Birches Green Primary School

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 23 June 2026

Pupils are happy and feel safe at this school. They are greeted warmly by name each morning, enjoy a free bagel or breakfast that gives them a calm start, settle quickly and know there is always an adult to help them. Pupils behave well. They are respectful and considerate towards one another during lessons and at breaktimes, and they enjoy the wide range of activities on offer. Pupils say that bullying is rare and that adults sort out any problems that arise. Pupils enjoy their learning. They talk enthusiastically about their reading, their trips, and the subjects they study as they move through the school. They discuss healthy relationships, democracy and difference with growing confidence and maturity. Pupils achieve increasingly well from starting points that are often low. The proportion of disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics rose markedly this year, and pupils consistently do well in the Year 4 multiplication tables check. Children in the early years settle into routines and form warm relationships with the adults who care for them. Pupils belong to a school that has worked hard to become one community from two. A house system, a shared library, and a number of clubs, competitions and trips, from the local cathedral to places of worship, give pupils a common identity and experiences beyond the classroom. Pupils who arrive in difficult circumstances and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well known and supported with care, so that they also settle and take part fully. Pupils are proud of their school, describing it as kind and diverse and a place where everyone is equal. Pupils attend more regularly than they used to, which is the result of sustained work by leaders to support families and improve attendance, including for those who have found regular attendance the hardest.

What the school should improve

• Leaders should secure consistently effective early reading teaching and assessment, so that all pupils, including those who join mid-year, keep up and reach the expected standard in early reading.
• Leaders should ensure that the school's clear approach to foundational skills and knowledge, such as handwriting and transcription, is applied consistently across all classes, so that errors are identified and corrected in the moment and improvements are reliably embedded.
• Leaders should sustain their effective work to improve attendance, including for disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, so that persistent absence continues to fall and attendance moves closer to national averages over time.
• Leaders should ensure that staff in early years consistently take opportunities to extend children's language through high-quality interactions, and that all activities and continuous provision, including outdoors in Nursery, have a clear purpose, so that children develop communication and language as much as they can.

Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)