Orchard Primary School

About Orchard Primary School

Orchard Primary School sits within the London borough of Bexley, a local authority with 61 primary schools, 11 of which hold an Outstanding Ofsted rating. The school ranks 33rd out of 55 in the LA for its Key Stage 2 reading, writing and maths expected standard, placing it in the middle of the pack. The top-performing peers in the area are all Catholic primaries: St Thomas More, St John Fisher and St Stephen's, each scoring significantly higher on the same ranking metric. Orchard’s own ranking score of 63 puts it below those three but ahead of roughly half of Bexley’s primary schools. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is Burnt Oak Junior School, about two kilometres away. Orchard itself is a Good school, a rating it earned in its most recent graded inspection in March 2022, having improved from Requires Improvement in its previous inspection four years earlier.

At Key Stage 2 in the 2023/24 academic year, 63 per cent of Orchard’s pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, slightly below the Bexley LA average of 67 per cent. The school’s strongest subject was reading, where 77 per cent met the expected standard and 33 per cent achieved the higher standard. In writing, 77 per cent met the expected level and 33 per cent reached the higher threshold. Maths saw 73 per cent at the expected standard and 13 per cent at the higher level, with an average scaled score of 103. Only 3 per cent of pupils achieved the higher standard across all three subjects. The school’s Ofsted report from March 2022 rated every category as Good, including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, early years provision, and leadership and management. The previous inspection in 2018 had rated overall effectiveness as Requires Improvement, with leadership and management and early years provision both scoring 3.

Orchard Primary is a mixed, state-funded school for children aged 3 to 11, with a nursery on site. It is slightly oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 68 applications for 30 places, with 29 offers made to first-preference families. The school serves a community where 25.1 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals, above the national average. Facilities include a library, sports hall, outdoor playground, dining hall, art studios, forest school, sensory room, gymnasium and a chapel. Sports offered include cricket, football, swimming, gymnastics, tennis and athletics, and there are clubs for eco, gardening, art and coding. The school has a broad range of SEND provisions, supporting pupils with specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, speech and language needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, autistic spectrum disorder and social, emotional and mental health needs. This makes it a practical choice for families in Bexley seeking a well-equipped local primary with strong pastoral support.

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