Leigh St John's CofE Primary

About Leigh St John's CofE Primary

Leigh St John's CofE Primary holds an Outstanding rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained across its two most recent inspections, including the most recent ungraded inspection in January 2025 which confirmed that standards are being maintained. The school's academic story is best told through its Key Stage 2 results from the 2023/24 academic year, where 80% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. That figure sits well above the Wigan local authority average of 65%, placing the school 15th out of 98 primary schools in the borough and inside the top 25% nationally. In individual subjects, the picture is similarly strong: 97% of pupils reached the expected standard in maths, while 87% did so in both reading and writing. The school also performs strongly at the higher standard, with 23% of pupils achieving that level across all three subjects.

Digging deeper into the exam data, the school's average scaled scores in reading and maths were 109 and 108 respectively, both comfortably above the national benchmark of 100. At the higher standard, 53% of pupils achieved that level in reading, while 40% did so in both maths and writing. The school's performance places it 14th in the Wigan local authority rankings, just outside the top ten but still among the strongest primaries in the area. Ofsted's inspection breakdown shows Outstanding grades for leadership and management, early years provision, and overall effectiveness, though notably the report does not provide separate graded judgements for quality of education, personal development, or behaviour and attitudes. The school is Church of England in character and is led by headteacher Emma Lightfoot, who oversees a roll of 212 pupils against a capacity of 210.

The school is significantly oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake, there were 111 applications for just 29 places, with 55 first-preference applications and an oversubscription ratio of 3.83. This suggests strong local demand. Facilities include a Forest School, library, chapel, playing fields, ICT suite and dining hall, while the sports offering covers athletics, dance, swimming, cricket and netball. Clubs range from Eco Club and Gardening to Coding and Science Club. The school provides SEND support for specific learning difficulties (dyslexia), social, emotional and mental health needs, and speech, language and communication needs. Parent View responses from 69 families in the 2024/25 period were largely positive: 87% would recommend the school, and strong majorities agreed that children are happy, feel safe, and that the school has high expectations. However, responses on SEND support were more mixed, with 18% disagreeing that the school gives SEND children the support they need.

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