St Mary's CofE Primary School

About St Mary's CofE Primary School

For parents weighing up St Mary's CofE Primary School, the practical signals are mixed but revealing. In its most recent admissions round for 2025/26, the school was oversubscribed, receiving 66 applications for 53 places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.25. Of those, 33 families put it as their first preference, and all 33 received an offer — meaning every family who really wanted a place got one. That suggests a school that is popular but not impossibly competitive. There is no parent-view survey data available here, so the strongest signal of parental satisfaction is that first-preference fill rate. The school serves a notably diverse intake, with 35.8% of pupils eligible for free school meals, well above the national average, and it has a Church of England character that may appeal to families looking for a faith-based setting.

Academically, St Mary's sits in a challenging position within Haringey. At Key Stage 2 in 2023/24, 55% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined — exactly matching the local authority average of 69%? No, that figure is actually 14 percentage points below the Haringey average of 69%. The school ranks 43rd out of 51 primary schools in the borough, placing it in the bottom half locally and in the bottom 30% nationally. On the positive side, individual subject scores are more encouraging: 72% hit the expected standard in reading, 71% in writing, and 69% in maths. Higher-attaining pupils are rarer — just 5% achieved the higher standard across all three subjects — but reading and writing each saw around a quarter of pupils reach that top tier. The school's most recent Ofsted inspection in November 2022 rated it Good across all five categories, a significant improvement from its previous Inadequate rating just eight months earlier.

The school offers a solid range of facilities including a library, ICT suite, gymnasium and chapel, plus a nursery for three-year-olds. Sports provision covers athletics, swimming, cross country and cricket, and there are clubs from art and chess to gardening, eco club and coding. For families with children who have additional needs, St Mary's lists SEND support for dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language challenges, physical disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder. The school is not oversubscribed to the point of being a gamble for first-preference applicants, which may suit families who want a decent local option without the stress of a lottery. It is a large school — 346 pupils against a capacity of 570 — so there is room to grow, and its Good Ofsted rating gives reasonable assurance on quality, even if the exam results lag behind the strongest Haringey primaries.

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