Columbia Primary School
Tower Hamlets, E2 7RG · Tower Hamlets local authority
Tower Hamlets’s School Grade A better than 88% of towns in England
What stands out about Columbia Primary School
- Its own letter, A+: Key Stage 2 results better than 97% of England’s primary schools
- 86% meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, 24 points above England’s schools
- Ofsted: Good, July 2023 (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (43 of 43)
- Homes in its postcode sector (E2 7) sold for a median £567,500; Tower Hamlets’s is £500,000
Results
DfE · Key Stage 2Reading, writing and maths 86%
Met the expected standard, DfE’s 3-year average 2023–2025 · higher than 97% of England’s 14,979 graded primaries · Tower Hamlets avg 70%
Each subject, 2025
Met the expected standard; the mark is England’s schools · average scaled score: reading 111, maths 109 (100 = the expected standard)
Disadvantaged pupils, 2025
Met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths: the 20 disadvantaged pupils and the rest, beside England’s schools
England’s figures are of its graded mainstream state schools, each school counted once; grammar schools are included, which is why the right-hand tail is long. Small cohorts are suppressed.
How hard is it to get a place at Columbia Primary School?
Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2019 (11), 2021 (23), 2022 (7), 2025 (1). The council runs the coordinated admissions; each school’s rules (siblings, distance, faith) decide who gets in. DfE doesn’t publish the furthest distance offered, so check the council’s admissions booklet for that. The Letta Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Tower Hamlets council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places · the 10 most in demand
100% got their first choice
Tower Hamlets and Tower Hamlets, side by side
2023–2025All 64 graded primaries in Tower Hamlets. Schools with more pupils on free school meals usually score lower, so a school above the crowd for its free school meals is doing better than its intake predicts. Tower Hamlets’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | KS2 expected standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canary Wharf Primary, Glenworth | A+ | 11% | 89% |
| Columbia Primary School | A+ | 25% | 86% |
| Bigland Green Primary School | A+ | 35% | 84% |
| Globe Primary School | A | 37% | 82% |
| Mayflower Primary School | A | 39% | 82% |
| Stewart Headlam Primary School | A | 27% | 82% |
| Old Palace Primary School | A | 30% | 81% |
| Blue Gate Fields Junior School | A | 38% | 81% |
| St Peter's London Docks CofE Primary School | A | 20% | 81% |
| St Agnes RC Primary School | A | 34% | 80% |
| Sir William Burrough Primary School | A | 31% | 80% |
| Stebon Primary School | A | 43% | 80% |
| William Davis Primary School | A | 48% | 79% |
| Virginia Primary School | A | 37% | 79% |
| Canary Wharf Primary, East Ferry | A | 9% | 78% |
| Osmani Primary School | A | 41% | 77% |
| Bygrove Primary School | A | 50% | 77% |
| Cayley Primary School | A | 56% | 76% |
| Kobi Nazrul Primary School | A | 46% | 76% |
| Stepney Park Primary School | A− | 48% | 75% |
| St Edmund's Catholic School | A− | 20% | 75% |
| St Paul's Whitechapel Church of England Primary School | A− | 32% | 75% |
| Bangabandhu Primary School | A− | 65% | 74% |
| Solebay Primary - A Paradigm Academy | A− | 39% | 74% |
| Lawdale Junior School | A− | 57% | 73% |
| Manorfield Primary School | A− | 54% | 73% |
| St Mary and St Michael Primary School | A− | 42% | 73% |
| John Scurr Primary School | A− | 42% | 72% |
| Marner Primary School | A− | 53% | 72% |
| Harry Gosling Primary School | A− | 41% | 72% |
| Culloden Primary - A Paradigm Academy | A− | 37% | 71% |
| Wellington Primary School | B+ | 44% | 70% |
| Old Ford Primary - A Paradigm Academy | B+ | 53% | 70% |
| The Clara Grant Primary School | B+ | 49% | 70% |
| St John's Church of England Primary School | B+ | 67% | 69% |
| St Anne's and Guardian Angels Catholic Primary School | B+ | 43% | 69% |
| Ben Jonson Primary School | B+ | 41% | 68% |
| Mowlem Primary School | B+ | 45% | 68% |
| Woolmore Primary School | B+ | 50% | 68% |
| Cyril Jackson Primary School | B+ | 36% | 68% |
| Hague Primary School | B | 34% | 67% |
| Christ Church CofE School | B | 36% | 67% |
| Lansbury Lawrence Primary School | B | 50% | 67% |
| St Paul With St Luke CofE Primary Federation | B | 52% | 66% |
| Malmesbury Primary School | B | 49% | 66% |
| Seven Mills Primary School | B | 48% | 65% |
| Our Lady and St Joseph Catholic Primary School | B | 44% | 65% |
| St Paul's Way Trust School | B | 51% | 65% |
| Thomas Buxton Primary School | B− | 51% | 64% |
| Hermitage Primary School | B− | 43% | 64% |
| Halley Primary School | B− | 32% | 63% |
| Bonner Primary School | B− | 41% | 62% |
| Marion Richardson Primary School | B− | 41% | 62% |
| Chisenhale Primary School | B− | 20% | 61% |
| Cubitt Town Primary School | B− | 56% | 61% |
| English Martyrs Roman Catholic Primary School | B− | 27% | 61% |
| St Luke's Church of England Primary School | C+ | 37% | 59% |
| St Saviour's Church of England Primary School | C+ | 45% | 59% |
| Olga Primary School | C+ | 33% | 58% |
| Stepney Greencoat Church of England Primary School | C+ | 34% | 58% |
| Arnhem Wharf Primary School | C+ | 48% | 58% |
| Harbinger Primary School | C | 47% | 56% |
| Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary Academy | C | 37% | 54% |
| St Elizabeth Catholic Primary School | D | 49% | 45% |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025427 pupils. SEN support is extra help in school for a special educational need; an EHC plan is the council’s legal plan for pupils who need more.
Girls and boys
Columbia Primary School’s letter
Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.
How school letters are worked out
Each school’s measure is compared with every graded school in England of the same phase: for primaries, the share of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (DfE’s three-year average); for secondaries, Attainment 8 and the share with grade 5 or above in English and maths, each turned into a z-score against England’s schools and averaged. The letter comes from the share of those schools it beats, in the same bands as every grade on the site. The same method gives U.S. schools their letters, against their own state.
Graded: England’s open mainstream state schools with published results (grammar schools included, which select by test). Not graded: special schools, alternative provision, nurseries, 16–19 colleges, UTCs and studio schools, Welsh schools. Ofsted plays no part.
Ofsted inspections
Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.
Graded inspection: Good, July 2023.
Living near Columbia Primary School
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in E2 7, the school’s postcode sector
Tower Hamlets property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in E2 7 sell for a little over Tower Hamlets’s typical price. HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales. Catchments aren’t published, so the postcode sector stands in for “around the school”.
Schools within 1.6 miles
86 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Tower Hamlets, E2 7RG
Columbia Primary School: common questions
Is Columbia Primary School a good school?
By its published results, well above average: its Key Stage 2 results are better than 97% of England’s primary schools (its letter is A+), with 86% of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, against 62% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Good, July 2023.
How hard is it to get into Columbia Primary School?
For September 2026, 43 families put Columbia Primary School first and all of them were offered a place; 48 places were offered in all.
What is Columbia Primary School’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Good (July 2023).
How much do houses cost near Columbia Primary School?
Homes in its postcode sector, E2 7, sold for a median £567,500 over the 36 months to August 2026 (200 sales).
Sources: DfE Get Information about Schools (16 October 2026), Key Stage 2 performance tables (2023–2025, three-year average) and Key Stage 4 (2025/26, provisional); Ofsted state-funded school inspections as at 30 September 2026. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Also: DfE Key Stage 4 performance, schools data (2023/24 and 2024/25 final, 2025/26 provisional) and Key Stage 2 performance tables 2024/25 by subject; DfE school census, January 2025; DfE school-level applications and offers, September 2019 to 2026 entry; HM Land Registry Price Paid by postcode sector, 2010 to August 2026.
A school’s letter is our own summary of its published results against England’s schools of the same phase; Tower Hamlets’s School Grade is a separate grade, built from the results of the schools in and around the town against other towns. Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.