Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Primary School Blackburn

About Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Primary School Blackburn

Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Primary School Blackburn sits within the Blackburn with Darwen local authority, where it ranks 42nd out of 52 primary schools on the key stage 2 expected standard measure. That places it in the bottom half of the LA, well behind the top-performing local peers such as The Olive School, Blackburn, Blackburn the Redeemer CofE Primary and St Gabriel's Church of England Primary School. The nearest school rated Outstanding by Ofsted is Wensley Fold CofE Primary Academy, just 0.7 kilometres away. Sacred Heart itself holds a Good rating from its most recent graded inspection in 2022, a notable improvement from its previous Requires Improvement judgement in 2018. The school is a Roman Catholic state primary for mixed-gender pupils aged 4 to 11, with a current roll of 180 children against a capacity of 210, and 23.9 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals.

Academically, the school's key stage 2 results for 2023/24 show that 43 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, which is below the local authority average of 59 per cent. Only 3 per cent achieved the higher standard across all three subjects. In individual subjects, reading saw 53 per cent at expected and 13 per cent at higher; writing had 73 per cent at expected and 23 per cent at higher; maths had 73 per cent at expected and 7 per cent at higher. Average scaled scores were 100 for reading and 101 for maths. Nationally, the school ranks in the bottom 12 per cent of primaries on the combined expected standard metric, and in the bottom 14 per cent within the North West region. Progress scores are not available in the data, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds beyond these attainment figures.

The school offers a range of facilities including playing fields, a gymnasium, library, forest school, ICT suite, sports hall, music rooms, dining hall and a chapel. Sports on offer include dance, cross country, rounders, gymnastics, netball and tennis, while clubs include science, film and chess. SEND provision covers moderate learning difficulty, speech, language and communication needs, and physical disability. Admissions for 2025/26 show the school is oversubscribed: 39 applications for 30 places, with 12 first-preference offers made from 12 first-preference applications, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.95. There is no nursery provision and no sixth form. This is a school that has improved its Ofsted rating and may suit Catholic families in Blackburn who value the faith context, though its academic outcomes are below the local average and it is not among the highest-performing primaries in the area.

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