Northchapel Community Primary School

About Northchapel Community Primary School

Northchapel Community Primary School is a small state primary in Chichester, and its headline academic metrics sit well below the West Sussex local authority average. While the LA average for pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined at Key Stage 2 is 56%, Northchapel recorded just 25% in the 2023/24 academic year. That places the school 176th out of 226 similar schools in the county and in the bottom 50 nationally. However, the picture is more nuanced when you look at individual subjects. In reading, 75% of pupils reached the expected standard and 38% achieved a higher score — both figures that outstrip the school’s combined headline. Maths and writing each saw 25% and 75% respectively at the expected level, but no child reached the higher standard in writing. The average reading score of 107 is solid, while maths averaged 100, exactly the national benchmark. So while the combined measure is a concern, reading performance is a clear relative strength.

The school’s most recent Ofsted inspection in July 2023 rated it Good across all five categories: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. This is a consistent improvement from its previous inspection in 2011, which also awarded Good overall but rated early years as Requires Improvement. With only 54 pupils on roll against a capacity of 105, Northchapel is significantly undersubscribed, yet it was oversubscribed for 2025/26 admissions: 18 applications for 6 places, with 5 first-preference offers made. That suggests strong local demand despite the small size. The school serves a relatively disadvantaged intake, with 14.8% of pupils eligible for free school meals, and offers targeted SEND support for moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, and speech, language and communication challenges.

Facilities are surprisingly broad for a school of this size, including a forest school, sensory room, music rooms, ICT suite, gymnasium and even a chapel. Sports on offer include rounders, tennis, swimming and cricket, while clubs cover book club, drama and science club. Headteacher Deborah Coggin leads a setting that clearly prioritises pastoral care and enrichment over raw academic scores. For families who value a small, community-focused primary with strong reading outcomes, dedicated SEND provision and a forest school ethos, Northchapel could be a good fit — provided they are comfortable with the below-average combined SATs results and the very small peer group of just 54 children. The oversubscription data suggests local parents are willing to take that trade-off.

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