Langdale Primary School

About Langdale Primary School

Langdale Primary School, a state primary in Newcastle-under-Lyme, holds a Good rating from its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2024, with inspectors singling out several areas as Outstanding. The school’s early years provision, personal development, and behaviour and attitudes all received the top grade, while leadership and management and the quality of education were judged Good. This marks a clear improvement from the school’s previous inspection in 2017, when only overall effectiveness was Good and early years provision was rated Requires Improvement. On the key academic metric for primary schools, 62% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined at Key Stage 2 in the 2023/24 academic year. That figure sits just below the Staffordshire local authority average of 65%, placing Langdale 23rd out of 35 primary schools in Newcastle-under-Lyme and in the bottom half nationally.

Looking closer at the individual subject scores, the school’s strongest performance was in writing, where 76% of pupils reached the expected standard, followed by reading and maths, both at 75%. At the higher standard, 27% of pupils achieved above the expected level in reading, 16% in maths, and 13% in writing. Average scaled scores were 104 in reading and 103 in maths, both in line with national averages. The school’s overall ranking score of 62 places it in the bottom 50% of schools nationally, though it is worth noting that the school serves a higher-than-average proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at 14.2%, which can affect headline attainment figures. The Ofsted report also praised the school’s Outstanding personal development and behaviour, suggesting that academic progress is supported by a strong pastoral environment.

Langdale is a mixed-gender primary school for children aged 2 to 11, with a nursery on site. It has capacity for 420 pupils but currently enrols 360, leaving some room for growth. The school was oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, receiving 89 applications for 48 places, with 44 first-preference offers made. Facilities include a Forest School, ICT suite, sports hall, and a chapel, while extracurricular options range from science and coding clubs to chess, art, and film club. Sports on offer include rounders, cross country, swimming, and dance. The school has a broad SEND offer, with provisions for specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language challenges, visual impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. This makes it a practical choice for families seeking a well-supported, inclusive primary with strong pastoral care and a Good Ofsted rating.

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