St Andrew's Bulmer Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

About St Andrew's Bulmer Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

St Andrew's Bulmer Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained across its two most recent inspections. In its latest graded inspection in October 2024, inspectors awarded Good marks across the board: for the quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management, as well as for early years provision. The school's most informative exam metric is the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined at Key Stage 2, which stands at 40%. This is notably below the Essex local authority average of 62% for state primary schools. In the Braintree local authority ranking, the school sits at 39th out of 46 primary schools, placing it in the bottom 50% nationally. The school's average reading score of 103 is slightly above the national benchmark of 100, while its average maths score of 99 is just below it.

Looking more closely at the individual subject breakdown, 60% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, 67% in writing, and 47% in maths. The proportion reaching the higher standard in reading was 27%, in writing 13%, and in maths just 7%. Only 7% of pupils achieved the higher standard across all three subjects combined. These results suggest that while the school is performing well in writing and reading, maths outcomes are an area of relative weakness. The school's small size — just 61 pupils on roll against a capacity of 120 — means that these percentages represent very small numbers of children, so individual pupil performance can have a disproportionate effect on the overall figures. The school has held a Good rating consistently since at least 2018, and the most recent inspection noted no decline in any area.

St Andrew's is a Church of England voluntary controlled primary school in the village of Bulmer, within the Braintree district of Essex. It offers a range of facilities including a library, dining hall, playing fields, sensory room, music rooms, forest school, ICT suite, art studios and a chapel. The school provides support for pupils with a variety of special educational needs and disabilities, including dyslexia, speech and language difficulties, autistic spectrum disorder, and social, emotional and mental health needs. For the 2025/26 intake, the school was oversubscribed, receiving 23 applications for 11 places, with 10 first-preference offers made. This suggests a strong local reputation despite the modest academic outcomes. The school runs clubs including drama, art, science and eco club, and offers sports such as netball, rounders, gymnastics, football, cross country, athletics and cricket. It would suit families who value a small, village-based primary with a Christian character and a broad range of enrichment activities, and who are comfortable with a school where academic results are below the local average.

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