King Street Primary School

About King Street Primary School

King Street Primary School in County Durham presents a mixed picture when compared with the local authority average for primary schools. The school's headline Key Stage 2 metric shows that 54% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, which is below the County Durham average of 62%. This places the school in the bottom half of primary schools nationally, ranking 117th out of 170 in the local authority and in the bottom 50 tier overall. However, the school's most recent Ofsted inspection in 2024 awarded it a Good rating across all categories, including behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. This represents a significant improvement from its previous inspection in 2021, when the school was rated Requires Improvement. The turnaround suggests that while academic outcomes at the expected level still lag behind the local norm, the school has made clear progress in its overall effectiveness.

Looking more closely at the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results, the picture is nuanced. While the combined expected standard figure is below average, the school performs strongly on individual subjects: 92% of pupils reached the expected standard in maths, and 73% did so in reading. The average maths score of 107 is notably above the national average of 100, and 23% of pupils achieved a higher standard in maths, compared with 12% in reading and 15% in writing. The proportion reaching the higher standard in all three subjects combined is just 8%, which is low. This suggests that King Street is particularly effective at moving pupils to the expected level in maths, but less so at stretching the highest achievers across the board. The school's Progress 8 scores are not available, so it is difficult to assess how much value the school adds relative to pupils' starting points, but the raw scores indicate a maths strength.

King Street is a state primary for children aged 2 to 11, with a nursery provision and a current roll of 228 pupils against a capacity of 240. It is oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 46 applications for 17 places, with 15 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.71. The school serves a community with a high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals, at 43.8%. Facilities include art studios, music rooms, a sports hall, gymnasium, outdoor playground, and even a chapel. The school offers a range of clubs including chess, drama, art club, choir and film club, and sports such as football, athletics, cricket, dance and swimming. Its SEND provisions cover specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulty, social and emotional mental health, speech and language communication, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. This school may suit families who value a supportive, improving environment with strong maths outcomes and a broad range of extracurricular activities, particularly those whose children may need additional SEND support.

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