May Park Primary School

About May Park Primary School

May Park Primary School is clearly a popular choice among local families, with 109 applications for just 44 places in the 2025/26 admissions round, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.48. That means more than two families applied for every available spot, and the school made 36 offers to first-preference applicants. While the school doesn't publish a parent recommendation percentage, this level of demand suggests strong local confidence. The school is led by headteacher Emma Tovey and serves 468 pupils from ages 3 to 11, with nursery provision available. It's a mixed, non-religious state primary in the Bristol, City of local authority. The school's most recent Ofsted inspection, in November 2023, rated it as Requires Improvement overall, though several individual areas were judged Good: early years provision, personal development, and behaviour and attitudes. Leadership and management, along with quality of education, were rated as Requires Improvement. This marks an improvement from the school's previous inspection in 2018, which rated it Inadequate.

Academically, May Park's Key Stage 2 results for the 2023/24 academic year show that 44% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. This is below the local authority average of 58% and places the school 69th out of 85 primary schools in Bristol, putting it in the bottom half of the LA rankings. Looking at individual subjects, 62% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, 65% in writing, and 52% in maths. At the higher standard, just 3% achieved the top level across all three subjects, with 35% reaching that level in reading, 15% in writing, and 9% in maths. Average scaled scores were 104 in reading and 100 in maths. Progress scores are not available for this school, so it's difficult to assess how much value the school adds relative to pupils' starting points. Nationally, May Park ranks in the bottom 13% of primary schools on the combined expected standard metric.

The school offers a solid range of facilities including a library, sensory room, music rooms, art studios, gymnasium, sports hall, and a forest school area. Sports provision includes dance, cross country, rounders and gymnastics, while clubs cover chess, choir and book club. May Park has a notably broad SEND offer, with provisions for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, visual impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder, plus a resourced provision. The school is oversubscribed, so families applying for a Reception place will need to consider their chances carefully. With 31.8% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a relatively disadvantaged catchment. It will suit families who value a broad SEND offer and a range of facilities, and who are comfortable with a school that is still working through its improvement journey after the previous Inadequate rating.

Key Details

Frequently Asked Questions About May Park Primary School

Helpful Guides for Parents