Oaklands Primary Academy

About Oaklands Primary Academy

Oaklands Primary Academy is a state primary in Bromley that parents clearly want to get into. For the 2025/26 intake, the school received 52 applications for just 27 places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.93. Of those, 25 families put it as their first preference, and all 25 were offered a spot. That level of demand suggests a strong local reputation, even though the school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, in February 2024, rated it Requires Improvement across the board — including overall effectiveness, behaviour and attitudes, leadership, and early years provision. That’s a drop from its previous Good rating in 2018, so it’s worth noting the change. The school has a nursery provision and takes children from age 2 to 11, with a current roll of 448 pupils against a capacity of 630, meaning there is still some room to grow.

Academically, Oaklands’ Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 are below the local average. Just 40% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with the Bromley average of 69%. That places the school 68th out of 69 primary schools in the local authority, putting it in the bottom 50 nationally. Looking at individual subjects, 68% met the expected standard in reading and 71% in writing, but maths was weaker at 48%. At the higher standard, only 5% of pupils achieved that across all three subjects. Progress scores are not available, so it’s hard to say how much value the school adds, but the raw attainment figures are clearly a concern for parents focused on academic outcomes. The school does not have a sixth form, as it’s primary only.

On the practical side, Oaklands offers a decent range of facilities including an ICT suite, sports hall, art studios, dining hall, outdoor playground and a chapel. Sports on offer include tennis, netball, rounders and athletics, and there are clubs for drama, choir and gardening. The school has a particularly strong set of SEND provisions, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social and emotional needs, speech and language issues, hearing and visual impairments, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder — plus a resourced provision. That makes it a potentially good fit for families whose children need additional support. The headteacher is James Robinson. Given the oversubscription, it’s a popular choice locally, but the Requires Improvement rating and below-average results mean it’s one to visit and ask about current improvement plans.

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