingswood Academy was last inspected in February 2025.

How many pupils does Ivingswood Academy have?

Ivingswood Academy has 149 pupils on roll.

What age range does Ivingswood Academy cover?

Ivingswood Academy for pupils aged 2 to 11.

What are Ivingswood Academy's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 53% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Ivingswood Academy?

Ivingswood Academy is at Greenway, Chesham, HP5 2BY.