Fishwick Primary School

About Fishwick Primary School

Fishwick Primary School in Preston is a mixed state primary for children aged 2 to 11, and it is currently running slightly over its official capacity of 151 pupils with 158 on roll. That small oversubscription is telling: for the 2025/26 intake, the school received 64 applications for just 16 places, with 20 families listing it as their first preference. That is a four-to-one ratio of total applications to places, which suggests strong local demand despite the school’s current Ofsted rating. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals stands at 49 per cent, well above the national average and a clear signal that Fishwick serves a community with significant economic disadvantage. The school is led by headteacher Vicki Conway and has no religious character. It also offers nursery provision, which may appeal to families looking for a single-site option from the early years through to Year 6.

Academically, Fishwick’s most recent Key Stage 2 results place it in the bottom half of schools nationally and regionally. In the 2023/24 assessments, 44 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with a Lancashire local authority average of 60 per cent. The school’s average scores in reading and maths both sat at 101, exactly the national benchmark, but the proportion reaching the higher standard was very low: just 6 per cent in reading and maths, and 19 per cent in writing. In the Preston local authority ranking, Fishwick sits 36th out of 45 primary schools on the key measure of combined expected standard. Its most recent Ofsted inspection, in December 2024, rated the school as Requires Improvement overall, with leadership and management, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and quality of education all judged to require improvement. The early years provision, however, was rated Good, which is a positive sign for families with younger children.

The school’s facilities include playing fields, a gymnasium, art studios, an ICT suite, music rooms and a chapel. Sports on offer range from netball and football to dance, athletics, cricket, cross country and tennis, and there are clubs for choir, drama and science. Fishwick has a broad range of SEND provisions, covering specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, hearing impairment, and autistic spectrum disorder. Parent feedback is overwhelmingly positive: 100 per cent of the 12 respondents to the Ofsted Parent View survey would recommend the school, with strong majorities agreeing or strongly agreeing that their child is happy, feels safe, and does well. This is a school that clearly works hard for its community, and the high demand for places suggests local families value what it offers, even as it works through the challenges identified by inspectors.

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