St Ambrose RC Primary School

About St Ambrose RC Primary School

St Ambrose RC Primary School sits within the Manchester local authority, a large primary landscape of 137 schools where it ranks 107th on the key stage 2 expected standard measure. The top-performing peers in the area are Didsbury CofE Primary, Brookburn Community School and Rack House Primary, each scoring considerably higher on the same metric. St Ambrose is a smaller-than-average Roman Catholic state primary with 180 pupils against a capacity of 240, and it has a notably high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at 56.1 per cent. The school offers nursery provision for children aged three and above, and its most recent ungraded Ofsted inspection in 2023 confirmed it remains Good, an improvement from its previous graded inspection in 2013 when it was rated Requires Improvement. Leadership and management were also judged Good in that 2013 graded inspection, and the school has held a Good rating across both its recent inspections.

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 44 per cent, well below the Manchester local authority average of 57 per cent. Reading was the strongest individual subject, with 84 per cent of pupils reaching the expected standard and 16 per cent achieving a higher score. Writing saw 60 per cent at expected and 8 per cent at a higher level, while maths was weaker, with 52 per cent at expected and 20 per cent at a higher score. The average maths score was 101 and the average reading score was 105. Nationally, the school sits in the bottom half of primary schools, ranking 11,963 out of 13,686 on the combined expected standard metric. There is no progress data available for reading, writing or maths, so it is not possible to assess how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points.

The school is oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, with 14 first-preference applications for 14 places and a total of 31 applications, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.21. Facilities include a chapel, library, playing fields, forest school, art studios, music rooms and an outdoor playground. Sports offered are gymnastics, football, cricket and rounders, and clubs include book club, coding and art club. The school has identified SEND provisions covering moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health, speech language and communication, autistic spectrum disorder and other difficulty or disability. The nearest Outstanding-rated primary school is Old Moat Primary School, two kilometres away. St Ambrose is best suited to families seeking a Catholic primary with nursery provision in Manchester who value a school that has improved its Ofsted rating and serves a high-deprivation intake, though they should be aware that academic outcomes are below the local average.

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