Updated May 2019

Entries on this page include the OFSTED Grade for each Primary School updated twice a year, also recording change from previous Inspection result, together with some other relevant information below. It is worth using the search engine on the Home Page to pick up other references to individual schools.

You will find advice on Primary school Admissions and Appeals here. 

You can read the full Report on each Primary School at OFSTED. Each school is awarded a main Grade: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement (previously Satisfactory), and Inadequate (two sub categories - A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better - A school that requires special measures is one where the school is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school). Each Report carries a brief description of the school before justifying its decision in more detail. If a school is in Special Measures or Serious Weaknesses, the results of further monitoring visits are noted.

A majority of the schools that have previously had a 'Good' or 'Outstanding' assessment are given a Short Inspection (known as Section 8). These are indicated by 'Good (S). These will be confirmed in their assessment grade. However for some of these schools, the Inspection Team may consider that there are concerns, or in the case of a Good school, grounds for raising the Grade and this can only be done by a full Section Five Grade. These are recorded for example as  'Outstanding (SC) or 'Good (SR). 

You will find an analysis of oversubscription and vacancies for  Maidstone and District Primary Places for September 2018 Admissions here, for 2017 here, and for 2016 here.

You will find a good website to provide a host of factual data about individual Kent schools here.

Reports on Inspections between between September 2018 and February 2019  are in the first table, followed by other tables containing older ones.

(A) Indicates the school is an Academy (2017 onwards) 

   * No previous inspection for eight years

You will find an article referring to Drapers Mills here. 

Extract from Thanet Section of article about Oversubscription and Vacancies in Kent Primary Schools in 2015: "Just threeschools at the north or Margate end of Thanet have vacancies, Garlinge, which appears to have few problems, with 34, and two schools disastrously run by Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT), Drapers Mills with 43 and Salmestone with four. All the other eight schools are turning away first choices".

Information from Oversubscription Survey of Kent primary schools, for entry September 2014.

Thanet has also been a pressure point for years with parents trying to avoid a number of low performing or OFSTED failed schools. The polarisation of choice is very sharp here, with Priory Infants turning away 42 first choices, followed by Palm Bay and St Crispin’s Infants (35) and Holy Trinity and St John’s CofE (25) and Callis Grange Infants, also 25. Just four schools have all 112 vacancies between them, Bromstone, Dame Janet Academy, Drapers Mill and Garlinge. These four schools also have the large majority of the 94 Local Authority Allocations.

 Critical OFSTED Report on TKAT, the Academy Trust responsible for: Dame Janet; Drapers Mills; Newlands; Northdown; Salmestone published July

* Newlands is now an academy run by The Kemnal Academies Trust, along with  Northdwon and Salmestone. Since conversion its OFSTED reating has declined from satisfactory to Serious Weaknesses

Pre September 2012 Reports

Admission Issues for September 2012 Entry (written March 2012)

Although pressure on Primary School places in Thanet is just as serious as in other parts of the county, it is often not considered by the media and others, as some parts  of the county clearly have a higher profile.

The 2009 KCC paper forecast there would be no vacant spaces in Thanet for 2011. Thanet divides into two for KCC purposes, a north end, centred on Margate, and a south end around Ramsgate. Most pressures come in the south. Most problems in the north were dissipated in 2011 by adding in 30 places at Drapers Mill Primary School. For 2012 entry, KCC  has added in another 60 places in three schools resulting in 93 free places and a reduction of 11 to 37 allocations.

However, in south Thanet, the situation is far tighter. For 2011 entry, another 15 places were introduced at Bromstone Primary School, allowing 23 children to be allocated to the school who had not applied for it, leaving a total of just  23 places free. In total 40 children were allocated places by KCC.

For 2012, a further 60 places were provided, 30 each at Callis Grange Nursery and Infant School and Newlands Primary School. Even with this input, there were just 8 places free across the whole area, 7 at Bromstone Primary. 65 places were allocated to the only three schools that would in any case have had vacancies, Newlands, Bromstone and Dame Janet Community Infant. One has to ask why it is that across the county a high proportion of those schools being expanded are amongst the least popular.  Once again one senses that KCC is reduced to providing sufficient school places in the area, without regard to their suitability to try and match parental choice.