Hartlip Endowed Church of England Primary School

About Hartlip Endowed Church of England Primary School

Hartlip Endowed Church of England Primary School is a small, oversubscribed village school in Swale, and the numbers suggest local families are keen to get in. For the 2025/26 reception intake, the school received 30 applications for just 14 places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.14. Of those, 13 were first-preference applications, and 13 first-preference offers were made, meaning almost every family who put it top of their list secured a spot. ParentView data isn't available here, but the demand alone signals strong local confidence. The school is rated Good by Ofsted across all five categories in its most recent 2022 inspection, including behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and early years provision. With just 106 pupils on a capacity of 105, it's running full, and the Church of England character adds a layer of community identity that clearly appeals to families in this corner of Kent.

Academically, Hartlip's Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 paint a mixed picture. The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined was 50%, below the local authority average of 63% and placing the school 41st out of 48 primaries in Swale. In the South East region it ranks in the bottom 20% of schools. However, the breakdown shows real strengths: 92% of pupils met the expected standard in writing, and 67% did so in reading. Maths was weaker, with only 50% reaching the expected level and an average scaled score of 99. At the higher standard, writing again stood out with 25% of pupils achieving greater depth, compared with 8% in reading and 0% in maths. The school's progress scores are not available, so it's hard to say how much value it adds, but the writing outcomes are notably strong for a school of this size.

The school offers a Forest School, a chapel, playing fields and a sports hall, plus clubs including choir, eco club and coding. Sports provision covers athletics, cross country, swimming, dance and netball. SEND support is broad, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, speech and language needs, autistic spectrum disorder, social and emotional mental health needs, and physical disability. This suggests a genuinely inclusive approach, though the small roll means specialist resources may be limited. Hartlip is best suited to families who want a tight-knit, Church of England primary with a strong community feel and who are comfortable with a school that is academically mixed but strong on writing. The oversubscription means applying early and as a first preference is essential.

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