Preston Primary School

About Preston Primary School

Preston Primary School in Torbay holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a significant improvement from its previous Requires Improvement grade. The school’s most recent graded inspection in 2017 gave it Good marks for overall effectiveness, leadership and management, and early years provision, with the latter later upgraded to Outstanding in a 2023 ungraded inspection that confirmed the school remains Good. On the key academic metric of KS2 reading, writing and maths at the expected standard, 63% of pupils achieved this benchmark in the 2023/24 academic year, placing Preston 15th out of 29 primary schools in Torbay. That figure sits just above the local authority average of 61%, suggesting the school is performing solidly but not spectacularly within its immediate area. Nationally, it ranks in the 49th percentile among all state primaries, meaning it sits almost exactly in the middle of the pack.

Digging deeper into the KS2 results, Preston’s strongest subject is reading, where 78% of pupils met the expected standard and 35% reached the higher standard, with an average scaled score of 106. Maths follows with 73% at expected and 27% at the higher level, averaging 104. Writing lags a little, with 67% at expected and just 12% at the higher standard. The combined expected standard figure of 63% means roughly three in five children leave Year 6 with a solid foundation across all three core subjects. Progress scores are not available in the data, so it’s hard to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points, but the raw attainment figures are broadly in line with local norms. For context, the top three primaries in Torbay—Hayes, Roselands and Galmpton Church of England—all score higher on the ranking metric, but Preston is comfortably in the top half of the local league table.

The school is heavily oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, it received 94 applications for 44 places, with 54 first-preference applications and an oversubscription ratio of 2.14. That suggests strong local demand. Facilities are generous for a primary, including playing fields, a sports hall, a sensory room, a forest school area, art and music rooms, and an ICT suite. SEND provision is broad, covering dyslexia, speech and language needs, autistic spectrum disorder, physical disability, and social, emotional and mental health support, plus a resourced provision. There’s no nursery or sixth form, and the school is non-denominational. With 329 pupils against a capacity of 331, it’s essentially full. For families in Torbay who want a well-regarded, oversubscribed state primary with good facilities and strong SEND support, Preston is a realistic contender—though securing a place will require a first-preference application.

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