Cholsey Primary School

About Cholsey Primary School

Parents considering Cholsey Primary School will find a school that local families clearly want to get into. For the 2025/26 intake, the school received 79 applications for 57 places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.39. That means for every place available, nearly one and a half families applied. Of those 79 applications, 56 were first-preference choices, and 56 first-preference offers were made — so if you put it top of your list, your chances are strong, but not guaranteed. The school is a state primary for mixed genders aged 5 to 11, with 313 pupils on roll, just shy of its 315 capacity. Fifteen per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is a touch above the national average and suggests a genuinely mixed catchment. The headteacher is Heidi McSweeney, and the school has no religious character.

Academically, Cholsey performs well above the local authority average. In the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results, 75 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with an Oxfordshire average of 61 per cent. That puts the school 16th out of 48 primaries in South Oxfordshire, and in the top 25 per cent nationally. Reading scores are particularly strong: 90 per cent hit the expected standard, and 40 per cent reached the higher standard. In maths, 79 per cent met the expected level and 21 per cent achieved higher. Average scaled scores were 108 in reading and 105 in maths. The school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, in July 2023, rated it Good across all five categories — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision — all scoring 2 out of 4. Its previous inspection in 2011 also rated it Good overall.

The school offers a solid range of facilities including a library, playing fields, a gymnasium, sports hall, outdoor playground, and a forest school — the last being a real plus for outdoor learning. Sports provision covers swimming, athletics, tennis, cricket, rounders, cross country and dance, and there are clubs for coding, chess and film. SEND support is well-documented, with provisions for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language issues, hearing impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. There is no nursery or sixth form. For families in South Oxfordshire who want a well-regarded, oversubscribed primary with strong academic results and a broad extracurricular offer, Cholsey is a realistic and appealing option — provided you get your application in early.

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