Coates Lane Primary School

About Coates Lane Primary School

Coates Lane Primary School sits within Lancashire local authority, a large county with 480 primary schools. In the most recent local rankings, the school placed 365th, putting it in the bottom half of its peer group. The top-performing primaries in the area include Crawford Village Primary School, New Longton All Saints CofE Primary School, and St George's Church of England Primary School, Chorley. Coates Lane is a smaller-than-average state primary with 183 pupils on roll against a capacity of 210, and it serves a community where 23 per cent of children are eligible for free school meals. The school is non-denominational and has no religious character. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, carried out in January 2025, awarded a Good rating across all five graded categories: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. This represents a consistent performance compared with its previous graded inspection in 2015, which also rated overall effectiveness as Good.

Academically, Coates Lane'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 41 per cent, notably below the Lancashire local authority average of 60 per cent. In individual subjects, reading performed strongest with 74 per cent reaching the expected standard, while writing saw 48 per cent and maths 56 per cent. At the higher standard, 22 per cent achieved in maths and 15 per cent in reading, but no pupils reached the higher threshold in writing or across all three subjects combined. Average scaled scores were 102 in reading and 101 in maths. Nationally, the school ranks in the bottom 10 per cent of primaries on the combined expected standard metric, and within the North West region it sits in the 88th percentile. Progress scores were not available in the data, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils' starting points.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including a Forest School, ICT suite, library, music rooms, art studios, playing fields and an outdoor playground. Sports provision covers swimming, football, netball, cross country and dance, while clubs include drama, choir, gardening and film club. For children with special educational needs, the school lists support for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, visual impairment, and autistic spectrum disorder. The school was oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, receiving 54 applications for 12 places, with eight first-preference offers made. Parent View responses from 49 families were largely positive: 94 per cent agreed or strongly agreed their child is happy, and 92 per cent felt their child is safe. However, only 63 per cent agreed that concerns are dealt with properly, and 22 per cent disagreed that SEND children receive the support they need. This is a school that suits families who value a strong pastoral environment and a wide range of activities, but who may want to investigate academic outcomes and SEND provision more closely.

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