Barrington CofE VC Primary School

About Barrington CofE VC Primary School

Barrington CofE VC Primary School sits in the bottom half of Cambridgeshire primary schools when it comes to the headline Key Stage 2 measure, with just 45% of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. That is notably below the local authority average of 58%, and the school ranks 158th out of 210 similar schools in the county. However, the picture is more nuanced than that single number suggests. In reading and maths individually, 85% of pupils met the expected standard — well above the national average — and the average scaled scores of 105 in reading and 104 in maths are solid. The gap lies in writing, where only 45% reached the expected level, and no pupils achieved the higher standard in either writing or the combined measure. So while the school is not a top performer overall, its strengths in reading and maths are clear, and the writing results point to a specific area for improvement rather than a general weakness.

The school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, an ungraded visit in 2022, confirmed that it remains Good, a significant improvement from its previous graded inspection in 2012 when it was rated Requires Improvement. Leadership and management were also judged Good. The 2022 inspection did not provide separate grades for quality of education, behaviour, or early years, but the overall effectiveness rating held steady. With 14.5% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a slightly above-average proportion of disadvantaged children for a Cambridgeshire primary, which may partly contextualise the writing results. The Progress 8 scores for reading, writing and maths are all missing from the data, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points, but the raw attainment in reading and maths is respectable.

Barrington is a small Church of England primary with 165 pupils against a capacity of 186, and it is oversubscribed: for 2025/26, there were 46 applications for 27 places, with 25 first-preference offers made. The school offers a strong range of facilities including a forest school, sensory room, chapel, music rooms and an ICT suite, plus sports such as swimming, tennis and cricket. SEND provision covers dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, hearing impairment and autistic spectrum disorder. Families who value a village-school feel with a Christian character, strong reading and maths outcomes, and a broad extracurricular offer including choir, gardening, drama and science club will find Barrington appealing, though those prioritising top-tier writing results may want to look at higher-ranked peers such as Histon and Impington Brook or Caldecote Primary.

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