Burnley Road Academy

About Burnley Road Academy

Burnley Road Academy, a state primary in Calderdale, sits in the bottom half of the local authority rankings, placing 58th out of 73 schools. Its headline Key Stage 2 measure — the percentage of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths — stands at 48%, which is notably below the Calderdale average of 59%. This gap of 11 percentage points is a significant one, and it places the school in the bottom 50 nationally for this metric. The school is also oversubscribed, with 26 applications for just 9 places in the 2025/26 intake, suggesting that local demand remains strong despite the below-average headline results. Headteacher Veronica Walker leads a relatively small school of 166 pupils, with capacity for 209, and over a third of pupils (35.4%) are eligible for free school meals, a figure well above the national average.

Looking closer at the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results, the picture is mixed. While the combined expected standard figure is low, individual subject scores tell a more nuanced story. In reading, 66% of pupils met the expected standard and 31% reached the higher standard, with an average scaled score of 105. Maths saw 66% at the expected level and 17% at the higher standard, with an average score of 101. Writing was the strongest subject, with 72% reaching the expected standard. However, only 7% of pupils achieved the higher standard across all three subjects. The school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, in 2022, rated it Good across all categories — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision — a consistent improvement from its previous 2016 inspection, which also rated overall effectiveness as Good but gave early years a lower grade.

The school offers a solid range of facilities including a sports hall, art studios, music rooms, an ICT suite, a forest school and a chapel, and runs clubs in drama, choir and chess. Sports on offer include gymnastics, dance, netball, cross country, tennis and athletics. For families with children who have additional needs, the school lists SEND provisions covering moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, hearing impairment, physical disability and autistic spectrum disorder. With a nursery on site, it caters for children from age three. The school is oversubscribed, so families will need to apply early and consider the catchment area. It may particularly suit those who value a small, community-focused primary with strong pastoral and SEND support, and who are comfortable with academic results that fall below the local average.

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