Barnehurst Infant School

About Barnehurst Infant School

Barnehurst Infant School sits within Bexley, a London borough where 11 of 61 primary schools currently hold an Outstanding Ofsted rating. The school is one of those 11, and its closest Outstanding neighbour is Barnehurst Junior School, just 0.1 km away, which many of its pupils will naturally feed into. Among Bexley’s top-performing primaries, the highest-ranked peers are St Thomas More Catholic Primary School, St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, and St Stephen’s Catholic Primary School, all Catholic schools with strong local reputations. Barnehurst Infant School is a state-funded, mixed-gender primary for children aged 3 to 7, with no religious character. It has a nursery provision, which means families can start their child’s education here from age three. The school is led by headteacher Tamara Hunter and currently has 227 pupils on roll, just shy of its capacity of 232, indicating it is well-subscribed but not yet bursting at the seams.

Academically, Barnehurst Infant School has been judged Outstanding in its most recent Ofsted inspection, carried out in November 2023. The inspection awarded top marks across every category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision all received the highest possible grade. This is a consistent record — the school’s previous inspection in 2013 also rated it Outstanding overall. Because the school covers only infant years (Reception to Year 2), it does not publish Key Stage 2 SATs results, which are taken at the end of Year 6. For context, the Bexley local authority average for Key Stage 2 attainment is 67 per cent, but that figure applies to junior and all-through primaries rather than infant-only schools. Parents looking for academic outcomes data will need to look at the linked junior school for Year 6 results, but the Ofsted judgement provides strong reassurance about the quality of early years and infant teaching.

The school offers a broad range of facilities for such a young age group, including an art studio, sports hall, playing fields, ICT suite, forest school, music rooms, and a library. Sports on offer include cross country, athletics, cricket, dance, and netball, while clubs extend to eco club, chess, book club, and choir. For children with additional needs, the school provides support for speech, language and communication needs, and for autistic spectrum disorder. Admission for the 2025/26 academic year shows the school is oversubscribed: it received 282 total applications for 60 places, with 114 first-preference applications and 60 first-preference offers, giving an oversubscription ratio of 4.7 applicants per place. This level of demand suggests the school is highly regarded locally, particularly among families who want a strong start in a dedicated infant setting before moving on to the nearby junior school.

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