Barlby Primary School

Barlby Primary School is situated in North Kensington and serves a very mixed cultural and religious community. There are currently 320 children on roll and 40 members of staff.

All members of the school community have worked together to improve the quality of provision to the current levels and are proud of the achievements that we have made. We are particularly proud of the progress and achievements that our children make as they move through the school. Our children have most recently achieved results that place Barlby in the top 5% for value added for schools across the country.


Characteristics of the Local Area

Barlby Primary School is in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. 53% of primary age children resident in the borough are educated privately.

The two main catchment areas for our school are the St Charles Ward and Golborne Ward. Both wards are ranked in the top 10% of most deprived wards nationally and are part of the national initiative Neighbourhood Renewal Project. The school’s population is heavily weighted to low income families. The parents’ attitude to education, ability to support their child and commitment to working together with the school to ensure their child achieves, are lower than generally experienced elsewhere.


Characteristics of Children Attending Barlby Primary School

Of the children presently on roll:

• 56% are entitled to free school meals
• 56% speak English as an additional language (26 languages are spoken)
• 74% from ethnic minority backgrounds
• 29% are from refugee families
• 19% are registered on the SEN register
• 29% of learners leave outside normal school hours on at least one day a week
• 13% of learners started or left Barlby outside normal entry times (pupil mobility).


The children’s attainment on entry to the school has generally been low compared to both national and borough average.


School Organisation

As a result of the DfES standard number (45 per year group), the school is organised as follows:

• Foundation Stage
• One Nursery (September and January intakes)
• Two Reception classes (September and January intakes)
• Key Stage One
• One single age class in Years One and Two
• One mixed age class
• Key Stage Two
• One single age class in Years Three and Four and one mixed age class
• One single age class in Years Five and Six and one mixed age class


The school is part of several national and local initiatives including

• Excellence in Cities (Learning Mentor Strand)
• Behaviour Improvement Programme
• SEAL Programme
• Barlby Primary School first received the Basic Skills Agency Quality Mark in July 2002. This has been renewed in July 2005.
• The school was awarded a Healthy School Award in October 2006 and an Activemark in December 2006.
• We are currently awaiting confirmation of the Artsmark Gold Award.