Barnes Primary School

About Barnes Primary School

Barnes Primary School holds an Ofsted Outstanding rating from its most recent inspection in 2022, with every single category — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision — all judged Outstanding. That’s a clean sweep. But the real headline is in the Key Stage 2 results. In the 2023/24 academic year, 92% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. That figure sits well above the Richmond upon Thames local authority average of 76%, and it places Barnes third out of 38 primary schools in the borough. Nationally, the school ranks in the top 1.4% of all primary schools on this measure. It’s a performance that matches the school’s historic strength — its previous Ofsted inspection in 2008 also rated it Outstanding overall.

Digging into the detail, Barnes’s exam results are strong across the board. In reading, 98% of pupils met the expected standard and 61% reached the higher standard. Maths saw 95% at expected and 63% at the higher level, while writing had 95% at expected and 51% at higher. The average scaled scores for reading and maths both sit at 111, comfortably above the national benchmark of 100. Progress scores aren’t available in the data, but the attainment figures alone tell a clear story. The school’s ranking score of 92 puts it just behind two local peers — St Richard Reynolds Catholic Primary and Deer Park School, both on 93 — and it’s one of 16 Outstanding primaries in a local authority of 46 schools. For parents focused on academic outcomes, this is a school that consistently delivers results well above the local and national norm.

Barnes Primary is a three-form entry school with a published admission number of 60 places, and it is heavily oversubscribed. For the 2025/26 intake, there were 331 total applications for those 60 spots, with 143 first-preference applications and an oversubscription ratio of 5.52. That means getting a place is competitive, so living close to the school matters. The school has a nursery provision, so families with younger children can get a foot in the door early. Facilities include art studios, a gymnasium, a library, playing fields, a sports hall and even a chapel. Sports on offer include football, cricket, dance, rounders and cross country, while clubs range from gardening and drama to science, book club and coding. The SEND provision is broad, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language needs, hearing impairment, physical disability and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a school for families who want high academic standards in a well-equipped, inclusive setting — but you’ll need to be realistic about the competition for places.

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