Marine Park Primary School

Marine Park Primary School is a warm, welcoming community school where pupils feel safe, happy and a strong sense of belonging. Safeguarding standards are met. Attendance, behaviour and personal development are secure: pupils behave well, attendance is improving through recent work, and pupils value the school's work on diversity, British values, healthy relationships and staying safe. The school is part of the Tyne and Wear Learning Trust, has a high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals (61.4%) and SEN support (28.9%), and serves an area of well-above-average deprivation. Governors and trustees provide effective support and challenge. However, several important areas require further development. Achievement is uneven: key stage 2 outcomes are mixed, early reading and phonics are not yet securing fluency, and mathematics has historically been weak, although recent curriculum improvements are beginning to show. Curriculum oversight is not sharp enough in some subjects, with discrete-block teaching making it harder for pupils to remember and connect learning. Early years children are happy and well cared for, but too few leave ready for the next stage because starting points have not been used swiftly enough. Inclusion is a particular concern: support plans for pupils with SEND, EAL and other barriers are not precise, provision is inconsistent, and leaders do not monitor effectiveness well. Leadership actions are recent, monitoring is less precise, and impact is not yet evident in outcomes. The school has solid foundations in safeguarding, attendance, behaviour and personal development, but leaders must sharpen curriculum, early reading, SEND provision and evaluation to secure better outcomes.

Strengths

• Pupils feel happy, safe and a strong sense of belonging in a warm, welcoming school.
• Safeguarding standards are met and pupils trust staff to act on concerns.
• Pupils behave well, are courteous and respectful, and bullying is rare and dealt with swiftly.
• Recent work has improved attendance, including for persistently absent pupils, and disadvantaged pupils and those with SEND attend well.
• Personal development is strong: pupils learn British values, diversity, healthy relationships and how to stay safe online and offline.
• Pupils, including those with SEND and disadvantaged pupils, take part in extra-curricular clubs and community trips.
• Governors and trustees meet statutory duties and provide effective support and challenge to leaders.
• Staff wellbeing and workload are generally considered, and staff receive training to improve their practice.
• Mathematics teaching is clear, misconceptions are addressed effectively, and pupils achieve consistently well in the Year 4 multiplication tables check.
• Some subjects, such as Spanish, have a more effective curriculum and secure long-term learning.
• Older pupils generally have high expectations for presentation and produce good work.

Areas for Improvement

• Outcomes at the end of key stage 2 are mixed and not consistently strong over time.
• Pupils in early years and key stage 1 do not learn to read fluently, and phonics screening results have not yet improved.
• Mathematics outcomes have historically been weak, although recent improvements are starting to show.
• Leaders lack clear oversight of curriculum quality in some subjects and do not regularly check how well pupils are learning.
• Subjects such as history and art are taught in discrete blocks that are not revisited, so pupils struggle to remember and connect learning.
• Teacher questioning is sometimes imprecise, so pupils do not always understand what they are being asked.
• Too few children leave early years ready for the next stage because starting points have not been used swiftly enough.
• Some Nursery children are not given enough time to revisit and embed skills before moving on.
• Inclusion processes are not monitored and reviewed precisely enough to ensure they are effective.
• Teachers do not have accurate support plans for each pupil, so support in class is inconsistent.
• Curriculum changes are not consistently matched to the needs of pupils with SEND, EAL and other barriers, including in early years.
• Leaders do not always check how effective additional funding is in removing barriers for disadvantaged pupils.
• Leaders' monitoring of priorities is less precise, and some actions have not led to improvement.
• Leaders' actions have not been sharply focused on removing barriers for pupils with SEND, EAL or other barriers to learning.
• Extra-curricular and wider-experience engagement is not precisely tracked, so barriers to attendance are not fully understood.
• Persistent absence is above the national average.
• Recent improvements are too new to show impact on pupils' outcomes.

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 Marine Park Primary School attended 94.3% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 16.5% 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 Marine 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 Marine Park Primary School had 20.6 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 20.0% 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, 28.0% of pupils at Marine Park Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 2.6% 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.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in South Shields · South Tyneside local authority: places and applications

Marine Park Primary School is part of Tyne and Wear Learning Trust, which runs 6 schools. The nearest others:

• Dunn Street Primary School Jarrow
• Whitburn Village Primary School Sunderland
• East Herrington Primary Academy Sunderland
• Barnwell Academy Houghton Le Spring
• Hetton Lyons Primary School Houghton Le Spring

What is Marine Park Primary School's Ofsted rating?

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

When was Marine Park Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Marine Park Primary School was last inspected in July 2026.

How many pupils does Marine Park Primary School have?

Marine Park Primary School has 193 pupils on roll.

What age range does Marine Park Primary School cover?

Marine Park Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

Where is Marine Park Primary School?

Marine Park Primary School is at Hatfield Square, Woodbine Estate, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, NE33 2RD.