Adlington Primary School

About Adlington Primary School

Adlington Primary School is a state primary in Chorley, Lancashire, and sits within a local landscape where a handful of nearby schools consistently outrank it on key measures. The top three performers in the same local authority are Crawford Village Primary School, New Longton All Saints CofE Primary School, and St George’s Church of England Primary School, Chorley. Adlington itself ranks 29th out of 46 primary schools in Chorley, placing it in the bottom half of the LA table. Across the wider North West region, it sits around the middle of the pack, ranked 1,003rd out of 2,065 primaries. The school is a mixed, non-religious state primary for children aged 5 to 11, with a headteacher named Jennifer Birkin. It currently has 129 pupils on roll, just shy of its capacity of 140, and 14.7% of pupils are eligible for free school meals. In its most recent Ofsted inspection, carried out in July 2023, the school was rated Good overall, a rating it has held consistently since at least its previous inspection in 2013.

Academically, Adlington’s Key Stage 2 results for the 2023/24 academic year show a mixed picture. The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined was 63%, which is slightly above the Lancashire local authority average of 60%. However, only 11% of pupils achieved the higher standard in those three subjects, and the school’s ranking score of 63 places it in the bottom 50% nationally. In individual subjects, reading was the strongest area: 74% of pupils met the expected standard and 32% reached the higher standard, with an average score of 107. Maths was weaker, with 68% at the expected level and an average score of 103, while writing matched reading on expected attainment at 74% but only 11% reached the higher level. Progress scores are not available for any subject, so it is difficult to assess how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points. The Ofsted breakdown from the 2023 inspection rated personal development as Outstanding, while quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, leadership and management, and early years provision were all judged Good.

The school offers a solid range of facilities including an ICT suite, sports hall, music rooms, art studios, a forest school area, and even a chapel. Sports provision covers football, gymnastics, cricket, netball, cross country, dance and athletics, and there are a handful of clubs such as chess, gardening and art club. For families with children who have special educational needs, Adlington lists support for a broad spectrum of needs including autistic spectrum disorder, speech and language difficulties, and social, emotional and mental health needs. The school was oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, with 59 applications for 22 places and 21 first-preference offers, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.68. This suggests it is a popular choice locally, though it does not have nursery provision or a sixth form. The nearest outstanding-rated primary school is St George’s Church of England Primary School, Chorley, 3.4 km away. Adlington would suit families who value a small, community-focused primary with strong personal development and a good range of facilities, but who are comfortable with results that sit around the local average rather than at the top of the LA rankings.

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