Rivers Education Support Centre
Rivers Education Support Centre is a pupil referral unit in Hoddesdon for boys and girls aged 5 to 16. It has 15 pupils and room for 56. About 73 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far more than at most schools in England. Ofsted's last grade was good, back in 2023.
Old Essex Road, Hoddesdon, EN11 0AA01992 534841riversesc.herts.sch.ukMrs Shelley Hughes headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 31 October 2023, back when it gave schools one overall grade. Read the report on Ofsted's website.
Good overall.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
Each council publishes its own figures on how many families applied and how far away the last child to get a place lived. We are adding councils one at a time. If you have a link to Hertfordshire council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: emotional and mental health (15).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 15 | 29 | 16 | 16 | 19 | 23 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 73% | 69% | 25% | 50% | 42% | 52% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 0% | 10% | 0% | 6% | 0% | 0% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 55% | 50% | 50% | 84% | 74% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 4% | 0% | 13% | 11% | 9% |
What pupils do next
After GCSEs
Where the 8 pupils who left in 2022/23 were a year later.
Earlier years
| Destination | 2022/23 leavers | 2021/22 leavers | 2020/21 leavers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Still in education, work or training | 63% | 25% | 46% |
| Education | 63% | 17% | 46% |
| Apprenticeship | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Work | 0% | 8% | 0% |
| Not in education, work or training | 25% | 50% | 36% |
Staff and money
From the government's count of school staff in November 2025 and the school's published accounts.
Money
From the council school accounts, year to March 2025. The per-pupil figures are compared with other primary schools in England that report their accounts the same way.
Reserves are the money left over at the end of the year, kept back for emergencies and big projects. Being in the red year after year is a warning sign. Very large reserves can mean money sitting in the bank instead of being spent on today's pupils. Academy figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000 and include a share of any money the trust holds centrally.
The area around the school
Crime figures come from police.uk. The police record each crime at the nearest of a fixed set of map points rather than the exact spot, so “within 500 m” is only rough. House prices are from HM Land Registry sales nearby over the last two years.
Nearby schools
The closest schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Catherine's Hoddesdon CofE Primary School | Church of England/Christian | 310 m | 383 | Good 2023 | 5 | Compare |
| Rye Park Nursery School | Local authority nursery school | 660 m | 147 | Outstanding 2023 | – | Compare |
| St Augustine's Catholic Primary School | Academy | 720 m | 238 | Not inspected | 97 | Compare |
| Forres Primary Academy | Academy | 800 m | 199 | Requires improvement 2022 | 3 | Compare |
| The John Warner School | Academy | 0.7 miles | 726 | Inadequate 2022 | 2 | Compare |
| High Leigh Primary School | Council | 0.8 miles | 166 | No overall grade 2024 | 11 | Compare |
| The Cranbourne Primary School | Academy | 0.8 miles | 409 | Good 2020 | 65 | Compare |
| St Cross Catholic Primary School | Academy | 0.8 miles | 201 | Not inspected | 27 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Rivers Education Support Centre a good school?
Rivers Education Support Centre doesn't have a score yet. Ofsted rated it good at its last inspection in October 2023.
What is Rivers Education Support Centre's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Rivers Education Support Centre good at its last full inspection on 31 October 2023.
How many pupils does Rivers Education Support Centre have?
15 pupils aged 5 to 16 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 56 places, so it is 27% full.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Old Essex Road, Hoddesdon, EN11 0AA
- Telephone
- 01992 534841
- Website
- www.riversesc.herts.sch.uk
- Headteacher
- Mrs Shelley Hughes
- Type of school
- Pupil referral unit (Pupil referral unit, local authority maintained schools)
- Phase
- Pupil referral unit / alternative provision, ages 5-16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Local authority
- Hertfordshire
- Ward
- Hoddesdon Town and Rye Park
- Constituency
- Broxbourne
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 September 2009 (new provision)
- URN
- 135890 · LAESTAB 9191109 · UKPRN 10028067
Where these figures come from
- School details: Department for Education, Get Information About Schools, refreshed daily (this page rebuilt 13 September 2026).
- Inspections: Ofsted management information, monthly; latest publication in our data 27 August 2026.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Staff: DfE school workforce census, November 2025.
- Pupil premium: DfE allocations and conditions of grant, 2026 to 2027.
- Money: DfE financial benchmarking and insights tool, consistent financial reporting 2024/25.
- Neighbourhood: police.uk street-level crime, HM Land Registry price paid data, NaPTAN bus stops, English Indices of Deprivation 2025.
- All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full list and update calendar.