Lowedges Primary Academy

About Lowedges Primary Academy

Lowedges Primary Academy in Sheffield was rated Good in its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2023, a notable improvement from its previous Requires Improvement rating in 2019. The school now holds Good across all five Ofsted categories, including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. On the most informative exam metric available, 50% 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 below the Sheffield local authority average of 57%, placing the school 74th out of 106 primary schools in the area. Just 12% of pupils reached the higher standard across all three subjects, though individual subject scores tell a slightly stronger story: the average reading score was 105 and maths 104, both above the national benchmark of 100.

Digging deeper into the KS2 results, 67% of pupils achieved the expected standard in reading and 67% in writing, while 69% hit the expected mark in maths. At the higher end, 36% of pupils reached a higher standard in reading, compared with 21% in maths and 14% in writing. The school has no published progress scores for reading, writing or maths, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils' starting points. Nationally, Lowedges ranks in the bottom half of all primary schools on the combined expected standard metric, sitting at the 77th percentile. The school serves a community with high levels of disadvantage: 67.2% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, more than double the national average. Ofsted noted that leaders have high expectations and that pupils behave well, with behaviour and attitudes judged Good.

The school offers a wide range of facilities including a sports hall, gymnasium, playing fields, music rooms, art studios, an ICT suite, a forest school and even a chapel. Sports on offer include cricket, football, netball, cross country, gymnastics and dance, while clubs include art, coding and gardening. Lowedges has a nursery provision for children aged three and over, and its SEND provision covers specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, and autistic spectrum disorder. For the 2025/26 intake, the school was oversubscribed: 21 first-preference applications were made for 21 places, with 51 total applications giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.43. This is a school that has turned around its Ofsted rating and now offers a broad curriculum and facilities, but families should weigh the below-average KS2 outcomes against the high level of pupil disadvantage when making their decision.

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