Richard Wakefield CofE Primary Academy

About Richard Wakefield CofE Primary Academy

Richard Wakefield CofE Primary Academy is a popular choice among local families, with 32 first-preference applications received for its 33 places in the 2025/26 admissions round. The school was oversubscribed overall, with 51 total applications for those places, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.55. That level of demand suggests parents who know the school well are keen to secure a spot. In its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2023, inspectors rated the school Good across every category: overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. This is a consistent improvement from its previous inspection in 2015, where early years provision was also rated Good. The school is a Church of England primary for children aged 3 to 11, with a nursery on site, and is led by headteacher Joanne Lowe.

Academically, the school’s Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 show a mixed picture. The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined was 61%, slightly below the Staffordshire local authority average of 65%. In individual subjects, reading performed strongest, with 88% of pupils reaching the expected standard and 27% achieving the higher standard. Writing saw 80% at expected and 27% at higher, while maths had 73% at expected and 15% at higher. Average scores were 106 in reading and 103 in maths. The school ranks 14th out of 23 primary schools in East Staffordshire on the combined expected standard metric, placing it in the bottom half of the local authority. Nationally, it sits at 7,312 out of 13,686 schools, around the 53rd percentile. Progress scores are not available in the data, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points.

The school offers a range of facilities including a sensory room, ICT suite, sports hall, forest school area and a chapel. Sports provision covers cross country, swimming, football and dance, while after-school clubs include art, gardening, book club, coding and film club. The school’s SEND provision is broad, supporting pupils with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, multi-sensory impairment and autistic spectrum disorder. With 259 pupils on roll against a capacity of 300, the school is not yet full, and 13.5% of pupils are eligible for free school meals. This is a school that will suit families who value a Church of England ethos, a strong set of facilities for a primary, and a setting where demand from local parents is high, even if academic outcomes sit around the local average.

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