Enfield Ofsted: 2 primaries strong in all 7 areas

Two Enfield primary schools have been graded strong standard in every area Ofsted now judges. Eastfield Primary School in Brimsdown and St Michael’s CofE Primary School on Brigadier Hill each received seven strong grades, with safeguarding standards met.

Their report cards are among six for Enfield primaries that Ofsted has published since 9 September. We read all six on the inspectorate’s reports site.

The six report cards

Ofsted’s new report cards grade schools on a five-point scale in each area: exceptional, strong standard, expected standard, needs attention and urgent improvement. Every school below met the safeguarding standards.

The seven areas are inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, early years, and leadership and governance.

Wolfson Hillel’s two exceptional grades, for personal development and wellbeing and for leadership and governance, are the result the school announced in September. Its report card is now public and confirms them. The other five areas are strong.

Eastfield: strong everywhere, in a school where half the pupils get free meals

Eastfield, on Eastfield Road in EN3, is part of the Ivy Learning Trust. It had 433 pupils when inspectors visited on 23 June, against a capacity of 428. Its report card puts the share of pupils eligible for free school meals at 49.27%, which Ofsted marks as well above average. The school also runs a specially resourced provision for pupils with autism.

Inspectors wrote that “staff are extremely ambitious for all pupils, whatever their starting points”. On achievement, they found that pupils, including those in the resourced provision, “make excellent progress from their starting points”. They described behaviour across the school as “excellent”.

St Michael’s: above-average results over time

St Michael’s had 436 pupils at its inspection on 30 June. Its free school meals figure is 19.21%, close to the national average. The report card says pupils’ results in national assessments “show a clear pattern of above-average attainment in reading, writing and mathematics”. It adds that the share reaching the expected and higher standards at the end of key stage 2 “is significantly above national figures”.

The only next step inspectors set is to keep building on that, including work on pupils’ mathematical problem-solving and reasoning.

The other three

• St John and St James CofE Primary, Grove Street, Edmonton. Strong for inclusion, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, and leadership and governance. Expected for curriculum and teaching, achievement and early years. Inspectors asked the school to strengthen early support for the youngest children with speech, language and communication needs.
• Freezywater St George’s CofE Primary, Hertford Road. Strong for attendance and behaviour, and for personal development and wellbeing. Expected in the other five areas. The report card says attendance “remains consistently above the national average”, but that pupils’ depth of knowledge across the wider curriculum is not yet consistent.
• Chase Side Primary, Trinity Street, Enfield Town. Strong for personal development and wellbeing, and expected in five areas. Attendance and behaviour is graded needs attention. Inspectors praised a “calm and nurturing environment” but found that “some pupils, including disadvantaged pupils, still miss too much school”. Their first next step is for leaders to make sure their attendance work “leads to rapid reductions in absence, including persistent absence, for all pupil groups”.

Needs attention is the fourth of the five grades. Ofsted defines it as expected standards not being met, but with leaders “likely able to make the necessary improvements”.

How this compares

When we looked at the borough’s first report cards in September, no Enfield primary had been graded strong in every area. The best were strong in most. Eastfield and St Michael’s are the first we have found with a clean set of strong grades, and Wolfson Hillel is still the only Enfield primary with an exceptional grade.

One more Enfield school page changed in the same window, but it is not an inspection. Hadley Wood Primary School has converted to an academy in the Attigo Academy Trust. Ofsted’s 7 October notice is the standard letter for a new academy that has not yet been inspected.

What it means for you

• Choosing a primary for September 2027? Reception applications in England close on 15 January each year, and Enfield families apply through eAdmissions. Each school’s full report card, including its test results and absence figures against the national average, is on the Ofsted link in the table above.
• The grades are a snapshot. Each report covers one inspection visit between April and July 2026. Chase Side was inspected in April and its report card was not published until September.
• Term dates and closures. Our Enfield school term dates page has this year’s holidays. Separately, the council is proposing to consult on closing three primary schools as pupil numbers fall; none of the six schools above is among them.