Forge Wood Primary School

About Forge Wood Primary School

Forge Wood Primary School’s headline metrics present a curious contrast against the West Sussex local authority average for primary schools. While the school itself holds an Ofsted Outstanding rating from its most recent graded inspection in 2019, and an ungraded inspection in January 2025 confirmed that standards are maintained, its Key Stage 2 outcomes tell a different story. The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined sits at just 37%, compared with a local authority average of 56%. That is a gap of 19 percentage points, placing the school in the bottom half of primary schools nationally and 157th out of 226 in West Sussex. In the more local Crawley ranking, it comes 20th out of 21 schools. So while the leadership and early years provision are judged Outstanding, the academic results at the end of primary are significantly below the typical picture for the area.

Breaking down the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results, the picture is mixed. In reading, 50% of pupils met the expected standard and 23% reached the higher standard, with an average score of 102. In maths, 50% met the expected standard and 13% reached the higher standard, with an average score of 100. Writing saw 60% meet the expected standard, though no pupils achieved the higher standard. The school’s overall ranking score of 37, based on the proportion reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, places it in the bottom 50 nationally. For context, the top-performing schools in the local authority, such as Barns Green and Heron Way, score 86. The parent view data, based on 77 responses, shows that 73% would recommend the school, and strong majorities agree that children are happy (87% agree or strongly agree) and feel safe (88% agree or strongly agree). However, only 47% agree or strongly agree that SEND children receive the support they need, with 50% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing.

Forge Wood is a large primary school, operating very close to its capacity of 420 with 415 pupils on roll. It is heavily oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 203 applications for 58 places, an oversubscription ratio of 3.5, and 70 first-preference applications for 49 first-preference offers. The school serves a community with 18.1% of pupils eligible for free school meals, slightly above the national average. Facilities include playing fields, a sports hall, forest school, music rooms, an ICT suite and art studios, with a club programme covering drama, choir, gardening and chess. Sports on offer include rounders, tennis, netball, athletics, swimming and cross country. The school’s SEND provisions cover specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing impairment and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a school that parents clearly want to get into, but the data suggests families should weigh the strong Ofsted rating and happy-parent feedback against the below-average academic outcomes at the end of primary.

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