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Buckland Brewer Primary School

Primary · Bideford · EX39 5LX

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Requires improvement

Graded inspection under the pre-November 2025 system

This is an overall-effectiveness grade from the previous inspection framework. The school has not yet had a report-card inspection.

Quality of education: Requires improvementBehaviour & attitudes: GoodPersonal development: GoodLeadership & management: Requires improvementSafeguarding effective: Yes

Inspected 5 March 2024

Read the Ofsted report ↗

At a glance

49 pupils · 100% of 49 capacity

School type
Foundation school
Age range
2–11
Gender
Mixed
Free school meals
28.6% of pupils
English as additional language
0% of pupils
SEN support
16.1% of pupils
EHC plan
3.6% of pupils
Nursery
Yes
Website
http://www.villageschools.org.uk
URN
113141

Admissions demand: Reception entry, September 2026

0.88 first-choice applications per place

8 places offered · 7 first-choice applications · roughly balanced

First-choice applications per place, by entry year

19/20
20/21
22/23
23/24
24/25
25/26
26/27

Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE. A ratio above 1.00 means more families named this school first choice than there were places.

Admissions cutoff distance: Reception

Every applicant was offered a place for 2026 entry, so distance was not needed to decide places.

How safe is a place here? Check your postcode

One free check a month, no account needed. No cutoff distance applied in 2026, so there is no boundary for your address to be inside of. The check shows how far you live from the school and how many rounds running it has placed every applicant. Premium adds unlimited checks, the nearby schools that do ration places by distance and whether you are inside them, and the address check across every school at once.

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Cutoff distances as published by the local authority. Siblings and other priority groups are offered places first; cutoffs move year to year.

Key stage 2 results (2024/2025)

6 pupils at the end of key stage 2 in 2024/2025

Reaching the expected standard in reading, writing & maths
33%
England 62%
Reaching the higher standard
0%
England 8%
Average scaled score (reading)
100
England 106
Average scaled score (maths)
102
England 105

Source: DfE performance tables 2024/2025. “Suppressed” means the DfE withholds figures for very small cohorts.

Schools with a similar intake

Meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, 2024/2025

This school33%
Median of its 12 closest peers56%
Devon average60%
England62%

On meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, this school is behind the schools that teach a comparable intake.

The twelve below are matched on intake alone, from every state school in England, so most are not local. They are the evidence behind the comparison above, not a shortlist. For schools you could realistically apply to, see nearby schools.

SchoolOfstedResult
St Thomas of Canterbury CofE Primary SchoolCrediton · 21 miles awayExpected standard56%
Willersey Church of England Primary SchoolBroadway · 128 miles awayGood0%
North Frodingham Primary SchoolDriffield · 265 miles awayNeeds attention56%
Stoke St Michael Primary SchoolRadstock · 79 miles awayRequires improvement33%
Sigglesthorne Church of England Primary AcademyHull · 264 miles awayGood38%
Foulsham Primary School AcademyDereham · 257 miles awayGood44%
Wilmcote C of E Primary SchoolStratford-upon-Avon · 138 miles awayRequires improvement74%
Eastoft Church of England Primary SchoolScunthorpe · 236 miles awayGood38%
Weston-under-Penyard CofE Primary SchoolRoss-on-Wye · 99 miles awayNeeds attention71%
Brown's Church of England Primary SchoolSleaford · 214 miles awayGood63%
Digby Church of England SchoolLincoln · 220 miles awayOutstanding88%
Fiskerton Church of England Primary SchoolLincoln · 226 miles awayGood75%

The 12 state schools in England whose intake most closely matches this one: same phase and admissions type, and as near as the data allows on size, free school meals, English as an additional language, SEN and the child poverty of the surrounding area (IDACI 2025). Matching uses only characteristics a school does not choose. It is not a ranking, and a close match on intake does not make two schools interchangeable: sixth form, faith character, admissions rules and plain geography all matter and are not in the calculation. Results: DfE performance tables, 2024/2025. How the matching works.

Attendance (2025/26 autumn term)

Sessions missed (overall absence)
5.3%
England 6.5%
Pupils missing 10%+ of sessions (persistent absence)
14.6%
England 18.1%

Autumn-term absence, DfE pupil absence data. Lower is better.

Staffing

Pupils per qualified teacher
12.1
England 18.5

Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.

School Workforce Census, DfE. The ratio counts full-time-equivalent qualified teachers; retention follows teachers in post one November to the next. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Spending per pupil

This school£10,573
Typical primary school£6,959

Total expenditure ÷ pupils, council-maintained school finance return (DfE Schools Financial Benchmarking, latest year). Higher spending is not a measure of quality. It often reflects greater pupil need or a smaller school. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Inspection history since 2015

Ofsted management information. Ungraded and monitoring visits do not award a new grade. How the two inspection systems work.

The area around the school

Child poverty (IDACI)
6/10around the middle for England
Overall deprivation (IMD)
4/10more deprived than most of England

English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG), decile of the small area the school stands in: 1 is the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. IDACI counts only children in low-income families, which is the measure closest to the intake a school is likely to draw on.

Census 2021This areaEngland
Adults with a degree or higher25.3%33.9%
Adults with no qualifications18.5%18.1%
In managerial or professional work27.8%33.2%
Households deprived in two or more ways17.7%18.1%
Residents in very good health49.2%48.5%
Homes owned by the occupier80.5%62.3%
Social housing4.7%17.1%
Privately rented14.7%20.5%
Detached houses70.3%22.9%
Flats0.8%22.2%
Homes with four or more bedrooms38.8%21.1%
Households with no car or van4.9%23.5%

Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01020309 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,574 adults that the school stands in. These figures describe the area, not the pupils. Children travel in from further away, and for selective, faith and some other schools usually much further. Open Government Licence v3.0.

What homes cost nearby

Median sale price
£310,00065 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
Typical range
£275,000–£395,000the middle half of sales
England median
£300,000all sales over the same period
Detached (49)£323,500
Semi-detached (8)£248,000
Terraced (8)£217,500

Homes around this school are dearer than most school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 1 km across every state school.

Every residential sale registered with HM Land Registry within 1 km of the school (straight line) since January 2024, market sales of houses and flats only. A sale is dated by completion and registered weeks later, so the most recent months are incomplete. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Postcodes located with OS Code-Point Open: contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026; contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026; contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Roads around the school

Child pedestrian casualties
0a rural school averages 0.3
Collisions at school-run times
0a rural school averages 0.7
All reported collisions
1a rural school averages 3.4
Of those, serious or fatal
0a rural school averages 0.9

Every collision reported to the police within 500 m of the school in 2021–2025, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics (STATS19). "Child pedestrians" counts casualties aged under 16 on foot; "school-run times" means weekdays 07:30–09:00 and 15:00–16:30 outside August. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe: counts rise with traffic and with how built-up an area is, which is why the comparison is with other rural schools. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Nearby schools