Downfield Primary School

Downfield Primary School is a welcoming and diverse community where pupils feel safe, settled and respected. Inspectors found that pupils behave well, follow the school’s ‘ready, respect, safe’ rules and benefit from strong relationships across lessons and breaktimes. Pupils take pride in leadership roles, including young interpreters and well-being champions, which helps build confidence and a shared sense of belonging. The school has a well-designed curriculum, clear teaching and effective checks for gaps in knowledge. Writing has been improved, children develop early fine motor skills, and pupils learn to structure writing and apply grammar, punctuation and spelling accurately. Reading is a clear strength: children develop a love of reading early, staff are well trained, and extra help is provided for pupils who need it. Staff also generally support pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities well, including in the specially resourced provision, which changed in September 2024 to include pupils with autism and/or other difficulties or disabilities. Safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Strengths

• Pupils are proud of their diverse community and respect differences
• Young interpreters help new arrivals who speak English as an additional language feel settled
• Pupils behave well in lessons, at breaktimes and at lunchtimes
• Pupils strive to meet the high expectations staff have of them
• Pupils take on leadership roles such as lunchtime helpers and well-being champions
• The curriculum sets out the important knowledge pupils need to learn
• Teachers present information clearly and check for gaps in pupils’ knowledge
• The writing curriculum has been improved and pupils apply grammar, punctuation and spelling accurately
• Children develop a love of reading from the start of school
• Well-trained staff support early language and vocabulary development
• Pupils who need extra reading help receive support to become fluent readers
• Staff are typically knowledgeable about supporting pupils with SEND
• Early years staff work closely with the SENCo to identify SEND early
• Pupils understand how to look after their physical and mental health and build healthy relationships
• Leaders accurately identify improvement priorities and governors check progress
• New well-being and nurture initiatives have helped reduce absence and persistent absence
• Safeguarding arrangements are effective

Areas for Improvement

• Some pupils do not get enough opportunity to re-read new or unfamiliar words after decoding them
• Some pupils overly rely on sounding out words they have already read, slowing reading fluency
• Some support plans for pupils with SEND lack precision
• On occasion, staff do not provide the specific support some pupils with SEND need to achieve as well as they could

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Downfield Primary School attended 92.8% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 19.6% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 13.0%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 1.3% of pupils at Downfield Primary School were suspended at least once (nationally 1.1%). One pupil was permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Downfield Primary School had 21.1 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 10.4% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 15.7%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 28.7% of pupils at Downfield Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 9.2% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

The school has a SEN unit with 12 pupils.

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded primary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2025–26 Downfield Primary School received £7,894 and spent £8,052 for each of its 448 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £685,000 (£1,530 per pupil).

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24).

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Waltham Cross · Hertfordshire local authority: places and applications

What is Downfield Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Downfield Primary School is Good, from an inspection in December 2024.

When was Downfield Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Downfield Primary School was last inspected in December 2024.

How many pupils does Downfield Primary School have?

Downfield Primary School has 467 pupils on roll.

What age range does Downfield Primary School cover?

Downfield Primary School for pupils aged 2 to 11.

What are Downfield Primary School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 22% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Downfield Primary School?

Downfield Primary School is at Downfield Road, Cheshunt, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, EN8 8SS.