Bell Farm Primary School

About Bell Farm Primary School

Bell Farm Primary School in Elmbridge is a large state primary with 683 pupils on roll, just ten shy of its 693 capacity, suggesting it is comfortably full. The school serves a notably diverse intake for the area: 21% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, a figure that stands well above the national primary average and signals a catchment with significant socio-economic variation. Demand is strong, with 230 applications for 87 places in the 2025/26 admissions round, making it oversubscribed by a ratio of 2.64 to one. Of those, 76 families put it as their first preference, and all first-preference applicants received an offer. The school is non-denominational and co-educational, taking children from age three through to eleven, with nursery provision on site. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, an ungraded visit in December 2024, found the school had improved significantly since its last graded inspection, and it now holds a Good rating overall, with leadership, management and early years provision all judged Good.

Academically, Bell Farm sits in the bottom half of primary schools nationally, ranking 7,269th out of 13,686 schools on the key stage 2 combined reading, writing and maths expected standard. In its 2023/24 SATs, 62% of pupils reached the expected standard in all three subjects, slightly below the Surrey local authority average of 66%. The school’s strongest individual subject was reading, where 74% met the expected standard and 34% achieved the higher standard. Maths followed closely with 71% at expected and 26% at higher, while writing saw 72% at expected and 24% at higher. Only 14% of pupils hit the higher standard across all three subjects. Within Elmbridge, the school ranks 17th out of 21 primaries on this combined measure, placing it in the bottom 50% of the borough. Progress scores are not available in the data, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points.

The school offers a solid range of facilities, including a sports hall, playing fields, a forest school area, a gymnasium and an outdoor playground. Sports on offer include football, cricket, rounders, swimming and athletics, and there are clubs such as science club, art club, choir and book club. For children with additional needs, Bell Farm has a dedicated SEN unit and provisions covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate and profound multiple learning difficulties, speech and language needs, autistic spectrum disorder and social, emotional and mental health support. Parent feedback is overwhelmingly positive: 96% of the 135 respondents would recommend the school, and 84% strongly agreed their child is happy there. The nearest outstanding-rated primary is Cleves School, 1.8 km away, which may be a consideration for families weighing options. Bell Farm suits families who want a large, inclusive community school with strong pastoral care and a broad range of activities, and who are comfortable with results that are solid but not among the highest in the borough.

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