Heaton St Barnabas' CofE Aided Primary School

About Heaton St Barnabas' CofE Aided Primary School

Heaton St Barnabas' CofE Aided Primary School sits comfortably above the Bradford local authority average for its key stage 2 headline measure, with 63% of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined against a LA average of 59%. That four-point gap might not sound enormous, but it places the school in the top half of primary schools nationally, ranking 60th out of 153 in Bradford and 6559th out of 13686 across England. The school's overall Ofsted rating is Good, a significant improvement from its Requires Improvement judgement in 2012, and a 2023 ungraded inspection confirmed it remains Good. Leadership and management were also judged Good in the most recent graded inspection. With 402 pupils on roll against a capacity of 420, the school is nearly full, and 17.2% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is slightly above the national average but typical for the area.

Looking more closely at the 2023/24 key stage 2 results, the school's strengths are in maths and reading, where average scaled scores both hit 105. In maths, 77% of pupils met the expected standard and 32% reached the higher standard, while in reading 72% met expectations and 23% achieved the higher benchmark. Writing is a relative weak spot, with 75% at expected and only 11% at the higher level. The combined expected standard of 63% is respectable but leaves room for improvement, particularly in pushing more pupils into the higher bands. The school's ranking score of 63 places it in the top 50% of Bradford primaries, though it sits some way behind the top-performing peers like All Saints' CofE Primary (score 91) and Harden Primary (87). Progress scores are not available in the data, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds beyond these attainment figures.

Heaton St Barnabas' is a Church of England voluntary aided school, which means the church and local authority share responsibility for admissions and governance. It is oversubscribed: for 2025/26 there were 104 applications for 48 places, with 40 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.17. The school offers a solid range of facilities including an ICT suite, sports hall, art studios, music rooms and a chapel, and runs clubs such as Eco Club, Book Club, Film Club, Drama and Gardening. Sports on offer include cross country, swimming, athletics, netball, gymnastics and rounders. For families with children who have additional needs, the school lists SEND provisions covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, hearing impairment and physical disability. This is a good- value primary that performs above the local average, with strong maths and reading outcomes, and suits families who want a church school with a broad extracurricular offer in central Bradford.

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