Cedar Hall School
Hart Road, Thundersley, Benfleet, SS7 3UQ
- Phase
- Special schools
- School type
- Foundation special school
- Ages
- 4 to 16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Headteacher
- Mr Nicholas Maxwell
- SEN provision
- MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty
- Constituency
- Castle Point
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 156
- Pupils on roll
- 189
- URN
- 115457
- Local authority
- Essex
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01268774723
About this school
Cedar Hall School is a foundation special school in Benfleet. It teaches children aged 4 to 16 and has 189 pupils on roll.
Ofsted has inspected Cedar Hall School, and its latest judgement is set out below. Where the Department for Education has published them, its results and pupil characteristics appear below. Numbers and a report only go so far, so visit in person before you apply.
Ofsted judgement
Ofsted did not give an overall grade. Between September 2024 and September 2025 inspections graded each area of a school's work without a single overall judgement, ahead of the move to report cards. How Ofsted report cards work
- Quality of education
- Requires improvement
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Good
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Requires improvement
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 2 (end of primary school)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 2 | 11 | 11 | 13 |
| Met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Reached the higher standard in reading, writing and maths | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Expected standard in reading | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Expected standard in maths | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Expected standard in grammar, punctuation and spelling | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Average scaled score in reading | - | - | - |
| Average scaled score in maths | - | - | - |
| Reading progress | -5.10 | - | - |
| Writing progress | -2.30 | - | - |
| Maths progress | -4.30 | - | - |
Progress measures ended nationally after the 2022/23 school year, when the key stage 1 assessments they were based on were stopped. Blank progress figures in later years are not missing school data.
Key stage 4 (GCSEs)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 4 | 22 | 24 | 25 |
| Attainment 8 score | 1.0 | 5.1 | 0.7 |
| Progress 8 score | -1.57 -2.17 to -0.96 | -1.42 -2.03 to -0.82 | - |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 0% | 4.2% | 0% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 0% | 4.2% | 0% |
| Entered the English Baccalaureate | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| English Baccalaureate average point score | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
Progress 8 is paused nationally for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 school years. Those pupils sat no key stage 2 tests during the Covid pandemic, so there is no starting point to measure progress from. A blank figure here is not missing school data.
Trends over time
How Cedar Hall School has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Essex average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 0% | 58.9% | 57.9% |
| 2023/24 | 0% | 59.5% | 58.8% |
| 2024/25 | 0% | 60.7% | 60.3% |
Department for Education KS2 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | Essex average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 1 | 43.8 | 39.8 |
| 2023/24 | 5.1 | 41.6 | 39.5 |
| 2024/25 | 0.7 | 42.2 | 39 |
Department for Education KS4 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 10.6% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 9.5% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 10.9% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 169 |
| 2023/24 | 180 |
| 2024/25 | 186 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
Inspection history
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 35.48%
- English as an additional language
- 2.2%
- Overall absence
- 10.89%
- Persistent absence
- 30.85%
Location
Nearby schools
-
Glenwood School1.9 miles
Special schools · Benfleet
-
Omnia Foundation2.0 miles
Special schools
-
St. Michael's School2.7 miles
Independent schools
-
The St Christopher School3.2 miles
Academies · Leigh-on-Sea
-
Kingsdown School3.3 miles
Academies · Southend-on-Sea
Other schools in Benfleet
- Glenwood School Special schools
- Hadleigh Infant and Nursery School Primary
- Hadleigh Junior School Primary
- Holy Family Catholic Primary School Primary
- Jotmans Hall Primary School Primary
- Kents Hill Infant Academy Primary
- Kents Hill Junior School Primary
- Montgomerie Primary School Primary
- South Benfleet Primary School Primary
- The Robert Drake Primary School Primary
- Thundersley Primary School Primary
- Westwood Academy Primary
Common questions
- What ages does Cedar Hall School teach?
- Cedar Hall School teaches children aged 4 to 16. It is a special school in Benfleet.
- Who is the headteacher of Cedar Hall School?
- The headteacher of Cedar Hall School is Mr Nicholas Maxwell, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- Has Cedar Hall School been inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Cedar Hall School, and its latest judgement is set out in the inspection section on this page, with the framework and the date it was made.
- How many pupils are at Cedar Hall School?
- Cedar Hall School has 189 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 4 to 16.
- Is Cedar Hall School full?
- Cedar Hall School has capacity for 156 pupils and 189 on roll (121%), so it is at or above its published capacity. Places are allocated through the local authority's admissions process, so capacity alone does not tell you whether a place is available.
- Is Cedar Hall School a faith school?
- No. Cedar Hall School has no designated religious character.
- What SEN provision does Cedar Hall School have?
- The schools register lists Cedar Hall School's special educational needs provision as: MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty. Contact the school to discuss how it would support a particular child.
- How have Cedar Hall School's results changed over recent years?
- Its share of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths was 0% in 2022/23 and 0% in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- What is Cedar Hall School's absence rate?
- Cedar Hall School's overall absence rate is 10.9% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Cedar Hall School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Cedar Hall School's key stage results are shown in the results section on this page, with the last three years so you can see the trend rather than a single year.
School details come from the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register. Inspection outcomes come from Ofsted, and exam results from the Department for Education's school performance service. This page was last updated on 30 June 2026.