Markington Church of England Primary & Nursery School

About Markington Church of England Primary & Nursery School

Markington Church of England Primary & Nursery School is a small village primary in North Yorkshire, and its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2024 rated it Good overall, with Outstanding marks for early years provision and for behaviour and attitudes. That’s a strong starting point, but the school’s academic headline metrics are not directly available in the data, so we can’t compare its Progress 8 or KS2 SATs scores against the local authority average of 60. What we do know is that the school has held a Good rating across its recent inspections, having previously been rated Outstanding in 2013. The local authority has 16 Outstanding primaries out of 292 total, so Markington sits in the solidly Good tier, with the nearest Outstanding school being Burton Leonard Church of England Primary School, about 4 km away. For a small school with just 48 pupils against a capacity of 84, this is a respectable position, and the Outstanding early years provision suggests younger children get a particularly strong start.

Academically, the data doesn’t provide exam results or a Progress 8 score, so we can’t give a precise comparison to the LA average. However, the Ofsted breakdown is revealing: the quality of education is Good, leadership and management are Good, and personal development is Good, while behaviour and attitudes and early years provision are both Outstanding. This pattern suggests a school that prioritises character and early learning, with a calm, well-behaved environment. The school’s small size means class sizes are likely very small, which can support individual attention. With 14.3% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the intake is slightly below the national average for primary schools, but not dramatically so. Without published SATs results, parents will need to ask the school directly for its most recent attainment data, but the Ofsted judgement gives reasonable confidence in the quality of teaching.

Practical context is where this school really comes into its own. It offers a nursery provision for children from age 3, and the facilities list is surprisingly extensive for a small school: playing fields, a gymnasium, sports hall, library, art studios, a chapel, and a forest school. Sports include football, netball, cricket, gymnastics, athletics, cross country, and dance, while clubs cover eco, art, drama, and choir. SEND provisions are well-documented, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication issues, and autistic spectrum disorder. Admissions for 2025/26 show the school is oversubscribed: 8 applications for 5 places, with a ratio of 1.6, and all 5 first-preference applicants were offered places. This is a church school with a strong community feel, ideal for families who value outdoor learning, small classes, and a supportive, well-behaved atmosphere, but who are comfortable with a very small cohort and limited published academic data.

Key Details

Frequently Asked Questions About Markington Church of England Primary & Nursery School

Helpful Guides for Parents