Lady Seaward's Church of England Primary School

About Lady Seaward's Church of England Primary School

Lady Seaward's Church of England Primary School in East Devon holds a Good rating from its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2024, though the school's academic story is more nuanced than that single grade suggests. The inspection judged personal development as Outstanding, while quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management were all rated Good. This represents a change from the school's previous inspection in 2016, when it was rated Outstanding overall. On the key academic metric for primary schools, 75% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined in the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 assessments. That figure places the school comfortably above the Devon local authority average of 57%, and ranks it 6th out of 44 primary schools in East Devon, putting it in the top 25% nationally. The school's combined score of 75 on this measure reflects solid, above-average performance for a small village primary.

Digging into the individual subject results reveals particular strengths. Every single pupil (100%) reached the expected standard in both reading and writing at Key Stage 2, and 38% achieved the higher standard in reading. Maths was also strong, with 75% reaching the expected standard and an average scaled score of 105. The reading average score of 111 is notably high. In writing, a quarter of pupils achieved the higher standard. The school's progress scores are not available in the data, so it's not possible to say how much value the school adds compared with pupils' starting points, but the raw attainment figures are clearly above the national average. Ofsted's breakdown noted that behaviour and attitudes are Good, and the parent view survey from 2024/25 backs this up: 100% of the 27 respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their child feels safe, and 96% would recommend the school to other parents.

This is a small Church of England primary with nursery provision for children aged 2 to 11, currently home to 99 pupils against a capacity of 105. It is oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake, there were 29 applications for just 10 places, with 8 first-preference offers made. The school offers a range of facilities including a library, sensory room, music rooms, sports hall and chapel, and runs clubs such as eco club, coding, chess and gardening. Sports include netball, tennis, swimming and cricket. The school has identified SEND provisions for moderate learning difficulty, social and emotional mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, and autistic spectrum disorder. However, the parent view survey recorded no responses from parents of children with SEND, so there is no parent feedback on how well those provisions work in practice. This school will suit families who value a strong Church of England ethos, above-average academic outcomes in a small rural setting, and who are prepared for a competitive admissions process.

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