St Matthew's Church of England Primary and Nursery Academy

About St Matthew's Church of England Primary and Nursery Academy

St Matthew’s Church of England Primary and Nursery Academy sits within the Plymouth local authority, where it ranks 44th out of 65 primary schools on the key stage 2 expected standard in reading, writing and maths — placing it in the bottom half of the LA. The top-performing peers nearby include Tor Bridge Primary School, Elburton Primary School and Hooe Primary Academy, all of which score higher on the same metric. Tor Bridge, the nearest Outstanding-rated school, is just one kilometre away. St Matthew’s is a state-funded, mixed Church of England primary with a nursery, led by headteacher Suzie Ottewell. It has capacity for 500 pupils and currently enrols 471, with 8.9 per cent of children eligible for free school meals. The school is oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake: 142 applications were received for 89 places, and 85 offers went to first-preference families, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.6.

In its most recent Ofsted inspection, carried out in March 2022, St Matthew’s was rated Good across all five categories — overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management — and its early years provision was also judged Good. This marks a clear improvement from the previous graded inspection in March 2018, when the school was rated Requires Improvement overall, with leadership and management also at that lower level. At key stage 2 in the 2023/24 academic year, 59 per cent of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, slightly below the Plymouth LA average of 63 per cent. Just 6 per cent reached the higher standard in all three subjects. In individual subjects, 80 per cent met expectations in writing, 77 per cent in maths and 72 per cent in reading. Average scaled scores were 104 in both reading and maths, and progress measures were not reported.

The school offers a broad set of facilities including a library, playing fields, a sports hall, an outdoor playground, art studios, a chapel and a Forest School. Sports on offer include gymnastics, netball, cross country, dance and tennis, while clubs range from book club and drama to coding, science club, gardening and art club. St Matthew’s provides for a wide range of special educational needs and disabilities, including support for pupils with autistic spectrum disorder, speech, language and communication needs, social, emotional and mental health difficulties, hearing impairment, physical disability and specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. With nursery provision on site, the school suits families looking for a Church of England primary that has improved its Ofsted rating and remains popular enough to be oversubscribed, though it sits below the LA average on key stage 2 outcomes.

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