Tortworth Primary School

Tortworth Primary School is a small school in the CSET multi-academy trust that has experienced significant leadership and staffing change, including a new headteacher from September 2025. Safeguarding standards are met, and inspectors found a school moving in the right direction. New leaders, supported by the trust, have accurately identified priorities, revised the curriculum to be more ambitious, and improved teaching so that pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND, are better supported to understand and remember their learning. Inclusion, leadership and governance, and personal development and wellbeing are secure; pupils feel safe and cared for, behave well, and benefit from a wide range of trips, clubs and pupil leadership roles. Reading is a relative strength. However, important weaknesses remain. Pupils are not achieving as highly as they should by the end of their primary phase: written work and mathematics are weaker than reading, and gaps from previous inconsistent classroom experiences still hold back achievement, especially for the oldest pupils. Early years children are not well enough prepared for Year 1, partly because recent curriculum and routine changes have not yet had full impact. Attendance is a major concern, with persistent absence remaining high even though overall attendance is starting to rise; too many pupils are missing the full school offer. Trustees and leaders also recognise that some parents have been unhappy because of frequent staffing changes, and that pupils' outcomes and attendance have not been good enough. Leaders' next steps are appropriate: continue closing gaps in pupils' knowledge and understanding, ensure consistently high-quality teaching across all subjects and phases, and make the attendance strategy quickly reduce persistent absence. The trust has provided additional resources to support the school through this period of change.

Strengths

• Safeguarding standards are met, with an open culture where concerns are actively identified and managed.
• New leaders and the trust have an accurate understanding of the school's strengths and priorities.
• The curriculum has been revised to be more ambitious, with effective professional development for staff.
• Teaching is typically effective and uses a consistent lesson structure to help pupils revisit prior learning.
• Improvements in teaching are benefiting disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Inclusion is well led, with pupil premium and other funding used appropriately for reading and mental health support.
• Leaders identify pupils' individual needs more sharply and target interventions to help them catch up.
• Pupils feel safe and cared for, and know adults will help them with concerns.
• Pupils learn to read confidently and accurately.
• Pupils are kind, respectful and typically behave well; bullying is rare and resolved effectively.
• Personal development is broad, including trips, clubs, student leadership and learning about health, safety and British values.
• Staff are highly positive about working at the school, and leaders are considerate of workload and wellbeing.
• Children in early years are happy, feel safe, and staff build positive relationships with families.

Areas for Improvement

• Achievement is too low overall, and pupils are not as well prepared for their next stage of education as they should be.
• Pupils' written work and mathematical understanding are not of the same standard as their reading.
• Published outcomes and current pupil work reflect weaknesses in writing and mathematics.
• Gaps in pupils' knowledge and understanding, caused by previous inconsistent classroom experiences, remain and particularly affect the oldest pupils.
• Children in early years are not as well prepared for Year 1 as they should be.
• Recent early years curriculum and routine changes have not yet had full impact, and gaps in children's knowledge remain.
• Persistent absence remains high, so too many pupils do not benefit from all the school offers.
• Overall attendance has started to improve but remains below national levels.
• Teaching is not yet consistently high quality across all subjects and phases.
• Some parents have been unhappy with their children's experience because of frequent staffing changes.

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 Tortworth Primary School attended 89.7% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 34.8% 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, 7.2% of pupils at Tortworth 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 Tortworth Primary School had 14.5 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 54.5% 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, 21.3% of pupils at Tortworth Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 9.8% 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 Tortworth Primary School received £11,186 and spent £11,207 for each of its 69 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £44,000 (£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 Wotton-Under-Edge · South Gloucestershire local authority: places and applications

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

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

What is Tortworth Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Tortworth Primary School is Needs attention, from an inspection in September 2026.

When was Tortworth Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Tortworth Primary School was last inspected in September 2026.

How many pupils does Tortworth Primary School have?

Tortworth Primary School has 61 pupils on roll.

What age range does Tortworth Primary School cover?

Tortworth Primary School for pupils aged 4 to 11.

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

In 2025, 44% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Tortworth Primary School?

Tortworth Primary School is at Tortworth, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, GL12 8HG.