Old Heath Community Primary School

About Old Heath Community Primary School

Old Heath Community Primary School sits within the Essex local authority, where it ranks 18th out of 51 primary schools in Colchester — comfortably inside the top half of its immediate area. Among its local peers, the top-performing schools include Stambridge Primary School and St Thomas More's Catholic Primary School, both of which achieved perfect ranking scores, alongside Great Totham Primary School. Old Heath itself holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained across its most recent inspections, including an ungraded visit in 2021 that confirmed the school remains Good. The school is a mixed, non-denominational state primary for children aged 4 to 11, with 213 pupils on roll — slightly above its official capacity of 210. With 21.8 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a community with above-average economic disadvantage compared with the national primary average.

Academically, Old Heath performs solidly against local benchmarks. At Key Stage 2 in the 2023/24 academic year, 70 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined — comfortably above the Essex local authority average of 62 per cent. In individual subjects, the school saw 87 per cent of pupils meet expectations in maths, 80 per cent in writing, and 73 per cent in reading. Higher-standard attainment was more modest: 13 per cent achieved the higher benchmark across all three subjects, with reading the strongest at 27 per cent, followed by writing at 23 per cent and maths at 17 per cent. Average scaled scores were 107 in reading and 106 in maths, both slightly above the national average of 100. The school ranks in the top 50 per cent nationally by this combined measure, sitting at the 32nd percentile. Progress scores 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 is clearly popular with local families. For entry in 2025/26, Old Heath received 79 applications for just 30 places, making it oversubscribed with a ratio of 2.63 applicants per place. Of the 27 first-preference applications, 25 were offered places. The school offers a broad range of facilities including an ICT suite, library, sensory room, music rooms, art studios and a chapel. Sports provision covers rounders, football, cross country, cricket and netball, while extracurricular clubs include coding, art, book club, science, eco and chess. SEND support is well-developed, with provisions for specific learning difficulties including dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, autistic spectrum disorder, and other difficulties. For families seeking an Outstanding-rated alternative, the nearest such school is Kendall Church of England Primary School, just one kilometre away.

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