Lemington Riverside Primary School

About Lemington Riverside Primary School

Lemington Riverside Primary School’s headline KS2 results sit below the Newcastle upon Tyne local authority average, with 56% of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with the LA average of 63%. That places the school 39th out of 55 primary schools in the borough, putting it in the bottom half locally and the bottom 50% nationally. However, these headline figures don’t tell the whole story. The school serves a community with very high levels of disadvantage — 66.2% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, more than three times the national average — and its results need to be read in that context. In its most recent graded inspection, Ofsted rated the school Good overall, a rating it has held consistently across inspections dating back to 2009. The ungraded inspection in 2022 confirmed the school remains Good, with leadership and management, early years provision and overall effectiveness all judged Good.

Looking more closely at the 2023/24 KS2 data, the school performs unevenly across subjects. Reading and writing both show a higher proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard than the combined headline suggests: 75% in reading and 69% in writing, with 13% reaching the higher standard in writing. Maths is weaker, with 69% at the expected level and only 6% at the higher standard. Average scaled scores sit at 103 for maths and 101 for reading, both close to the national baseline of 100. The school does not publish progress scores for reading, writing or maths, so it’s not possible to see how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points. Compared with the top-performing primaries in the LA — St Oswald’s Catholic Primary (97% combined expected) or St Vincent’s (89%) — Lemington Riverside’s results are markedly lower, but those schools serve far less disadvantaged intakes.

The school is oversubscribed: for 2025/26, it received 39 applications for 28 places, with all 28 first-preference applicants offered a spot, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.39. That suggests strong local demand despite the middling headline results. Facilities include a sensory room, gymnasium, sports hall, music rooms, art studios, playing fields and an outdoor playground — a solid range for a primary of 207 pupils. The school also has a chapel, which is unusual for a non-religious community school. Sports provision covers tennis, football, dance, cricket, swimming and cross country, and clubs include chess, choir and coding. SEND support is broad, covering dyslexia, moderate and profound learning difficulties, speech and language needs, social and emotional mental health, and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a school that suits families who value a genuinely inclusive, well-equipped local primary in a high-needs area, rather than one chasing top-tier academic rankings.

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