Grove Park Primary School

Grove Park Primary School is a larger-than-average primary in the Bourne Alliance Multi Academy Trust. Inspectors found a caring and inclusive school where safeguarding is met and pupils feel safe, valued and ready to learn. Personal development and wellbeing is a particular strength, with a well-planned programme, strong pastoral support, wide enrichment opportunities and meaningful community involvement. Behaviour, attendance, curriculum and teaching, early years, inclusion, and leadership and governance are all judged at the expected standard.

Strengths

• Comprehensive personal development programme covering British values, protected characteristics and respectful relationships
• Pupils speak confidently about fairness, equality and respect
• Wide range of well-attended enrichment clubs, including sports, choir and cooking
• Extensive pupil leadership roles such as social time rangers, school council and diversity ambassadors
• Community involvement through care home visits, food bank collections and charity events
• High-quality pastoral support that is systematically identified and provided
• Pupils are resilient, confident, kind, independent and respectful
• Positive attitudes to learning and strong staff-pupil relationships
• Clear behaviour expectations with effective handling of rare poor behaviour, bullying and discrimination
• Attendance is a shared priority and improving, including for pupils with SEND
• Engaging curriculum that builds logically from Reception to Year 6 with clear end points
• Well-established phonics scheme and effective reading interventions
• Early years provides a positive start with a calm environment and high-quality interactions
• Inclusion is central, with strong support for pupils with additional needs and disadvantaged pupils
• Leaders have an accurate understanding of strengths and priorities, supported effectively by the trust
• Staff wellbeing and workload are carefully managed, with effective professional learning

Areas for Improvement

• Achievement needs attention because attainment over time is below national expectations, including in national tests
• Too many pupils, especially disadvantaged pupils, leave without the skills and knowledge needed for the next stage
• Gaps in reading, writing and mathematics are not addressed with sufficient urgency
• Teacher questioning is sometimes not precise enough to identify misconceptions, which then become embedded
• Improvements to achievement are at an early stage and their impact is not yet evident across the school
• Attendance has improved but recent changes must be maintained so all pupils attend regularly
• Disadvantaged pupils have a wide performance gap in reading, writing, mathematics and the combined measure

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 Grove Park Primary School attended 94.4% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 13.3% 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, 1.0% of pupils at Grove Park Primary School were suspended at least once (nationally 1.1%). No pupils were 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 Grove Park Primary School had 19.7 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 21.4% 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, 15.8% of pupils at Grove Park Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 2.8% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

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 2024–25 Grove Park Primary School received £5,108 and spent £6,743 for each of its 400 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £728,000 (£1,819 per pupil).

Across all 4 schools of Bourne Alliance Multi Academy Trust, income was £8,479 and spending £8,618 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). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Sittingbourne · Kent local authority: places and applications

Grove Park Primary School is part of Bourne Alliance Multi Academy Trust, which runs 4 schools. The nearest others:

• Aspire School Sittingbourne
• Bobbing Village School Sittingbourne
• Iwade School Sittingbourne

What is Grove Park Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Grove Park Primary School is Needs attention, from an inspection in July 2026.

When was Grove Park Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Grove Park Primary School was last inspected in July 2026.

How many pupils does Grove Park Primary School have?

Grove Park Primary School has 392 pupils on roll.

What age range does Grove Park Primary School cover?

Grove Park Primary School for pupils aged 4 to 11.

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

In 2025, 43% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Grove Park Primary School?

Grove Park Primary School is at Hilton Drive, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME10 1PT.