Maidstone schools: the first Ofsted report card grades

Five Maidstone schools have now been inspected under Ofsted’s new report cards, and all five met the safeguarding standard. Two carry a “needs attention” flag, one on attendance and one on results, and one primary was judged at the second-highest grade in six of its seven areas.

The five are Valley Invicta Primary School at East Borough on Vinters Road, Jubilee Primary School on Gatland Lane, East Farleigh Primary School, St Augustine Academy on Oakwood Road and St Simon Stock Catholic School at Oakwood Park. Between them they teach about 2,850 children. Every grade below comes from the school’s own published report.

There is no overall grade any more

If you are looking for a single word, there is not one. Ofsted stopped awarding an overall effectiveness grade, and its 2026 reports grade each area of a school separately on a five-point scale that the reports print in full: exceptional, strong standard, expected standard, needs attention and urgent improvement. Safeguarding sits outside the scale and is recorded only as met or not met.

The wording matters most in the middle. Ofsted defines expected standard as meaning the school “is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care”, following what legislation and professional standards require. It is the benchmark a school is supposed to hit, not a near miss. Strong standard means “leaders are working above the standard expected of them”, and needs attention means “the expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements”.

That last one has a practical consequence. Ofsted says it carries out monitoring inspections of schools with any area graded needs attention or urgent improvement, so those schools will be revisited rather than left for the usual four-year cycle.

Valley Invicta at East Borough: strong in six of seven

Valley Invicta Primary School at East Borough, a 445-pupil primary on Vinters Road, was inspected on 31 March and its report was published on 20 May. It took strong standard in curriculum and teaching, attendance and behaviour, personal development and wellbeing, inclusion, leadership and governance, and early years, with achievement at expected standard.

The achievement section explains why that last one is not higher. Inspectors record that outcomes in national tests “have been significantly above average in recent years”, but that attainment for disadvantaged pupils at the end of key stage 2 has been broadly similar to disadvantaged pupils nationally, and that the gap “has not consistently narrowed”. Pupils in the school’s specially resourced provision, the report says, “sometimes make remarkable progress reintegrating with mainstream classes”.

Jubilee Primary: strong on achievement

Jubilee Primary School on Gatland Lane, an academy of 386 pupils taking children from age two, was inspected on 31 March and reported on 10 July. Achievement, inclusion and personal development and wellbeing were graded strong standard; curriculum and teaching, attendance and behaviour, leadership and governance and early years were at expected standard.

Inspectors write that pupils “often from low starting points” make substantial progress, that key stage 2 outcomes are “particularly positive” and that “disadvantaged pupils achieve highly”.

East Farleigh Primary: needs attention on attendance

East Farleigh Primary School on Vicarage Lane, with 199 pupils, was inspected on 9 June and reported on 16 July. Curriculum and teaching, early years, inclusion and personal development and wellbeing were graded strong standard, with achievement and leadership and governance at expected standard.

Attendance and behaviour was graded needs attention, and the report is specific about which half of that heading is the problem. On behaviour it says “pupils behave well”, the school is “calm and orderly” and staff deal with infrequent bullying quickly. On attendance it says disadvantaged pupils “do not attend school consistently well enough” and too many are persistently absent, while noting that overall attendance is broadly in line with national averages over time and that action already taken has improved attendance among pupils with special educational needs.

St Simon Stock: expected standard across the board

St Simon Stock Catholic School at Oakwood Park, the largest of the five with 1,148 pupils and an 11 to 18 age range, was inspected on 13 January and reported on 2 March. Inclusion was graded strong standard. Achievement, attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching, leadership and governance, personal development and wellbeing and post-16 provision were all at expected standard.

St Augustine Academy: needs attention on achievement

St Augustine Academy on Oakwood Road, an 11 to 16 school of 673 pupils, was inspected on 3 March and reported on 8 May. Five of its six areas were graded expected standard. Achievement was graded needs attention, with inspectors recording that attainment and progress in national examinations “have been below national averages over time, including for disadvantaged pupils”.

The same section credits the school with “effective action to address previous weaknesses in the consistency of teaching”, says that is starting to show in how pupils progress through the curriculum, and reports that disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs “typically achieve well from their individual starting points”. Its main criticism is that assessment information is not used consistently to correct errors, “which means that some pupils make the same mistakes over time”.

What it means for you

If you are choosing a school, read the areas rather than counting the grades. A report card is closer to a set of subject marks than to a single verdict, and the areas are not interchangeable: attendance graded needs attention at a school where inspectors say behaviour is good tells you something quite different from results graded needs attention at a school whose teaching is improving.

Two habits are worth keeping. First, check the inspection date, not the publication date. Schools inspected between September 2024 and the 2026 change carry the older sub-judgements with no overall grade, and anything older still carries a full Outstanding to Inadequate rating, so three different systems are in circulation at once and are not comparable. Second, read the report itself rather than a summary of it. All of them are free on Ofsted’s report finder, which lets you search by town or postcode.

If a school’s grades are part of a decision about where to live, our page on Maidstone house prices sets out what homes in the borough actually sell for, using Land Registry figures rather than asking prices.

Two independent schools in Maidstone were also inspected this year, Serenity School Maidstone in February and King’s Reach Education in April. Independent schools are inspected against a different set of standards and are not directly comparable with the report cards above.