Holly Trees Primary School

About Holly Trees Primary School

Holly Trees Primary School in Brentwood holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained since its previous graded inspection in 2012, with the most recent ungraded inspection in 2023 confirming the school remains Good. The most telling exam metric is the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, which stands at 65 per cent. That is just above the Essex local authority average of 62 per cent for primary schools, placing Holly Trees in the middle of the pack locally — it ranks 9th out of 18 primary schools in the Brentwood area. The school’s national percentile for this metric is 44, meaning it sits around the median for all primary schools in England. While the combined figure is solid, individual subject results show some variation: 80 per cent of pupils met the expected standard in maths, compared with 75 per cent in reading and 73 per cent in writing.

At the higher standard, the picture is more mixed. Only 8 per cent of pupils achieved the higher standard across all three subjects, though 38 per cent reached that level in reading and 30 per cent in maths. Average scaled scores for both reading and maths are 105, which is in line with the national average of 100. The school does not publish progress scores for any subject, so it is not possible to see how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points. Ofsted’s breakdown from the 2023 inspection rated leadership and management as Good, and the 2008 inspection had rated early years provision as Requires Improvement, but no updated early years judgement has been published since. The school has 417 pupils on roll, very close to its capacity of 420, and 26.9 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is above the national average for primary schools.

Holly Trees is heavily oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake, there were 195 applications for just 59 places, with 63 first-preference applications and only 52 first-preference offers. That gives an oversubscription ratio of 3.31, so families need to be realistic about their chances. The school offers a range of facilities including playing fields, a gymnasium, art studios and a dining hall, and runs clubs such as chess, coding and choir. Sports on offer include athletics, football, gymnastics, tennis and cross country. SEND provision is broad, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing impairment and autistic spectrum disorder. The nearest outstanding-rated primary school is St Peter’s Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School, South Weald, 1.9 km away, which may be an alternative for families who miss out on a place at Holly Trees.

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