Upshire Primary Foundation School

About Upshire Primary Foundation School

Upshire Primary Foundation School is a state primary in the Essex local authority, serving the Epping Forest area with 205 pupils aged 4 to 11. It sits in a competitive local landscape where the top-performing peers include St Thomas More's Catholic Primary School in Colchester, Stambridge Primary School, and Great Totham Primary School, all of which achieve the highest ranking scores in the authority. Upshire itself ranks 316th out of 444 same-type schools in Essex, placing it in the bottom half of the LA. The school is led by headteacher Ross Jones and has no religious character. Its most recent Ofsted inspection in March 2025 judged the school as Requires Improvement overall, a downgrade from its previous Good rating in 2019. While leadership and management, early years provision, and personal development were all rated Good, the quality of education and behaviour and attitudes both slipped to Requires Improvement. The school is oversubscribed for 2025/26, with 71 applications for 30 places and 31 first-preference applications, suggesting strong local demand despite the inspection outcome.

Academically, Upshire's Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 show a mixed picture. Just 46% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing, and maths combined, well below the Essex LA average of 62%. The school ranks 27th out of 30 schools in the Epping Forest district on this measure, placing it in the bottom 10% locally and the bottom 20% nationally. Individual subject scores tell a more nuanced story: 74% of pupils reached the expected standard in maths, with an average score of 103, and 72% did so in reading, with an average score of 105. However, writing was a weaker point, with only 52% meeting expectations and just 2% achieving a higher standard. At the higher end, 28% of pupils achieved a higher standard in reading and 13% in maths, but no pupils reached the higher standard across all three subjects. Progress scores are not available, so it is unclear how much value the school adds relative to pupils' starting points.

The school offers a solid range of facilities including an outdoor playground, ICT suite, gymnasium, playing fields, and a dining hall. Sports provision covers rounders, netball, tennis, athletics, and cross country, while clubs include gardening, drama, choir, chess, and coding. SEND support is available for specific learning difficulties including dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, and autistic spectrum disorder. Parent View responses from 25 parents between September 2024 and September 2025 are overwhelmingly positive: 88% would recommend the school, 92% agreed or strongly agreed their child is happy, and 92% felt their child is safe. However, the data shows no responses to the SEND support question, and 12% of parents disagreed that concerns are dealt with properly. With 28.8% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a relatively disadvantaged catchment. Upshire is best suited to families who value a strong sense of community and parental satisfaction, but who are aware that academic outcomes currently lag behind the local average and that the school is working through an Ofsted improvement plan.

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