Barcombe Church of England Primary School

Lewes · BN8 5DN

General information Primary School · 4-11 years Who goes here 132 pupils, 6.8% FSM

Educational attainment Ofsted and results

Parent score Rate this school No reviews yet - be the first SEN 12.1% on SEN support Behaviour 3.3% absence rate Staff 26.8% turnover Financials Spending and funding Environment Buildings and facilities

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Barcombe Church of England Primary School

General Information

Address: Barcombe Cross, Lewes, BN8 5DN – View on map
Phone: 01273400287
Website: Visit school website
Headteacher: Mr Matthew Dean
Age range: 4-11 years
Demand for places (Reception, September 2026): 14 families put it first for 14 places – 10 for every 10 places. Every one of them was offered a place. No places went to families living outside the council area. Children putting it first, for every 10 places: 2023 11 · 2024 9 · 2025 12 · 2026 10
Sixth form: No
Intake: Mixed
Religious character: Church of England
Nursery provision: No

Who goes here

132 pupils out of 140 places

Pupils eligible for free school meals: 9
% eligible for free school meals: 6.8%
Pupil mix: 2 in 10 (less mixed than the Lewes average)
English as an additional language: 5% (England 22%)

Staff

Teachers leaving each year

Teacher turnover: 26.8% a year (Lewes 18.6%, typical in England 13.9%)
Where they went: about 96% moved to another school, 4% left state schools altogether (retirement, other careers, independent schools, abroad)
Data years: 2022/23 to 2024/25 (average of 3 years, DfE school workforce census)

Teachers who moved school or left state schools in the year after each November, as a share of all the school's teachers. Some turnover is healthy – retirements, promotions, moving house. This is a small staff, so one or two teachers leaving moves the figure a lot.

Behaviour

Awaiting Data

About this Behaviour status

We've asked this school for real behaviour figures under Freedom of Information and haven't had a response yet.

Across East Sussex: suspensions by reason

Suspensions for sexual misconduct: 3 (0.1 per 1,000 pupils; England 0.2)
Permanent exclusions for sexual misconduct: 1
Suspensions for bullying: 7 (0.2 per 1,000 pupils; England 0.2)
Suspensions for abuse against sexual orientation or gender identity: 0 (0.0 per 1,000 pupils; England 0.0)
Data year: 2024/25 (DfE suspensions and exclusions statistics)

These are figures for all state primary schools in East Sussex (the council area this school is in), not this school's own – the government doesn't publish them school by school. A suspension can have up to three reasons. Most sexual harassment between pupils never leads to a suspension, so these figures show only part of the picture.

Attendance

Overall absence: 3.3%
Persistently absent pupils: 3.6%
Data year: 2024/25

About persistent absence

A pupil is counted as "persistently absent" if they miss 10% or more of their possible school sessions - roughly one day in every two weeks. Schools and Ofsted both pay close attention to this figure specifically, since it can highlight a pattern the overall absence rate alone might hide.

SEN

No dedicated Unit or Resourced Provision

SEN Unit and Resourced Provision

Most mainstream schools don't have a dedicated SEN Unit or Resourced Provision - it isn't a mark against a school that doesn't, just a different kind of setup than one that does.

Pupils on SEN Support: 12.1%
Pupils with an EHC Plan: 4.5%
Data year: 2025/26

Most common needs - SEN Support

Specific learning difficulty: 6 pupils
SEN support but no specialist assessment of type of need: 3 pupils
Speech, language and communications needs: 3 pupils
Other difficulty or disability: 2 pupils
Autistic spectrum disorder: 1 pupil

Most common needs - EHC Plan

Specific learning difficulty: 2 pupils
Speech, language and communications needs: 2 pupils
Physical disability: 1 pupil
Other difficulty or disability: 1 pupil

These figures show the makeup of the school.

About these SEND figures

These figures give a sense of the makeup of the school - they aren't a judgement on the quality of support provided.

Parent score - no reviews yet –

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Behaviour

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Openness

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Teaching Quality

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School Ethos

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Ability to Deal with Problems

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Headteacher Approval

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SafeguardingSafeguarding (parent rating)How parents rate the school on keeping children safe - how safe their child feels, and how well concerns are listened to and acted on. It's parents' experience, not an inspection result; Ofsted checks safeguarding separately.

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Wraparound CareWraparound Care (parent rating)How parents rate the school's breakfast and after-school clubs - availability, cost and quality. Only asked for infant, junior and primary schools, where it matters most for working parents.

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Would recommend –

Educational Attainment

No overall grade given 2025 report

About this Ofsted rating

Ofsted stopped giving single overall grades for a period between September 2024 and November 2025 - this school's most recent inspection falls in that window, so there's no single rating to show, even though it was inspected. The full report (linked below) still has the detail.

Year 6 SATs results

Met the expected standard in reading, writing & maths: 44% (England 62%)
Reached the higher standard: 13% (England 8%)
Compared with the area: 20 percentage points below the Lewes average (64%)
Compared with schools with similar pupils: As expected (3-year average 58% against an expected 63%)
3-year average (expected standard): 58%
Expected standard by subject: Reading 56% · Writing 56% · Maths 50% · Grammar, punctuation & spelling 31%
Average test scores: reading 103, maths 102
Based on: 16 Year 6 pupils, 2024/25

View the School Context Comparator – how this school's SATs results compare with schools teaching similar pupils.

SATs results over time

This schoolLewes averageEngland↘ Falling Down 24 percentage points since 2022/23. In 2024/25 this school was 20 percentage points below the Lewes average (64%).

Year 6 SATs: 21st of 24 junior and primary schools in the area

#19Denton Community Primary School and Nursery52%
#20Plumpton Primary School50%
#21Barcombe Church of England Primary School44%
#22Meridian Community Primary School and Nursery31%
#23Chailey St Peter's Church of England Primary School27%

Click to see the full ranking

Year 6 SATs ranking

Junior and primary schools in this area, ranked by the % of Year 6 pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (official DfE results, 2024/25). Schools with the same result share a place (shown as =). In small schools one or two children can move a school several places, so treat close positions as roughly equal.

Rank School Score

=1Breakwater Academy81%
=1Ditchling St Margaret's Church of England Primary School81%
#3Peacehaven Heights Academy79%
#4High Cliff Academy76%
#5Harbour Primary and Nursery School74%
#6Seaford Primary School72%
=7Hamsey Community Primary School70%
=7Western Road Community Primary School70%
=9Annecy Catholic Primary School69%
=9Cradle Hill Community Primary School69%
=9Wivelsfield Primary School and Nursery69%
=12Newick Church of England Primary School67%
=12South Malling CofE Primary and Nursery School67%
#14Chyngton School65%
#15Telscombe Cliffs Academy62%
#16Southover CofE Primary School60%
#17Iford and Kingston Church of England Primary School58%
#18Wallands Community Primary and Nursery School53%
#19Denton Community Primary School and Nursery52%
#20Plumpton Primary School50%
#21Barcombe Church of England Primary School44%
#22Meridian Community Primary School and Nursery31%
#23Chailey St Peter's Church of England Primary School27%
#24Firle Church of England Primary School14%

View full Ofsted inspection report

Financials

Spending per pupil, and how this school compares to others nearby, will appear here once we've linked in official DfE spending data.

View on the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool (GOV.UK)

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