Balfour Primary School

About Balfour Primary School

Balfour Primary School has turned a corner. In its most recent Ofsted inspection, carried out in December 2023, the school was rated Good across the board — a clear improvement from its previous inspection in 2020, when it was judged to Require Improvement overall. That earlier report had flagged concerns with the quality of education, leadership and management, and behaviour and attitudes, all of which were rated as Requires Improvement. In the 2023 inspection, every single category — from early years provision to personal development — was upgraded to Good. The school’s academic story is best told through its Key Stage 2 results for the 2023/24 academic year. Two-thirds of pupils (66%) reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, which is comfortably above the local authority average of 59%. That performance places Balfour 13th out of 40 primary schools in Brighton and Hove, putting it in the top third of its local peers.

Digging into the detail, Balfour’s strengths lie particularly in reading and maths. The average reading score was 108, and the average maths score was 106 — both above the national benchmark of 100. In reading, 82% of pupils met the expected standard and 46% reached the higher standard, a notably strong figure. In maths, 79% hit the expected level and 31% achieved the higher standard. Writing was a relative weak spot: 75% met the expected standard and only 7% reached the higher standard. Nationally, the school sits in the 42nd percentile, and regionally in the 40th percentile across the South East. For context, the top-performing school in the local authority, Bilingual Primary School - Brighton & Hove, scored 77 on the same ranking metric, while Balfour scored 66. The school has no sixth form and no nursery provision, so its focus is squarely on the primary years.

Balfour is a large primary school with 682 pupils against a capacity of 718, and it is clearly popular: for the 2025/26 intake, there were 259 applications for 90 places, an oversubscription ratio of 2.88. Of the 98 families who put it as their first preference, 82 received offers. The school serves a relatively mixed catchment, with 11% of pupils eligible for free school meals. Facilities are generous for a state primary: a music room, ICT suite, gymnasium, library, sensory room, and a forest school area. Sports on offer include cricket, gymnastics, netball, athletics, football and dance, and there are clubs for drama, choir and film. The school’s SEND provisions are broad, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, speech and language needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. For families in Brighton and Hove who want a large, well-resourced primary that has demonstrably improved its standards, Balfour is a strong contender.

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