Holy Family and St Michael's Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary Academy

About Holy Family and St Michael's Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary Academy

Holy Family and St Michael's Catholic Primary School is a popular choice among local families, with 52 applications for just 20 places in the 2025/26 admissions round, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.6. Only 12 first-preference offers were made, reflecting strong demand for this Roman Catholic state primary in Wakefield. Parent satisfaction data isn't available from the school itself, but the high application numbers suggest a positive reputation in the community. The school is led by headteacher Claire Cade and currently has 196 pupils on roll, just under its capacity of 210. Just over a quarter of pupils (27%) are eligible for free school meals, which is above the national average and points to a diverse intake. The school's most recent Ofsted inspection, an ungraded visit in September 2022, confirmed it remains Good, a notable improvement from its previous graded inspection in 2011 when it was rated Requires Improvement.

Academically, the school's Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 show a mixed picture. The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined was 45%, well below the Wakefield local authority average of 64%. This places the school 87th out of 97 primary schools in the local authority, in the bottom 50 nationally. However, individual subject scores tell a more nuanced story: 72% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, and 66% in writing, while maths was lower at 59%. Average scaled scores were 104 in reading and 103 in maths, both close to the national benchmark of 100. The proportion of pupils achieving the higher standard was 21% in both reading and maths, though no pupils reached this level in writing. Progress scores are not available for the current cohort, so it's hard to say whether pupils are making above or below expected gains from their starting points.

The school offers a solid range of facilities including playing fields, an outdoor playground, a sensory room, an ICT suite, a gymnasium, a chapel and art studios. Sports provision covers football, cricket, rounders, netball, dance, athletics and cross country, with clubs including book club, art club and chess. For families with children who have additional needs, the school lists SEND provisions for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, speech, language and communication needs, social and emotional mental health, physical disability and autistic spectrum disorder. The nearest outstanding-rated primary is De Lacy Primary School, just 0.6 km away, which may be worth considering as an alternative. Holy Family and St Michael's is best suited to Catholic families prioritising faith-based education in a smaller school community, particularly those who value the pastoral and sensory support on offer, though the below-average KS2 outcomes mean academic results should be weighed carefully.

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