Long Lane Church of England Primary School

Twenty-three pupils, two classes and a building put up in 1866, soon after the parish church: few state schools in England operate at this scale. Long Lane Church of England Primary School sits in Dalbury Lees, Derbyshire, and serves the villages of Long Lane, Lees and Dalbury, Thurvaston, Osleston and Trusley. The link with Christ Church, the parish church, still shapes the week.

This academy opened on 1 December 2023 as a sponsor-led academy within the Derby Diocesan Academy Trust, taking over from its predecessor of the same name. Teresa Bosley is head teacher of both Long Lane and Marston Montgomery Primary School, the two schools that make up the Acorn Partnership. The school has not yet been inspected by Ofsted since it opened. Its church school inspection (SIAMS) took place in May 2025.

For families wanting a very small, faith-rooted village primary with wraparound care, it deserves a look. For families who want a published results record, there is not one to read.

Everything here is built around smallness. Pupils are organised into Garden Class (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) and Meadow Class (Years 3 to 6). That means a Year 3 pupil learns alongside Year 6, and older children are a visible, daily presence in the lives of the youngest. The school describes itself as caring and hard working, working closely with parents, and holding high expectations of behaviour and attitudes.

Lunch shows the model at work. Meals are cooked on the premises and served through a family dining system: children of all ages sit together in small groups with staff, and the older ones lay tables, serve food and clear away. Lunch is treated as a social occasion rather than a queue. The May 2025 church school inspection found older pupils helping younger ones with tasks such as pouring drinks and serving food, and pupils playing together harmoniously at breaktimes. For a shy four-year-old, that kind of mixed-age table can matter more than any curriculum document.

The site itself is modest but has character. A playing field sits next to the school alongside the playground, and a willow arch joins the two. There is a school garden plot, equipped through a donation of new gardening equipment, and Forest School sessions run on site. Hanging baskets and plants outside the building were bought by the parent group.

Christian identity is explicit. The school's mission statement is taken from Matthew 19:14, "Let the little children come to me", and its vision is based on the parable of the great banquet, where all are invited. A newer set of Christian values brings the vision into daily life, and a values hero scheme lets pupils nominate each other for acts of friendship, compassion and courage. At the same time, the school states plainly that it welcomes families of the Christian faith, other faiths or no faith. That openness is reflected in admissions, where faith plays no part.

At this size, headline figures tell parents very little. The most recent Year 6 cohort numbered four pupils. Results for a group of four are not a reliable guide, and no headline Key Stage 2 percentages or FindMySchool England ranking are given for the school. One pupil would move any percentage by 25 points, so even if figures were printed they would say more about individual children than about the school.

Parents therefore have to judge academic quality in other ways. The first is the curriculum, which the school has built itself (see Teaching & Learning). The second is progress for their own child, which in a class of this size should be easy to discuss directly with the teacher. The third is the inspection record, which for this school is still to come.

For context only: before this school opened, the predecessor school (URN 112846) was judged Requires Improvement by Ofsted in June 2023. That judgement describes the earlier school, not the current academy, and there has been no Ofsted inspection of the academy since it opened in December 2023. Families visiting should ask what has changed since conversion, how pupils are assessed at the end of each unit, and how Year 6 pupils performed in the most recent tests.

A practical point follows. Because the formal evidence base is thin, a visit carries more weight here than at most schools. The school invites prospective parents to visit by appointment, and that invitation is worth taking up.

The starting point is the National Curriculum, which the partnership has turned into its own Acorn Partnership Curriculum. Reception children in Garden Class follow the EYFS Framework. Year 1 and Year 2 pupils in the same class follow a two-year cycle of topics, while Meadow Class runs a four-year cycle across Years 3 to 6. Rolling topic cycles are the standard answer to mixed-age teaching: they stop a child meeting the same unit twice as they move through the class.

Each subject has a documented structure. Units come with an intent, implementation and impact statement, a unit overview, a knowledge progression document, key vocabulary and knowledge organisers, which staff produce as they plan each unit. Assessment grids check the key knowledge and vocabulary at the end of every unit. There is also a whole-school adaptive teaching strategies document, which matters in a room holding four year groups. The school is open that the curriculum is still under review so that it is well sequenced and expected learning is clear.

Subject leadership is shared across both schools. Mrs Thomas leads PE and sport, Mrs Norcross leads RE and Mrs Sheen leads music. Staff from Long Lane and Marston Montgomery attend joint staff meetings and INSET training, and several teachers work in both schools. For a school with two classes, that pooling is how subject expertise is sustained.

Religious education is a clear strength. The partnership follows the RE Today Primary curriculum, mapped to the Derbyshire and Derby City Syllabus for RE and the Understanding Christianity approach. A programme of visits and visitors builds knowledge of world faiths: a joint Faith Day, then workshops or visits focused on Islam, Hinduism and Judaism in rotating years. Pupils have visited places of worship beyond their own community, including a mosque and a gurdwara, and can explain Bible stories such as the Good Samaritan and the Feeding of the Five Thousand. That outward-looking RE is useful preparation for a more mixed secondary school.

Music rotates through Year A, B and C units, each with its own named pieces. Key Stage 1 pupils work through pieces such as The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Carnival of the Animals and Magical Musical Aquarium; Key Stage 2 units range from Latin Dance and Global Pentatonics to Dona nobis pacem and Livin' On a Prayer. The spread runs from classical repertoire to pop and world music, which gives children a broad listening base even in a small school.

Pupils stay at Long Lane until they transfer to secondary school at eleven. Secondary places are applied for through Derbyshire County Council's coordinated admissions process, as at any other state primary in the county. Families should check which secondary schools serve their home address, because the right choice depends on where you live.

The school has one advantage for transition that bigger primaries lack. Through the Acorn Partnership, pupils regularly mix with children from Marston Montgomery: each half term brings a joint day, Sports Day is a shared event, there is a joint theatre trip in December, and pupils compete in external sports events together, sometimes in joint teams. Those sports events take place at QEGS. Leaving a class of a handful of peers for a much larger secondary school is a big step; children who have already competed and learned alongside a wider group arrive better prepared for it.

The Year 6 responsibilities help too. Older pupils act as sports and worship leaders, sit on the School Council and serve younger children at lunch. At the Macmillan Coffee Morning in September 2024, Year 6 pupils greeted guests and served coffee and cake. Those small jobs build the confidence that a large secondary will ask of them.

Derby Diocesan Academy Trust is the admissions authority, with admissions delegated to the school's Local Trust Committee. Applications are coordinated by Derbyshire County Council, and parents apply through the council's website rather than to the school directly.

The published admission number for Reception is 10, in both the 2026 and 2027 policies. For entry in September 2027, applications must be submitted by 15 January 2027, and offers are made on National Offer Day, 16 April or the next working day. Places are offered full-time from the September following a child's fourth birthday, with the option to defer until compulsory school age.

When there are more applicants than places, the oversubscription criteria run in this order:

1. Looked after and previously looked after children, including those adopted from state care outside England.
2. Children living in the school's normal area with a sibling at the school.
3. Other children living in the normal area.
4. Children outside the normal area with a sibling at the school.
5. All other applicants.

Children with an education, health and care plan naming the school are admitted. Ties are broken by distance, measured from the front door of the home to the main entrance of the school, with lots drawn if two distances are identical. The normal area is set out in the policy and on the Derbyshire Mapping Portal.

Faith plays no part in these criteria. The policy states that the school will not refuse a child because they are not of the faith of the school, so there is no church attendance requirement or priest's reference to collect. A supplementary information form may be requested where needed.

Demand is real but small in absolute terms. In 2025 the school received 9 applications and made 8 offers, which makes it oversubscribed, and every first-preference applicant received an offer. With so few places, a single sibling or an unusual year can change the picture, so families outside the normal area should not assume a place. A waiting list runs until 31 December of the year of entry, and in-year applications also go through the council.

Pastoral care in a school of 23 starts with the simple fact that every adult knows every child. The school frames mental health as everybody's business. Pupils have weekly PSHE sessions that include learning about mental health, and the school has trained Mental Health First Aiders available to children, parents and staff. A mental health provision map sets out the support in place, and the website points parents to guidance on worry, anxiety, stress and emotional resilience, along with outside support from Young Minds and Bridge the Gap.

When a family needs more than a school can offer, the partnership works with QEGS Early Help. This is a voluntary service that coordinates support from more than one agency, covering areas such as parenting, behaviour, health and emotional needs, and material circumstances. It works through an assessment and a plan that is reviewed, managed by a QEGS Early Help Practitioner. For a small school, that link is a practical safety net.

Support for special educational needs is led by the SENCO, Miss Sam Ross, with an Acorn Partnership SEND policy, a SEND Information Report and a whole-school provision map. Pupils with additional needs are particularly well supported, through bespoke programmes that let them take part in learning alongside their peers, and staff make sure pupils with a range of needs can join events such as the local ploughing match. In practice, a class this small makes individual adjustments easier to organise.

Christian worship is part of the daily rhythm and of pastoral life. Collective worship includes invitational times of prayer, and pairs of pupils prepare a worship box of items that reflect their values and favourite Bible stories. The school is beginning to use the language of windows, mirrors and doors to help pupils think about themselves, other people and the world.

Outdoor learning. Forest School is the most distinctive thread. The partnership's Forest School Leader spends most of her time at Marston Montgomery but leads every Forest School session at Long Lane. Add the adjacent playing field, the willow arch and the school garden plot, and children spend a meaningful share of their week outside. For families who chose a village school for green space, this is where it shows.

Sport. PE covers units such as Tag Rugby, Invasion Skills, Dance, Fielding and Striking, and Running and Jumping, with separate knowledge organisers for Garden and Meadow classes. Lessons are supplemented once a week by Primary Stars, which also runs a lunchtime club. Meadow Class pupils have swimming lessons at some point in the year. Because the Acorn Partnership shares a Federation PE kit and enters external events as one group, pupils get the experience of team sport that a school of 23 could not produce alone. The school publishes how it spends its PE and Sport Premium Grant.

Music and performance. Music is used across the curriculum and in worship and performance. The clearest example is the nativity: pupils took a scaled-down version of their production, Prickly Hay, to Wheathills Care Home after rehearsing it in church. Adapting a church-sized show for a small room and a new audience is exactly the kind of experience that builds confidence.

Pupil voice and charity. The School Council is made up of representatives from Years 3 to 6, voted on by all pupils. It meets at lunchtime, has suggested changes to lunchtime routines that the head teacher approved, and helps plan fundraising for Comic Relief and Children in Need. Recent meetings have covered Chinese New Year, World Book Day, an Eid afternoon and a pupil voice session on feeling safe in school. For Children in Need in November 2024, pupils wore non-uniform, made spotty biscuits and brought teddies from home, raising £129.85 across the partnership. The Macmillan Coffee Morning, held in the Meadow Classroom, raised £122.81. At harvest, pupils bring in food for the local foodbank.

Parent community. Friends of Long Lane (FOLL) is the parent volunteer group. It runs coffee and cake afternoons, a Summer Fete, raffles, Chocolate Bingo, car boot sales, uniform sales and an end of term party, and has paid for books, marketing banners and plants outside school. FOLL usually meets monthly, and parents can help for a single term or on an ad hoc basis. In a school this size, parent energy is a real part of what the children experience.

The school day runs from 8:55am to 3:30pm, a total of 32 hours and 55 minutes a week. Drop-off is between 8:45am and 8:55am at the main gate, and every day begins with an act of worship at 8:55am, with Celebration Worship on Fridays.

Wraparound care is available. Breakfast Club runs from 8am to 8:45am, Monday to Friday. After School Club runs from 3:30pm to 5:30pm, Monday to Thursday; there is no after school club on a Friday. Both are booked through ParentPay.

School meals are cooked on site, and packed lunches are allowed with two weeks' notice to switch. Uniform is white shirt or blouse, grey trousers, shorts, skirt or pinafore, and a gold and black school tie bought in school; the logo is optional, and FOLL sells second-hand uniform. The school does not publish school-specific transport routes, so families should check Derbyshire County Council's home-to-school transport arrangements.

No inspection of its own yet. The academy has not been inspected by Ofsted since it opened in December 2023, and the only Ofsted judgement on record belongs to the predecessor school. Families should ask the head directly how the school has changed since conversion.

Very small cohorts. With 23 pupils, the latest Year 6 group had four children, so no meaningful headline results are available. A child may have only a handful of classmates of the same age, and friendship groups are necessarily small; the joint days with Marston Montgomery help, but families should weigh this carefully.

A curriculum and spiritual approach still bedding in. The school says its curriculum is being reviewed to make sure it is well sequenced. The 2025 SIAMS development points ask the school to give pupils more chances to lead their own responses to issues of justice that matter to them, and to embed planned opportunities for spiritual growth across all subjects. These are areas to ask about at a visit.

Genuine church character and a Monday to Thursday after-school club. Daily worship, Friday celebration worship and close links with Christ Church are part of the week for every pupil, even though admission is open to all. Working parents should also note that there is no after-school care on Fridays.

Long Lane is a tiny, historic village school with a real Christian character, a thoughtful mixed-age curriculum and a partnership with Marston Montgomery that gives pupils more company and more expertise than a two-class school could provide alone. Family dining, Forest School, outward-looking RE and a busy parent group give it a clear identity.

It is best suited to families living in or near its normal area who want a very small, close-knit primary where every child is known, who are comfortable with daily collective worship, and who value outdoor learning over scale. It suits less well families who want a large peer group or a documented results record.

The main caveat is evidence. Until the academy receives its first Ofsted inspection, parents are relying on the church school inspection, the curriculum the school publishes and their own visit.