Great Barford Church of England Primary Academy

About Great Barford Church of England Primary Academy

Great Barford Church of England Primary Academy is a state primary school in the Bedford local authority, serving 203 pupils aged 3 to 11. Within the local landscape, it ranks 42nd out of 54 primary schools of the same type in Bedford, placing it in the bottom half of the authority. The top-performing peers nearby include Thurleigh Primary School, Sharnbrook Primary, and Harrold Primary Academy, all of which achieve higher ranking scores. The school is oversubscribed for the 2025/26 academic year, with 39 applications for 26 places and 25 first-preference offers, reflecting steady local demand. As a Church of England school, it includes a chapel among its facilities and offers nursery provision for younger children. Its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2022 rated it Good overall, a notable improvement from its previous Requires Improvement rating in 2019, with all assessed areas—quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision—each rated Good.

Academically, the school’s Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 show a mixed picture. The percentage of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing, and maths combined was 39%, which is below the Bedford local authority average of 57%. In individual subjects, 70% met the expected standard in reading and 70% in maths, while writing was lower at 52%. The average scaled scores were 103 in reading and 102 in maths, both close to the national average of 100. However, the proportion achieving the higher standard was low: 13% in reading, 9% in maths, and none in writing or the combined measure. Nationally, the school ranks in the bottom 10% of primary schools on the combined expected standard metric, and within the East of England region it sits in the 89th percentile. These outcomes suggest that while most children reach basic benchmarks in reading and maths, fewer are exceeding them or achieving across all three core subjects.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including a dining hall, outdoor playground, gymnasium, music rooms, forest school, sensory room, ICT suite, library, and chapel. Sports provision includes cricket, athletics, rounders, football, and tennis, and clubs such as science club, coding, and eco club are available. SEND support is comprehensive, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, autistic spectrum disorder, and other difficulties. With a capacity of 210 and 20.3% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a diverse intake. This school may suit families seeking a Church of England primary with strong SEND provision and a forest school, but who are comfortable with academic results that are below the local average and a school that is oversubscribed but not among the highest-performing in the area.

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