Clapham and Patching CofE Primary School

About Clapham and Patching CofE Primary School

Clapham and Patching CofE Primary School is a small Church of England primary in the West Sussex local authority, serving just 58 pupils from ages 4 to 11 in the Arun borough. It sits within a large local landscape of 226 primary schools, where only seven hold an Outstanding rating from Ofsted. Among its same-type peers in the authority, the school is outranked by nearby schools like Barns Green Primary, Heron Way Primary, and Aldingbourne Primary, all of which score higher on the local ranking index. The school is led by headteacher Justine Chubb and operates at near full capacity, with 58 pupils against a capacity of 59. It is a state-funded, mixed-gender school with a Church of England religious character, and it does not offer nursery provision or a sixth form. The school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, carried out in September 2023, rated its overall effectiveness as Requires Improvement, a downgrade from its previous Good rating in 2019.

Academically, the school’s Ofsted report highlights specific areas for development. While the overall effectiveness is Requires Improvement, the quality of education was also graded Requires Improvement, with leadership and management, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and early years provision all rated Good. This suggests that while the school maintains strong pastoral and behavioural standards, the core teaching and curriculum delivery need strengthening. The school does not publish Key Stage 2 SATs results in the available data, so direct comparison with the West Sussex local authority average of 56 for KS2 attainment is not possible. However, the school’s small size — with just seven places available for the 2025/26 intake — means that academic outcomes can be highly variable from year to year. The school received 16 total applications for those seven places, with seven first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.29, indicating strong local demand despite the Requires Improvement rating.

The school offers a range of facilities including music rooms, a forest school, an ICT suite, a sports hall, art studios, and a chapel, alongside sports such as football, netball, cricket, cross country, and swimming. Clubs include coding, art, eco, and science clubs. Its SEND provisions are notably comprehensive, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate to severe learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. This makes it a potentially strong fit for families with children who have identified special educational needs, particularly in a small-school setting where individual attention may be more feasible. The school is oversubscribed, so families should be prepared for a competitive admissions process. It will suit parents who value a Church of England ethos, a broad range of extracurricular activities, and a school that, despite its current Ofsted rating, is well-regarded enough locally to attract more applicants than places.

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