About Us

Essex Primary School is a 4-form entry primary school in Manor Park, East London. Up to 120 children are admitted into each year group. There is also a 156-place Nursery, which means the school caters for 996 children from the ages of 3 till 11.

We are proud of all our former pupils, who include the famous businessman Sir Jack Petchey, Premier League football player Bobby Zamora, and Hollywood film star Greer Garson.

The majority of our children live in the local area. However, we do admit children from the wider community in order to accommodate children who are unable to attend their local school.

Essex Primary School has a proud history of educating children. The school was founded by Little Ilford School Board in 1898; it began its life as a board school, and took its name from Essex Road, where the original three-storey building had its entrance.

This photograph (above) was taken in 1906, and shows the original building. The photograph of children from Essex Road School (below) is dated 1920.

In 1929 the school was reorganised as a place for senior boys, junior boys and infants to receive their education. However, at the end of the Second World War in 1945, it was decided that Essex would instead educate secondary girls and infants.

A further change came about in 1952, when the secondary school was transferred to the new Rectory Manor building and Essex became a school for mixed-sex junior and infant children.The current school was built in 1977 for three forms of entry.

The Essex Infant and Junior school amalgamated in 1994 to form Essex Primary School.

In recent years it has undergone an extensive redesign and rebuild, thus providing an excellent academic environment with specific facilities for the teaching of art, technology, music and ICT. The school also has four large playgrounds, which have recently been refurbished and improved to include grass and garden areas.

Our new Resourced Provision was opened in 2013, focusing on delivering a specific educational programme for children identified with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The Resourced Provision has a state-of-the-art learning and teaching environment with highly trained staff who are well equipped to meet the exceptional needs of these children. Full details of the Resourced Provision are available here.

We are also proud at Essex to have a committed staff and governing body who ensure the school maintains a high level of teaching and learning.