Bibury Church of England Primary School

About Bibury Church of England Primary School

Bibury Church of England Primary School holds a Good rating from its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2023, but the detail beneath that headline tells a more nuanced story. Inspectors rated behaviour and attitudes, as well as personal development, as Outstanding — the highest possible grade — while quality of education and leadership and management were both judged Good. The school’s most telling academic metric, however, is the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined at Key Stage 2. In the 2023/24 academic year, just 33% of pupils achieved this benchmark, compared with a local authority average of 59% for similar schools. This places Bibury in the bottom 50 nationally for this measure, ranking 37th out of 38 primary schools in the Cotswold local authority area.

Looking more closely at the individual subject scores, the picture is mixed. In reading, 67% of pupils met the expected standard, with an average scaled score of 105, while in writing and maths the expected rates were 50% each. The proportion of pupils reaching the higher standard in reading, writing and maths was 33% across all three subjects — a figure that matches the combined expected rate, suggesting that those who do meet the standard tend to do so at a higher level. The average maths scaled score was 104. Progress scores are not available for this school, so it is difficult to assess how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points. The school’s small size — just 27 pupils on roll — means that individual results can have an outsized effect on percentages, and the cohort in any given year may not be representative.

Bibury is a Church of England primary school in the Cotswold district, with a capacity of 53 but currently operating at roughly half that number. It offers a nursery provision and a range of facilities including playing fields, a sports hall, an art studio, an ICT suite, a forest school and a chapel. Clubs include choir, coding, gardening and drama, while sports on offer span rounders, cricket, dance, gymnastics, cross country, netball and swimming. The school has identified SEND provisions for moderate learning difficulties and social, emotional and mental health needs. For the 2025/26 intake, the school was oversubscribed: 8 applications were received for 2 places, with 2 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 4 to 1. This suggests strong local demand despite the modest academic outcomes, and the school may particularly suit families who value its Outstanding-rated personal development and behaviour, its rural setting, and its small, close-knit environment.

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