Kenton Bar Primary School

About Kenton Bar Primary School

Kenton Bar Primary School holds a Good rating from Ofsted following its most recent inspection in January 2025, but the headline story is in the exam results. In the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 assessments, just 42% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. That figure sits well below the Newcastle upon Tyne local authority average of 63% and places the school 54th out of 55 primaries in the area. Only 4% of pupils achieved the higher standard across all three subjects. The school’s ranking score of 42 puts it in the bottom 50 nationally for this metric. It is worth noting, however, that the school serves a community with a high level of disadvantage: 57.8% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, more than three times the national average. The Ofsted report itself acknowledged strong personal development, grading it Outstanding, while behaviour, leadership, early years provision and the quality of education were all rated Good.

Digging deeper into the individual subject scores, the picture is mixed. In writing, 68% of pupils met the expected standard, which is a solid result, and 18% reached the higher standard. Reading and maths were weaker: 54% of pupils achieved the expected standard in reading and 50% in maths, with higher-standard scores of 14% and 12% respectively. Average scaled scores were 100 for reading and 101 for maths, both around 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 it adds relative to pupils’ starting points. Parent feedback is overwhelmingly positive: 96% of respondents would recommend the school, and 96% agreed or strongly agreed that their child is happy there. Strong majorities also felt their child is safe, well behaved and does well at the school.

The school has capacity for 420 pupils but currently enrols 275, so there is room to grow. For the 2025/26 intake, it was oversubscribed: 65 applications for 39 places, with 36 first-preference offers made. Facilities include a sports hall, gymnasium, outdoor playground, forest school and a chapel. The school offers a range of clubs including drama, choir, chess, eco club and coding, and pupils can take part in sports such as tennis, athletics, cross country, swimming, rounders, gymnastics and cricket. SEND provision covers moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, hearing impairment and other difficulties, plus a resourced provision. For families considering this school, the data suggests a community-focused primary where pastoral care and personal development are strong, but where academic outcomes are significantly below the local average, likely reflecting the high level of disadvantage among the intake.

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