Penistone St John's Voluntary Aided Primary School

About Penistone St John's Voluntary Aided Primary School

Penistone St John's Voluntary Aided Primary School sits in a curious position within Barnsley's primary landscape. Its headline metric — the percentage of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths — stands at 55%, which is noticeably below the local authority average of 63%. That eight-point gap places the school 51st out of 77 primary schools in the borough, firmly in the bottom half. Yet the picture is more nuanced than that single figure suggests. The school's maths average score of 103 and reading average of 104 both nudge above the national benchmark of 100, and a respectable 73% of pupils met the expected standard in maths alone. The real drag comes from writing, where only 64% hit the expected mark, and just 5% reached the higher standard. So while the combined headline looks weak, individual subject scores tell a story of a school that is stronger in core numeracy and reading than its overall ranking implies.

Academically, the school's most recent Ofsted inspection in 2024 rated it Good overall, a step down from its previous Outstanding grade in 2013. The breakdown reveals a mixed picture: early years provision and personal development both earned Outstanding, while quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management all settled at Good. At Key Stage 2, just 1% of pupils achieved the higher standard across reading, writing and maths — a very low figure — though 20% hit the higher standard in maths and 24% in reading. The school's national ranking places it in the bottom 50% of all primary schools, at the 68th percentile nationally, but within Yorkshire and the Humber it sits at the 66th percentile. This suggests the school is broadly in line with regional norms, even if it trails the Barnsley average on the combined expected measure.

The school is a Church of England voluntary aided primary with nursery provision for children aged three to eleven, and it is oversubscribed: for 38 places in 2025/26, there were 62 applications, with 38 first-preference offers made. Facilities include music rooms, an ICT suite, a gymnasium, sports hall, art studios, outdoor playground and a chapel. Sports offered range from cross country and netball to tennis and football, while clubs include drama, science club, choir, book club and coding. SEND provision covers social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication, and physical disability. With 518 pupils against a capacity of 600, the school is large but not full, and 13.2% of pupils are eligible for free school meals. This is a school that suits families who value strong early years and personal development, and who are comfortable with a mixed academic picture where maths and reading outperform writing.

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