Fernhurst Primary School

About Fernhurst Primary School

Fernhurst Primary School sits well above the West Sussex local authority average for Key Stage 2 outcomes, with 67% of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared to a county average of 56%. That eleven-point gap places the school in the top 50 nationally for this metric and ranks it 46th out of 226 primary schools of the same type across the authority. The school is also comfortably inside the top 20% of primaries in the Chichester district, coming 5th out of 38. These are strong results for a small village school of just 103 pupils, and they suggest that the school is punching above its weight academically. The progress scores for reading, writing and maths are not available in the data, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds on top of pupils' starting points, but the headline attainment figures are clearly a cut above what most local primaries achieve.

The school's most recent Ofsted inspection in June 2025 judged it Good overall, with personal development rated Outstanding. This is a notable improvement on its previous inspection in February 2023, when the school was rated Requires Improvement across most categories. The turnaround is significant: leadership and management, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and early years provision all moved up from a grade 3 to a grade 2, while personal development jumped from a grade 2 to a grade 1. At Key Stage 2, 22% of pupils achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths, and average scaled scores were 103 in reading and 101 in maths. Parent feedback is overwhelmingly positive: 96% of the 47 respondents would recommend the school, and 97% strongly agreed or agreed that their child is happy there. The school's oversubscribed status for 2025/26, with 20 applications for 13 places and 12 first-preference offers, confirms its local popularity.

Fernhurst Primary is a Church of England voluntary controlled school with a strong sense of community, reflected in its facilities which include a forest school, sensory room, chapel, and extensive outdoor spaces. It offers a range of clubs such as science, film, drama, gardening and book club, plus sports including rounders, gymnastics, netball and tennis. The school's SEND provision covers specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, speech and language needs, autistic spectrum disorder, and social, emotional and mental health support, though the parent view data for SEND support had no responses, so it is difficult to gauge how well this is working in practice. With just over 100 pupils and a capacity of 210, the school is operating well below capacity, which may appeal to families looking for a smaller, more intimate setting. It is a good fit for parents who value strong academic outcomes, a broad range of extracurricular activities, and a school that has demonstrably improved its quality in recent years.

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