The 10 highest-rated state primary schools in Surrey

Surrey contains eleven local authority areas — Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Guildford, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Tandridge, Waverley, and Woking — and close to 300 state-funded primary schools registered on the Department for Education’s GIAS (Get Information About Schools) database. The county ranks consistently among the higher-performing areas in England on primary attainment measures, but the picture is not uniform: top-rated schools cluster in particular postcodes, inspection dates vary by years, and the 2024 Ofsted framework change means ratings from different eras are not directly comparable.

This post explains how the ranking is built, what data it draws on, and why the inspection era matters as much as the rating itself when you are using school data to inform a move.

How the ranking works

The ranking below is drawn from Ofsted inspection records held in the GIAS register, filtered to state-funded primary schools within Surrey’s eleven local authority areas, ordered by the most recent overall effectiveness judgement and, within that tier, by the date of the most recent inspection (more recent inspections weighted higher).

Important caveat on inspection eras. On 2 September 2024 the Department for Education abolished the single-word overall effectiveness grade for new inspections. Schools inspected before that date still carry their original headline grade (Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, Inadequate) until their next scheduled inspection. Schools inspected between September 2024 and November 2025 carry four sub-judgement grades but no overall headline. Schools inspected from November 2025 onward carry the new multi-area report card on a five-point scale.

This means any ranking that mixes inspection eras is not a clean comparison. The table below flags the inspection era for each school so you can read it with that context in mind.

Surrey’s top-rated state primary schools

The live ranking table is drawn from Ofsted and GIAS data. The ranked list is updated as new inspection records are published.

Inspection dates and ratings are sourced from Ofsted reports — verify each at reports.ofsted.gov.uk before relying on them.

#	School	District	Ofsted Rating	Latest Inspection	Framework
1	Pewley Down Infant School	Guildford	Outstanding	July 2024	Pre-Sep 2024
2	Pyrford C of E Primary	Woking	Outstanding	June 2024	Pre-Sep 2024
3	Reigate Priory Community Junior	Reigate and Banstead	Outstanding	June 2024	Pre-Sep 2024
4	St Peter’s Catholic Primary	Mole Valley	Outstanding	June 2024	Pre-Sep 2024
5	St Hugh of Lincoln Catholic Primary	Woking	Outstanding	May 2024	Pre-Sep 2024
6	St Michael Catholic Primary & Nursery	Spelthorne	Outstanding	May 2024	Pre-Sep 2024
7	South Farnham School	Waverley	Outstanding	May 2024	Pre-Sep 2024
8	Long Ditton St Mary’s CofE Junior	Elmbridge	Outstanding	March 2024	Pre-Sep 2024
9	Connaught Junior School	Surrey Heath	Outstanding	May 2023	Pre-Sep 2024
10	New Haw Community Junior	Runnymede	Outstanding	February 2023	Pre-Sep 2024

The full ranked list — with each school’s postcode, most recent inspection report link, and the inspection era flag — is included in any Area Report covering a Surrey postcode. The report shows the five nearest primary schools in each direction from your postcode, which gives a more useful read than a county-wide league table for a specific buying decision.

What a top Ofsted rating actually covers

An “Outstanding” or equivalent top-band rating on a state primary school reflects the inspection team’s judgement at the time of the visit across four or more dimensions depending on the era:

Under the pre-2024 framework: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management were each rated on the old four-point scale, with an overall headline derived from these.

Under the new report card (from November 2025): the areas expand to include curriculum, achievement, behaviour, attendance, inclusion and SEND provision, and early reading. Each is rated on a five-point scale. Safeguarding is graded separately as met or not met.

The curriculum and achievement grades are the closest proxy to academic outcomes and worth reading closely. Inclusion and SEND provision is a new explicit area — schools that previously received clean headline grades while under-serving pupils with additional needs can no longer absorb that shortfall inside a single-word summary.

Why inspection date matters more than the rating

Several of the highest-rated schools in Surrey carry “Outstanding” grades from inspections conducted before 2020. Under the framework in force between 2012 and November 2020, schools awarded “Outstanding” were exempt from routine re-inspection — meaning some schools went eight to twelve years without an Ofsted visit. When routine inspections resumed from 2021, a number of formerly-exempt Outstanding schools were downgraded, in some cases to “Requires Improvement.”

A school carrying an “Outstanding” from 2016 is not the same data point as a school carrying a top-band rating from a 2024 or 2025 inspection. Both may be excellent; only the more recent one can be verified against the current staff, curriculum, and cohort.

When reading the ranking table, pay attention to the inspection date column as much as the rating column.

Catchment is not permanent

Places at Surrey’s most sought-after primaries are competitive, and admission is decided by each school’s published oversubscription criteria — typically home-to-school distance, catchment, siblings, and faith where relevant. A property described by an agent as “in catchment for X Primary” reflects a historical pattern — not a guarantee. Catchment boundaries can shift year-on-year when a school is oversubscribed and admits fewer pupils from a wider area, when new housing changes local pupil numbers, or when the local authority redraws admission priority zones.

The correct check is the school’s current published admissions policy, held by the relevant local authority admissions authority or the school itself. Admissions policies for 2026-27 entry are available from each local authority’s admissions team.

The five nearest schools matter more than the county list

A county-wide ranking is a useful orientation but the directly useful question for a buying decision is: which state primary schools are within practical distance of the postcode I am considering, how recently were they inspected, and what does each report say?

The Area Report for any Surrey postcode returns the five nearest primary schools in each direction, each with their current inspection data, the inspection era flag, and a link to the full Ofsted report. The county ranking above answers the question “which Surrey primaries are rated highest?” — the Area Report answers “what are the schools actually near this address?”

A note on independent primary schools

This ranking covers state-funded primary schools registered in GIAS. Surrey also has a significant number of independent preparatory schools, inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) rather than Ofsted. ISI inspection outcomes use different terminology and a different framework — they are not comparable with Ofsted ratings. Independent schools are excluded from this ranking.

Methodology sources

• School data: DfE GIAS register (gov.uk/get-information-about-schools), filtered to state-funded primary schools in Surrey local authority areas
• Inspection data: Ofsted inspection outcomes published at reports.ofsted.gov.uk
• Rating era classification: Based on inspection publication date relative to the September 2024 and November 2025 framework changes
• Ranking approach: Most recent overall effectiveness judgement (where published), with inspection date as tiebreaker; inspection era flagged explicitly per school

Full methodology at /methodology/schools.

---

Surrey’s primary school landscape is one of the stronger ones in England — the county has above-average proportions of schools rated good or outstanding across its local authority areas. But “Surrey has good schools” is a county-level observation; it does not tell you which schools are nearest to a specific postcode, how recently each was inspected, or whether the catchment pattern makes a particular address relevant to a particular school. That part of the picture requires a postcode-level lookup.

Home-Checker’s Area Report covers schools alongside crime, flood risk, air quality, broadband and the property market for any English postcode — £24.99.

This article is general information only. It is not legal, educational, or property advice. Always verify school admissions policies directly with the relevant local authority before making any property purchase decision based on school catchments.

Data sources: DfE GIAS register; Ofsted inspection records; Ofcom Connected Nations; HMLR Price Paid Data. School ranking data updated as new Ofsted inspection records are published.