The Bishop's Church of England Primary Academy

What Ofsted said

From the inspection on 4 March 2025

Every day at this school starts with making sure the pupils are ready to learn. Staff are welcoming, and there is plenty of toast on offer. Pupils are enthusiastic to come to school and learn. There is strong support for families to help pupils be in school and on time. During playtimes, there is plenty for pupils to do and explore. For example, they build dens together and use tyres and barrels as part of their imaginative play. Older pupils organise play, such as parachute games, for the youngest. There are many opportunities to investigate the outdoors in wooded areas and practise climbing and balancing on the play equipment. Right from the start, the school clearly teaches pupils the expectations for behaviour. This means the school is calm. Pupils can concentrate on their work and learn. In the past, pupils have not achieved as well as they should have by the end of Year 6. Current pupils are achieving better, but there is still work to do to ensure more pupils have the knowledge and skills they need to be successful at secondary school.

What the school should improve

• Pupils' writing is not as strong as their skills in reading and mathematics. This is because the way they are taught does not enable them to practise writing at length or develop the transcription skills needed for fluent writing. The school needs to ensure that writing is taught effectively and supports pupils to develop their writing knowledge and skills.
• Previous weaknesses in teaching mean that many pupils have large gaps in what they should have learned when they were younger in foundation subjects. Teachers are working to fill these gaps, but pupils are not achieving as well as they should in these subjects. The school needs to ensure that the quality of teaching of all subjects is strong so pupils can learn more and achieve well across the full range of subjects.

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