Portway Junior School

About Portway Junior School

Portway Junior School is a state primary for children aged 7 to 11 in Derby, and the numbers suggest it is a school that local families are keen to get into. The school has 320 pupils on roll against a capacity of 360, meaning it is oversubscribed and parents are actively choosing it over alternatives. While the Department for Education does not publish a formal parent-view recommendation percentage for this school, the oversubscription ratio alone signals strong local confidence. The school is led by headteacher Emma Wilkinson and was rated Good in its most recent graded Ofsted inspection in 2013, with a subsequent ungraded inspection in 2023 confirming that it remains Good. This is a notable improvement from its previous inspection in 2010, when it was judged to require improvement, so the school has clearly moved in the right direction under current leadership.

Academically, Portway Junior School performs well above the local authority average. In the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results, 69% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with a Derby LA average of just 55%. That places the school 14th out of 58 primary schools in the local authority, putting it in the top quarter locally. The school also does a solid job stretching its higher-attaining pupils: 9% achieved the higher standard across all three subjects, while 28% hit the higher mark in maths and 32% in reading. Average scaled scores were 105 in maths and 106 in reading, both comfortably above the national benchmark of 100. The school ranks in the top 50% nationally for its combined expected standard, and sits in the top 30% of East Midlands primaries. For a junior school with no nursery or sixth form, these outcomes are strong.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including a library, music rooms, art studios, a sports hall, a gymnasium, and even a chapel, plus an outdoor playground and forest school area. Sports provision covers cricket, football, tennis and rounders, and there is a good selection of clubs including eco club, coding, gardening, art and choir. SEND support is well-developed, with provisions for dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, visual impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. The school is non-religious in character and is a mixed-gender setting. For families in Derby looking for a junior school that is oversubscribed, academically above the local average, and with strong SEND support, Portway Junior School is a compelling option.

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