Southwood Primary School

About Southwood Primary School

Southwood Primary School sits within the Barking and Dagenham local authority, a London borough where just four of 45 primary schools hold an Outstanding Ofsted rating. The school itself ranks 36th out of 39 primaries in the LA on the key stage 2 expected standard measure, placing it in the bottom half of local schools. The top-performing peers in the area include Rush Green Primary School, St Margarets CofE Primary School and The St Teresa Catholic Primary School, all of which score significantly higher on the same ranking metric. For families considering their options, the nearest Outstanding-rated school is Grafton Primary School, located 0.9 kilometres away. Southwood’s position in the local landscape is clear: it is a Good-rated school in a competitive borough, but one that serves a community with relatively high levels of disadvantage, as reflected in its 29.9 per cent pupil premium rate.

Academically, Southwood’s most recent key stage 2 results, from the 2023/24 academic year, show 51 per cent of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. That is 14 percentage points below the Barking and Dagenham LA average of 65 per cent. Just 2 per cent of pupils achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths combined, with individual subject higher scores ranging from 2 per cent in writing to 17 per cent in maths. Average scaled scores were 102 in both reading and maths, which is in line with the national average of 100. The school’s Ofsted inspection in July 2023 rated it Good across all five categories, including behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management. This marked a clear improvement from its previous inspection in 2019, when the school was rated Requires Improvement overall, with early years provision, leadership and management all graded as Requires Improvement at that time.

The school offers a nursery provision for children from age three and has capacity for 630 pupils, with 591 currently on roll. It was oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, receiving 110 applications for 63 places, with 59 first-preference offers made. Facilities include a gymnasium, music rooms, a forest school, library, playing fields and a chapel. Sports provision covers rounders, football, swimming, cross country, tennis and netball, while clubs include art, coding, chess and gardening. The school’s SEND provision is broad, supporting pupils with moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, multi-sensory impairment, physical disability and autistic spectrum disorder. Southwood is a good fit for families in Barking and Dagenham who want a well-resourced primary with strong pastoral support and a clear improvement trajectory, particularly those whose children may benefit from the school’s specialist SEND expertise.

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