Abacus Belsize Primary School

About Abacus Belsize Primary School

Abacus Belsize Primary School was rated Good overall in its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2025, but the detail tells a stronger story. Inspectors judged behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management all as Outstanding, with early years provision also Outstanding. The quality of education was rated Good. This is a school that has clearly held a very high standard for some time — its previous inspection in 2015 gave it Outstanding across the board. On the most telling exam metric, 89% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined at Key Stage 2 in the 2023/24 academic year, placing the school fifth out of 38 primary schools in Camden and in the top 3% nationally. That puts it well above the Camden local authority average of 75%, and within touching distance of the top-performing schools in the borough.

Digging into the KS2 results further, the school’s performance is consistently strong across individual subjects. 100% of pupils reached the expected standard in writing, and 89% did so in both reading and maths. At the higher standard, 67% achieved that level in reading and maths, while 56% did so in writing. Average scaled scores were 110 in reading and 111 in maths, both comfortably above the national benchmark of 100. The school does not publish progress scores for these subjects, so it’s not possible to say how much value it adds relative to pupils’ starting points, but the raw outcomes are impressive. Parent feedback is overwhelmingly positive: 99% of respondents would recommend the school, and 98% strongly agreed or agreed that their child is happy there. 96% felt their child does well at the school.

Abacus Belsize is a small primary school with 158 pupils against a capacity of 210, and it is heavily oversubscribed. For the 2025/26 intake, there were 147 applications for just 30 places, a ratio of nearly five to one, with 23 of those places going to first-preference families. The school serves a mixed catchment in Camden, with 19% of pupils eligible for free school meals. Facilities include a library, playing fields, sports hall, forest school, ICT suite, music rooms and a gymnasium, plus clubs ranging from art and choir to eco club and film club. SEND provision covers specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional needs, speech and language needs, and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a school that suits families who value strong academic outcomes in a small, well-led setting with outstanding behaviour and personal development — but you will need to apply early and make it your first choice to stand a realistic chance of a place.

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