Dunston Hill Community Primary School

About Dunston Hill Community Primary School

Dunston Hill Community Primary School is a mixed, state primary in Gateshead with a nursery provision for children aged three to eleven. The school currently has 368 pupils on roll against a capacity of 498, leaving a notable amount of spare capacity. Its intake includes a significant proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at 26.4%, which is well above the national average for primary schools. Despite this, the school is clearly in demand: for the 2025/26 admissions round, it received 74 applications for just 37 places, with exactly 37 first-preference applications and 37 first-preference offers made. That gives an oversubscription ratio of 2:1, meaning twice as many families applied as there were places available. The school has a non-religious character and is led by headteacher Carl Sutherland. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, an ungraded visit in November 2022, confirmed that the school remains Good, a notable improvement from its previous graded inspection in 2013 when it was rated Requires Improvement.

Academically, Dunston Hill’s Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 paint a mixed picture. The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined was 61%, which sits just below the Gateshead local authority average of 64%. The school’s strongest individual subject was reading, where 87% of pupils met the expected standard and 37% achieved a higher score. Maths followed with 70% at expected and 20% at the higher level, while writing saw 74% at expected and 24% at higher. The average reading score was 106 and the average maths score was 103. Nationally, the school ranks in the bottom half for its combined expected standard metric, sitting at the 55th percentile, and within Gateshead it ranks 40th out of 61 primary schools. 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 broad range of facilities including a library, playing fields, a forest school, an ICT suite and a chapel. Sports provision covers gymnastics, rounders, football, athletics, netball, cross country and dance, while clubs include gardening, chess, book club and eco club. SEND provisions are listed for social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication, physical disability, autistic spectrum disorder and other difficulties or disabilities. With 37 first-preference offers made for 37 places, the school is oversubscribed but only just — families who apply as a first preference are currently guaranteed a place. The nearest outstanding-rated primary school is Front Street Community Primary School, 1.9 km away. Dunston Hill will suit families looking for a Good-rated community primary with strong reading outcomes, a forest school and a nursery, particularly those living within the immediate catchment area.

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