St. Mary Cray Primary Academy

About St. Mary Cray Primary Academy

St. Mary Cray Primary Academy in Bromley was rated Good overall by Ofsted in its most recent graded inspection in 2017, and a subsequent ungraded inspection in 2023 confirmed the school remains Good. That 2023 visit was particularly strong on leadership and management, which was judged Outstanding, and early years provision was also rated Outstanding. This is a school that has clearly improved: its previous graded inspection in 2013 rated it Requires Improvement, so the upward trajectory is real. On the key academic metric for primary schools, 62% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined at the end of Key Stage 2 in the 2023/24 academic year. That is below the Bromley local authority average of 69%, placing the school 48th out of 69 primary schools in the borough. Nationally, it sits around the middle of the pack, in the 51st percentile. The picture is mixed: reading and writing expected rates are closer to the LA average, but maths expected attainment (66%) lags behind.

Digging into the detail, the school’s strongest subject at Key Stage 2 is reading, where 72% of pupils reached the expected standard and 34% achieved the higher standard. Writing follows closely at 76% expected, though only 17% hit the higher threshold. Maths is the weakest area, with 66% at expected and 28% at the higher level. Average scaled scores are 105 for reading and 104 for maths, both slightly above the national baseline of 100. The school does not publish progress scores for any subject, so it is hard to say how much value it adds relative to pupils’ starting points. With 39.5% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the intake is significantly more disadvantaged than the Bromley average, which may partly explain the gap between the school’s results and the LA average. The school’s overall ranking score of 62 places it in the bottom 50% of primary schools nationally.

St. Mary Cray Primary Academy is a relatively small school with 228 pupils against a capacity of 248, and it is oversubscribed: for 30 places in the 2025/26 intake, there were 93 applications, a ratio of 3.1 applicants per place, with 22 first-preference offers made. Facilities include a forest school, sensory room, art studios, music rooms, an ICT suite, and a sports hall, plus clubs such as choir, coding and eco club. Sports on offer include rounders, netball, tennis and gymnastics. The school has a broad range of SEND provisions, covering specific learning difficulties, speech and language needs, hearing and visual impairments, autistic spectrum disorder, and social, emotional and mental health support. For families considering this school, it offers strong leadership and early years provision, a clear improvement story, and a supportive environment for children with additional needs, though academic outcomes are below the local average and parents should weigh that against the high level of disadvantage in the intake.

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