Lakeside Nursery & Primary Academy

About Lakeside Nursery & Primary Academy

Lakeside Nursery & Primary Academy sits within Surrey Heath, part of the wider Surrey local authority, and is one of 298 primary schools in the county. In the most recent local rankings, it placed 178th among those schools, putting it in the bottom half of Surrey primaries. For context, the top-performing peers in the same authority include South Farnham School, The Raleigh School, and Cardinal Newman Catholic Primary School, all of which achieved significantly higher ranking scores. The school is a state-funded, mixed-gender primary for children aged 2 to 11, with no religious character. Headteacher Samantha Armstrong leads a school that currently has 300 pupils against a capacity of 508, and 20.4 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, an ungraded visit in November 2023, confirmed that the school remains Good, an improvement from its previous graded inspection in 2015, when it was rated Requires Improvement.

Academically, the school’s Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 show a mixed picture. The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined was 47 per cent, well below the Surrey local authority average of 66 per cent. In reading, 82 per cent of pupils met the expected standard, with an average score of 106, and 35 per cent achieved a higher standard. In maths, 69 per cent reached the expected standard, with an average score of 105 and 33 per cent reaching the higher standard. Writing was weaker, with only 51 per cent meeting the expected standard and none reaching the higher standard. Nationally, the school ranks in the bottom 17 per cent of all primaries on the combined measure, and in the South East region it sits in the bottom 16 per cent. Progress scores for reading, writing and maths are not available in the data, so it is not possible to assess how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points.

The school offers a range of facilities including a library, sensory room, playing fields, gymnasium, music rooms and a chapel. Sports provision includes dance, netball, cricket and rounders, while extracurricular clubs cover choir, chess, drama, film club, science club and gardening. The school has a nursery provision for children from age 2. For families with children who have special educational needs, the school lists support for specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. Admission for the 2025/26 year shows the school is oversubscribed: 74 applications were received for 31 places, with 31 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.39. This suggests strong local demand, though the school’s academic outcomes are below the Surrey average, so it may suit families who prioritise a broad range of clubs and SEND support over top-tier exam results.

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