The wider Hampshire county has more than 17 thousand children set to take their first step into education in the coming weeks - as they begin at a brand new primary school.
This year’s summer holiday period has flown by, and the 2025/26 school year is almost here for families across England. Pupils will head back to the classroom around September 3 across much of Hampshire, including thousands of new starters entering Reception classes.
The primary years are vital for helping children lay a solid groundwork of school skills, which they will rely on throughout the rest of their time in education and beyond. With this in mind, we’ve taken a closer look at the state-funded primary schools across the Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton council areas that have excelled at setting their pupils up for future success, using our own unique metric.
The key figure it draws on the proportion of each school’s pupils that completed Year 6 in the most recently-available school year (currently 2023/24), and met the Government’s expected standards in three essential school skills areas; reading, writing and maths. This data has now been finalised, so it is worth noting that results and placings may differ slightly from earlier reports based on interim results.
But performance isn’t the only marker of an excellent learning environment, so we also limited our list to schools with a positive rating in their latest Ofsted inspection. These are going through some big changes, but we’ve restricted the list to schools with either a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ overall grade under the previous system, or positive ratings across all categories under the current one. This means their quality of education, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and safeguarding practices all met or exceeded government standards.
Here were the 23 Hampshire schools that came out on top:
5. Mansel Park Primary & Nursery School
Mansel Park is a local authority-maintained primary school in Southampton. It has about 380 pupils, and was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 88% of its pupils also met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths – compared to averages of 56% within the city, and 61% nationally. | Google
6. Saint Lawrence Church of England Primary School
Saint Lawrence is a local authority-maintained Anglican primary school in Alton, with about 210 pupils. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 88% of its pupils again met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths – compared to averages of 60% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
7. Sheet Primary School
This is a local authority-maintained primary school in Sheet, near Petersfield. It has a roll size of about 109, and in a recent Ofsted inspection, was found to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ in all categories. In the 2023/24 school year, it too had 88% of its pupils meet the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths – compared to averages of 60% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
8. St Joseph's Catholic Primary School
St Joseph’s is a Catholic primary academy in Aldershot, with about 487 pupils. It was most recently rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 88% of its pupils also met the Government’s expected standard in reading, writing, and maths – compared to averages of 60% locally and 61% nationally. | Google