Harper Bell Seventh-day Adventist School

About Harper Bell Seventh-day Adventist School

Harper Bell Seventh-day Adventist School is a state primary in Birmingham, the largest local authority in the West Midlands. Among the 292 primary schools in the borough, it ranks 254th, placing it in the bottom half of the table. The top-performing peers in the area include Little Sutton Primary School, Cromwell Junior and Infant School, and Lift Lea Forest, all of which score significantly higher on the same ranking metric. The school is a mixed, faith-based setting for children aged 4 to 11, with a Seventh Day Adventist character. It is currently undersubscribed relative to its capacity of 218, with 169 pupils on roll. However, for the 2025/26 admissions round, the school was oversubscribed: 16 applications were received for 12 places, with 7 of those coming as first preferences. This suggests a degree of local demand, even as the school faces considerable challenges in its most recent inspection outcomes.

Academically, the school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, conducted in February 2025, rated it Inadequate overall, a significant downgrade from its previous Good rating. The breakdown shows Inadequate grades for quality of education, early years provision, and leadership and management, while behaviour and attitudes were judged as Requires improvement. Personal development was the sole area rated Good. Key Stage 2 results for the 2023/24 academic year reflect these struggles: just 20% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with the Birmingham local authority average of 63%. No pupils achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths. Individual subject scores were mixed: 56% met the expected standard in reading, 40% in maths, and only 20% in writing. The school’s Progress 8 scores are not available, but the attainment data places it at the very bottom of the LA rankings for this metric.

The school offers a range of facilities including a Forest School, sports hall, library, chapel, and art studios, alongside clubs such as chess, film club and book club. Sports provision includes dance, netball, rounders and swimming. SEND support is listed for moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication, and autistic spectrum disorder. Parent View responses, based on 11 respondents, show a divided picture: 55% would recommend the school, but 45% would not. Strong disagreement was notably high on several questions, including how concerns are dealt with and how the school communicates about pupil progress. For families considering this school, the data suggests a setting with strong community roots and some valued extracurricular provision, but with serious academic and leadership concerns that would warrant careful investigation, particularly given the availability of a nearby Outstanding alternative, Christ Church CofE Controlled Primary School and Nursery, just 0.7 km away.

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