Good, and the primary sits close enough that the school run is a walk, not a drive. Around eight in ten graded schools across the county rate good or better. The three local primaries score above the line on maths. The secondary is further out. The early years are easy; the car keys come out at eleven.
There are 3 mainstream state primaries in the area, and their average Key Stage 2 maths score is 103.5. Rotherfield Primary School on North Street carries the village's name and is the obvious first stop, while Mark Cross Church of England Aided Primary School serves the parish's neighbouring village. Jarvis Brook Primary School is also on the local list. The Department for Transport's 2019 modelling puts the average primary about 15 minutes away on foot, about 8 minutes by car and about 11 by public transport. For a hilltop village, that is about as convenient as schooling gets, and the parents who walk it are the ones who never mention the parking outside the gates.
The inspection picture is drawn at county level, not village level. Across East Sussex, Ofsted has graded 54 of 67 settings good or better, which is roughly four in every five. Seven of those are outstanding. At the other end, 7 require improvement and 6 are inadequate, so the county does have weak spots, and a buyer should check the specific school rather than trusting the county average to cover it. Plenty of other settings have no published grade yet, which says nothing either way about their quality.
Secondary is the harder part of the arithmetic. The same modelling puts the average secondary about 15 minutes away by car, about 31 minutes by public transport, and about an hour on foot. Beacon Academy is the secondary on the local list. Parents who assumed village life meant everything within walking distance find out, at the secondary application stage, that the village made its promise about primaries only.
A school down the road is not a school place. Admissions are decided by each school's own criteria and the council's allocation rules, and the house that looks close enough on a map can still miss out in a busy year. A church-aided primary such as Mark Cross sets its own admission criteria as well, which is worth reading before a sale is agreed rather than after. The admissions rules are published and fair in their own way. They just don't care how much the buyer paid for the house.
Two nearby schools have closed, so any older listing or map that still shows them as options is out of date.
Schooling is one of Rotherfield's real strengths: the primaries are close and perform well, and the county's inspection record leans firmly towards good. The only homework for a buyer is the drive to secondary, and every family here has already done it.