Kenley Primary School

About Kenley Primary School

Kenley Primary School was rated Requires Improvement in its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2024, a downgrade from its previous Good rating in 2013. The inspection report highlighted that the quality of education, personal development, and behaviour and attitudes all require improvement, while leadership and management also received the same rating. Early years provision was the one bright spot, judged as Good. On the key academic measure for primary schools, just 41% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined at Key Stage 2 in the 2023/24 academic year. That is significantly below the Croydon local authority average of 66%, and places the school 74th out of 77 primary schools in the borough. Nationally, it sits in the bottom 10% of schools on this metric. The school’s average maths score was 99, while reading averaged 105, and only 4% of pupils reached the higher standard in reading, writing and maths combined.

Looking more closely at the individual subjects, 63% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, 48% in maths and 41% in writing. The higher standard attainment was notably low in writing and maths, at 4% and 15% respectively, though reading fared better with 33% reaching that level. The school’s overall ranking score of 41 places it in the bottom 50% of schools nationally. For context, the nearest Outstanding-rated primary is Harris Primary Academy Kenley, 1.7 km away. The school has a relatively small roll of 164 pupils against a capacity of 210, and 26.8% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is above the national average. There is no data on pupil progress scores for reading, writing or maths, so it is not possible to assess how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points.

Kenley Primary School offers a range of facilities including a Forest School, library, playing fields, gymnasium, sports hall, ICT suite and a chapel. Sports on offer include football, gymnastics, athletics, netball and dance, and there are clubs such as science, art, book and gardening. The school has identified SEND provisions for pupils with specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, and speech, language and communication needs. For the 2025/26 academic year, the school was oversubscribed, with 59 applications for 24 places and 11 first-preference offers, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.46. This suggests that while the school faces challenges academically, it remains a popular choice locally, particularly for families who value its small size, Forest School provision and range of extracurricular activities. It may suit parents who are closely involved and want to support the school through its current improvement journey.

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