Harold Wood Primary School

About Harold Wood Primary School

Parents considering Harold Wood Primary School will find strong signals of satisfaction from those already in the school community. In the most recent Parent View survey, covering the period from September 2024 to September 2025, 96% of the 101 respondents said they would recommend the school to other parents. That’s a very high endorsement rate. The school is also clearly popular in the local area: for the 2025/26 academic year, it received 184 applications for just 84 places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.19. Of those 184 applications, 70 were first-preference choices, and all 70 of those families received an offer. Parents reported particularly strong feelings about their children’s happiness and safety, with 88% strongly agreeing that their child is happy at the school and 83% strongly agreeing that their child feels safe. The school’s headteacher is Stuart Fryd, and it is a mixed, non-religious state primary for children aged 4 to 11, located in the London borough of Havering.

Academically, Harold Wood Primary’s most recent Key Stage 2 results, from the 2023/24 academic year, place it in a challenging position relative to its local authority. The school’s combined reading, writing and maths expected standard was 44%, which is significantly below the Havering local authority average of 65%. This result ranks the school 45th out of 49 primary schools in the borough, placing it in the bottom 50% nationally. Looking at individual subjects, 60% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, 57% in maths, and 59% in writing. The proportion reaching the higher standard in all three subjects combined was just 8%. Average scaled scores were 102 for reading and 101 for maths. The school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, an ungraded visit in November 2024, confirmed that standards are being maintained at Good, the same overall rating it received in its previous graded inspection in 2019. That 2019 inspection had seen the school improve from a Requires Improvement rating in 2016, with leadership and management and early years provision both judged Good.

In terms of practical provision, Harold Wood Primary is a large school with 641 pupils on roll, operating very close to its capacity of 654. The school reports that 15.8% of pupils are eligible for free school meals. It offers a wide range of facilities including a Forest School, gymnasium, sports hall, playing fields, music rooms, and art studios. Sports on offer include swimming, tennis, netball, cricket, and dance, while clubs range from coding and book club to eco club and choir. The school lists a comprehensive set of SEND provisions, covering areas such as autistic spectrum disorder, speech and language communication needs, and specific learning difficulties like dyslexia. In the Parent View survey, 71% of parents strongly agreed that the school gives SEND children the support they need, though 13% strongly disagreed, suggesting some mixed experiences. This is a school that suits families who value a strong sense of community and safety, and who are comfortable with its academic profile relative to the local area. The nearest outstanding-rated primary school is Nelmes Primary School, 0.7 km away.

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