Starks Field Primary School

About Starks Field Primary School

Starks Field Primary School in Enfield holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained across its two most recent inspections. The most telling academic metric comes from the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results, where just 19% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. This figure sits well below the Enfield local authority average of 67%, and places the school at the very bottom of the borough’s 59 primary schools in the rankings. The picture is similarly challenging in individual subjects: 32% reached the expected level in reading, 39% in writing and 39% in maths. Only a handful of pupils achieved the higher standard in any of the three subjects — 13% in reading, 3% in writing and 10% in maths. The average scaled scores of 100 in both reading and maths are exactly in line with the national benchmark, but the low combined expected rate suggests many children are not progressing across all three disciplines simultaneously.

Despite these headline figures, Ofsted’s 2023 inspection found the school to be Good across every category: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. The report noted that behaviour and attitudes were good, and inspectors rated leadership and management as good too. The school’s Progress 8 scores for reading, writing and maths are all missing from the data, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points. However, the consistency of the Good rating across both inspections — the previous one in 2018 also rated overall effectiveness as Good — suggests stable leadership under headteacher Melissa Davies Oliveck. The school has a high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at 46.5%, more than double the national average, which may partly explain the gap between its Ofsted grade and its raw exam outcomes.

Starks Field is a small primary with 185 pupils against a capacity of 218, and it is heavily oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake, there were 43 applications for just 12 places, a ratio of 3.58 applicants per place. All 12 first-preference families were offered a spot. The school offers a nursery provision for three-year-olds and has a wide range of facilities including an ICT suite, sensory room, art studios, library and playing fields. Sports on offer include gymnastics, cross country, football and swimming, while clubs range from science and art to gardening, film and eco club. The SEND provision is notably comprehensive, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language challenges, hearing impairment, physical disability and autistic spectrum disorder, plus a resourced provision. For families prioritising strong academic outcomes, the data here is sobering, but for those whose child needs a supportive, inclusive environment with a strong SEND framework and a Good Ofsted rating, this school may still be a very good fit.

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