Byers Green Primary School

About Byers Green Primary School

Byers Green Primary School is a small state primary in County Durham, serving 72 pupils aged 4 to 11. It sits within a local authority that contains 208 primary schools, of which only eight have achieved an Outstanding Ofsted rating. In the most recent local rankings, the school placed 118th out of those 208, putting it in the bottom half of County Durham primaries. The top-performing peers in the area, based on ranking scores, are Montalbo Nursery & Primary School, Shincliffe CofE (Controlled) Primary School, and Cestria Primary School. Byers Green is a non-denominational school with no religious character, and its headteacher is Gill Dodds. The school is oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, receiving 16 applications for 11 places, with 10 first-preference offers made. That oversubscription ratio of 1.45 suggests a modest but genuine local demand, even if the school does not rank among the highest-performing primaries in the county.

Academically, Byers Green’s most recent Key Stage 2 results, from the 2023/24 academic year, show a mixed picture. The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined was 54%, which is below the County Durham local authority average of 62%. In individual subjects, reading saw 62% of pupils at the expected standard and 23% reaching a higher standard, while writing had 77% at expected and just 8% at the higher level. Maths was the weakest area, with only 54% at the expected standard and 8% at the higher level. The average scaled scores were 102 for reading and 100 for maths. Nationally, the school ranks in the bottom 50% of primaries, sitting at the 70th percentile across England and the 74th percentile in the North East region. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, in February 2025, rated the school Good across all areas including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. The previous inspection, in 2011, also rated the school Good overall, so the school has maintained a consistent standard over time.

The school offers a solid range of facilities for its size, including a Forest School, sensory room, gymnasium, sports hall, playing fields, and a library. Sports on offer include athletics, swimming, cricket, dance, football, cross country, and rounders, and there are clubs for coding, chess, and a book club. The school has identified SEND provisions for moderate and severe learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, and autistic spectrum disorder. Parent View responses, based on 31 responses collected between September 2024 and September 2025, are overwhelmingly positive: 94% of parents would recommend the school, and 90% strongly agreed that their child is happy and feels safe. The school is oversubscribed, so families considering it should be aware that securing a place may not be guaranteed. Byers Green is best suited to families looking for a small, community-focused primary with strong pastoral care and a good range of outdoor and sporting activities, rather than those prioritising top-tier academic results.

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