East Tilbury Primary School

About East Tilbury Primary School

East Tilbury Primary School sits within the Thurrock local authority, a large primary with 648 pupils on its roll. In the most recent local rankings of 39 primary schools, it placed 37th, putting it in the bottom tier for academic performance in the area. The top-performing peers in Thurrock include Quarry Hill Academy, Chadwell St Mary Primary School, and St Mary's Catholic Primary School, all of which scored significantly higher on the local ranking metric. The school is led by headteacher Claire Dawson and has a non-religious character. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, an ungraded visit in 2025, confirmed that standards were being maintained, and the school retains its Good rating from the previous graded inspection in 2016. The school is oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, receiving 90 applications for 74 places, with 71 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.22.

Academically, the school's Key Stage 2 results for the 2023/24 year show a mixed picture. The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing, and maths combined was 48%, well below the Thurrock local authority average of 67%. In reading, 73% met the expected standard and 23% achieved a higher score, while in maths 60% met the expected standard and 7% reached the higher threshold. Writing saw 68% at the expected level and 9% at the higher level. The school's average scores were 104 in reading and 101 in maths. Nationally, the school ranked 11,222 out of 13,686 primary schools on the combined expected standard metric, placing it in the bottom 50% of schools across England. In the East of England region, it ranked 1,251 out of 1,612. The previous Ofsted inspection in 2013 rated the school as Requires Improvement, so the improvement to a Good rating in 2016 and its maintenance since then represents a notable turnaround.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including a sensory room, library, playing fields, forest school, outdoor playground, and a chapel. Sports provision includes cross country, rounders, cricket, football, and swimming, while clubs range from chess and film club to gardening, art club, and science club. The school has extensive SEND provisions, supporting specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, visual impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder, with a resourced provision on site. Parent View responses from 107 respondents between September 2024 and September 2025 were largely positive: 96% agreed or strongly agreed that their child is happy, and 97% felt their child is safe. However, only 76% agreed that SEND children receive the support they need, and 78% felt concerns are dealt with properly. 85% of parents would recommend the school. This is a large, inclusive primary that suits families who value a wide range of extracurricular activities and strong pastoral support, but who may need to be aware of the below-average academic outcomes compared with the local authority.

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