Herringham Primary Academy

About Herringham Primary Academy

Herringham Primary Academy in Thurrock was rated Good by Ofsted in its most recent inspection in 2022, a significant improvement from its previous Requires Improvement rating in 2018. The school now holds Good marks across every category inspected, including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. That upward trajectory is reflected in the school’s most telling exam metric: just 48% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined at Key Stage 2 in the 2023/24 academic year. This places the school well below the Thurrock local authority average of 67%, and ranks it 37th out of 39 primary schools in the borough. Only 5% of pupils achieved the higher standard across all three subjects, and the school sits in the bottom 50 nationally for this measure. For context, the nearest Outstanding-rated school, Quarry Hill Academy, is 2.9 kilometres away.

Digging into the individual subject scores at Key Stage 2, the picture is mixed. In maths, 66% of pupils reached the expected standard, with an average scaled score of 102, while 10% achieved the higher standard. Reading was weaker: 53% met the expected standard, with an average score of 101, and only 14% reached the higher threshold. Writing saw 64% of pupils hit the expected level and 12% the higher level. The school does not publish progress scores for reading, writing or maths, so it is not possible to see how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points. With 42.1% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a community with above-average disadvantage, which may partly explain the gap between its outcomes and the local authority average. The school’s ranking score of 48 places it in the bottom half of primary schools in the East of England region.

Herringham Primary Academy is a mixed, non-faith state primary for children aged 4 to 11, with a nursery on site. It is oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake, there were 75 applications for 36 places, with 36 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.08. The school has a broad range of facilities including a sports hall, playing fields, a sensory room, music rooms, a library, and an ICT suite. Sports on offer include netball, football, cricket, athletics, tennis and cross country, and there are clubs for chess, coding and science. The school’s SEND provisions cover moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, visual impairment, physical disability, and other difficulties. This is a school that has clearly improved its Ofsted rating in recent years, but families prioritising strong academic outcomes at the expected standard may want to weigh the local context carefully.

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