John Hampden Primary School

About John Hampden Primary School

John Hampden Primary School’s headline Key Stage 2 results put it comfortably ahead of the Oxfordshire local authority average. While the LA average for pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined sits at 61%, John Hampden achieves 75% — a 14 percentage point gap. That places the school 14th out of 48 primaries in South Oxfordshire, within the top 25% of primary schools nationally, and 361st out of 2,034 in the South East region. The school’s overall Ofsted rating is Good, a grade it has held across its two most recent inspections, and its personal development was judged Outstanding in the 2022 inspection. That’s a strong signal that the school is paying close attention to how children grow as individuals, not just their test scores.

Digging into the 2023/24 exam data, the school’s strengths are spread across the core subjects. In reading, 90% of pupils reached the expected standard and 43% achieved the higher standard, with an average scaled score of 108. Maths tells a similar story: 88% at expected and 37% at higher, with an average score of 107. Writing is slightly lower, with 83% at expected and 27% at higher, but still well above the national benchmark. The school’s overall ranking score of 75 (based on the proportion reaching the expected standard in all three subjects) puts it in the top 20% nationally. Compared with its previous Ofsted inspection in 2015, where early years provision was rated Requires Improvement, the 2022 inspection shows clear progress — early years is now Good, and personal development has been lifted to Outstanding.

With 448 pupils on roll against a capacity of 418, John Hampden is oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, 140 families applied for 58 places, and 56 first-preference offers were made. That’s a ratio of 2.41 applicants per place, so it’s a school that local families clearly want to get into. Facilities include a forest school, sensory room, ICT suite, gymnasium, music rooms and even a chapel. Sports provision covers athletics, football, cricket, tennis, swimming and netball, and there’s a good range of clubs from book club and choir to eco club and drama. The school supports a wide range of SEND needs, including dyslexia, speech and language difficulties, and autistic spectrum disorder. It also has nursery provision for children from age three. This is a state primary that combines strong academic outcomes with a broad enrichment offer — ideal for families who want both results and a rich school experience.

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