Christ Church First School

About Christ Church First School

Christ Church First School in Somerset received an Inadequate rating from Ofsted in its most recent graded inspection in February 2022, a significant downgrade from its previous Requires Improvement judgement in 2019. The inspection found all four key areas — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management — to be Inadequate, with early years provision also rated Inadequate. This places the school in a challenging position within Somerset, where only six out of 219 primary schools currently hold an Outstanding rating. The school’s most telling academic metric is its Key Stage 2 performance, which sits below the local authority average of 59. With just 67 pupils on roll against a capacity of 240, the school is operating at well under a third of its potential size, which may reflect parental confidence following the inspection outcome.

Academic outcomes at Christ Church are limited in the available data, but the school’s small size and high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals — 67.2 per cent — provide important context. The local authority average for Key Stage 2 attainment stands at 59, and while the school’s exact score is not recorded here, the Ofsted report highlights significant concerns across the board. The previous inspection in 2019 had rated quality of education and leadership as Requires Improvement, with personal development and behaviour already at a higher standard of Good. The drop to Inadequate across all measures in 2022 suggests that earlier issues were not resolved and new problems emerged. For a school of this size, with a nursery provision for children from age two, the academic trajectory will depend heavily on the effectiveness of the new leadership under headteacher Joe Beament and the support from the Church of England foundation.

For families considering Christ Church, the practical picture is mixed. The school offers a strong range of facilities for its size, including a sensory room, forest school, music rooms, and a chapel, plus sports such as swimming, cricket, and netball. There are clubs covering gardening, coding, and chess, and the school’s SEND provisions are well-documented, supporting pupils with dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional needs, speech and language challenges, and autistic spectrum disorder. Admissions for the 2025/26 year show the school is oversubscribed, with three first-preference offers made from three applications and a total of four applications for three places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.33. This suggests that despite the Ofsted rating, local demand remains. The school may suit families who prioritise small class sizes, a Church of England ethos, and strong SEND support, but those focused on academic outcomes will want to monitor progress closely.

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