Caton St Paul's Church of England Primary School

About Caton St Paul's Church of England Primary School

If you are a parent weighing up Caton St Paul's, the numbers suggest other families are keen on it too. For the 2025/26 intake, the school received 44 applications for just 25 places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.76. Of those, 28 put it as their first preference, and all 25 first-preference offers were taken up. That level of demand is a strong signal that local parents rate it. The school is a Church of England primary in Lancaster, with a mixed intake of 162 pupils aged 4 to 11, and it has a nursery provision for younger children. It is led by headteacher Ian Gittins and has a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has held consistently across its most recent inspections, including an ungraded visit in 2022 that confirmed it remains Good.

Academically, Caton St Paul's performs solidly against local benchmarks. In the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results, 64% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, which is four percentage points above the Lancashire local authority average of 60%. The school also does well on higher standards: 11% of pupils achieved the higher standard across all three subjects. In individual subjects, 82% met the expected standard in maths, 79% in writing and 75% in reading. Average scaled scores were 105 in maths and 106 in reading. The school ranks 20th out of 46 primary schools in the Lancaster local authority area, placing it in the top half locally and around the 44th percentile nationally. Its ranking score of 64 is based on the combined expected standard metric.

The school offers a good range of facilities for its size, including art studios, an ICT suite, a library, music rooms, a sensory room and a chapel. Sports provision covers dance, rounders, football, cricket, netball and swimming, and there are clubs for drama, film and science. For children with additional needs, the school lists support for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, and autistic spectrum disorder. With 3.7% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the intake is less disadvantaged than many local primaries. Caton St Paul's is a good fit for families who want a church school with strong local demand, decent academic outcomes above the LA average, and a broad set of facilities and clubs in a relatively small, community-focused setting.

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