Edmund Waller Primary School

About Edmund Waller Primary School

Edmund Waller Primary School sits in the London borough of Lewisham, a local authority with 67 primary schools where just 10 hold an Outstanding rating from Ofsted. The school itself ranks 14th out of 59 primaries in Lewisham, placing it comfortably in the top 25% of schools locally. Its nearest Outstanding-rated neighbour is Haberdashers' Hatcham Free School, just half a kilometre away, which also tops the local peer list with a ranking score of 90. Other high-performing peers include St Augustine's Catholic Primary School and Nursery (score 86) and Eliot Bank Primary School (score 85). Edmund Waller's own ranking score of 74 reflects solid performance in a competitive landscape. The school is a mixed, state-funded primary for ages 3 to 11, with no religious character, and is led by headteacher Anne Rennie. It has a nursery provision and a capacity of 451 pupils, currently housing 432.

Academically, Edmund Waller performs well above the Lewisham average. In its most recent Key Stage 2 results, 74% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with the local authority average of 64%. The school also achieved strong scores in individual subjects: 89% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, 85% in maths and 79% in writing. At the higher standard, 9% of pupils achieved across all three subjects, with reading particularly strong at 51% reaching the higher threshold. Average scaled scores were 109 in reading and 105 in maths. The school's most recent Ofsted inspection, an ungraded visit in June 2023, confirmed it remains Good, a rating it has held consistently since its previous graded inspection in 2014, where leadership and management, early years provision and overall effectiveness were all judged Good. Progress scores are not available in the data, but the attainment figures paint a picture of a school delivering solid results for its pupils.

The school is well equipped with facilities including a sports hall, playing fields, a forest school, art studios, music rooms, an ICT suite and a gymnasium. Sports offered include cricket, athletics, dance, netball, swimming and tennis, while clubs cover drama, book club and choir. For families with children who have additional needs, Edmund Waller provides support for a wide range of SEND categories, including specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, speech and language needs, autistic spectrum disorder and hearing impairment, plus a resourced provision. The school is oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 200 applications for 59 places, with 83 first-preference applications and 58 first-preference offers, giving an oversubscription ratio of 3.39. This level of demand suggests a school that local families actively seek out, and its strong KS2 results relative to the borough average make it a compelling choice for parents prioritising academic outcomes within a well-resourced state primary.

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