Queen Emma Primary School

About Queen Emma Primary School

Queen Emma Primary School sits in a tricky spot compared with the Cambridgeshire average for primary schools. Its key headline metric — the percentage of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined — stands at 53%, which is five percentage points below the local authority average of 58%. That gap puts the school in the bottom half of Cambridgeshire primaries, ranking 129th out of 210 schools of the same type. Within the city of Cambridge itself, the picture is starker still: the school ranks 22nd out of 26 primary schools, placing it in the bottom 15% locally. So while Queen Emma is not among the high-flyers in the area, it’s worth noting that it’s a larger-than-average school, with 405 pupils against a capacity of 390, and it serves a community where 22.3% of children are eligible for free school meals — a figure that often correlates with lower headline scores.

Digging into the 2023/24 KS2 results, the picture becomes more nuanced. In reading, 72% of pupils reached the expected standard and 36% achieved a higher score, with an average scaled score of 106. Maths was a weaker spot: 62% hit the expected standard, 30% reached the higher threshold, and the average score was 104. Writing lagged behind, with 58% at expected and just 19% at the higher level. The combined expected figure of 53% is dragged down by that writing result. In its most recent Ofsted inspection in June 2023, the school was rated Good overall, with all five graded categories — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision — all rated Good. That’s a consistent picture, and an improvement from the previous inspection in 2013, which also rated the school Good but gave leadership and management an Outstanding mark.

Queen Emma is clearly a popular school: for the 2025/26 intake, it received 95 applications for just 30 places, with 32 first-preference applications and 28 offers made to first-preference families. That oversubscription ratio of 3.17 to 1 means competition is real, so families need to be prepared. The school offers a decent range of facilities including a gymnasium, outdoor playground, dining hall and art studios, and runs clubs like choir, coding, book club and gardening. Sports provision covers gymnastics, cross country, cricket, rounders, dance, athletics and football. For SEND, the school supports children with moderate learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, autistic spectrum disorder, and other difficulties. This is a school that suits families who value a Good-rated, inclusive community school in Cambridge, but who are realistic about academic outcomes sitting slightly below the local average — and who are prepared for the oversubscription lottery.

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