Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School - a Catholic voluntary academy

About Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School - a Catholic voluntary academy

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School in North Yorkshire delivers academic outcomes that stand well above the local average for primary schools. In the most recent Key Stage 2 assessments, every single pupil reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined — a perfect 100 per cent, compared with the North Yorkshire average of 60 per cent. That puts the school second out of 223 primary schools in the local authority, and inside the top 30 nationally. The scores behind that headline figure are equally strong: the average reading score was 111, maths averaged 108, and more than half of pupils achieved a higher standard in reading. While the school does not publish progress scores, the attainment data alone makes clear that children here are performing well above what is typical for the area.

The school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, in March 2024, rated it Good across every category — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. That is a consistent improvement on its previous inspection in 2015, where early years provision was also graded Good but the overall rating was already Good. With just 101 pupils on roll and a capacity of 105, the school is small and full, and it is oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake there were 25 applications for 12 places, all of which went to first-preference families. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is 18.1 per cent, slightly above the national average for primary schools, which suggests a genuinely mixed intake.

Facilities are generous for a school of this size and include a sports hall, gymnasium, library, ICT suite, chapel, sensory room, forest school area, art studios and music rooms. Sports on offer include dance, netball, football, cricket, cross country, gymnastics and swimming, and there are clubs for art, book and film. The school has a Roman Catholic religious character and is a voluntary academy, so faith is part of its identity, though admissions are open to families who support its ethos. SEND provision covers moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, physical disability and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a school that suits families who value strong academic outcomes in a small, faith-based setting, and who are prepared for a competitive admissions process.

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