St Catherine's Catholic Primary School, Penrith

About St Catherine's Catholic Primary School, Penrith

St Catherine's Catholic Primary School in Penrith holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained consistently across its two most recent inspections, including the graded inspection in June 2022. The school's overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and early years provision all received a Good judgement. This places the school in a solid position within Westmorland and Furness, where only six out of 121 primary schools have achieved the top Outstanding grade. The most telling academic metric available is the local authority's average Key Stage 2 attainment score of 58, which provides a useful benchmark for parents considering how pupils at St Catherine's typically perform compared with peers across the area.

While the school's own KS2 SATs results are not published in this data, the Ofsted inspection report from 2022 noted that pupils achieve well across the curriculum, with leaders having designed a broad and ambitious programme. The school's small size — just 108 pupils against a capacity of 140 — means class sizes are likely to be intimate, allowing for focused teaching. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals stands at 15.7%, slightly below the national average, and the school's SEND provisions cover a range of needs including dyslexia, speech and language difficulties, and social, emotional and mental health support. This suggests a school that is equipped to support a diverse intake while maintaining strong academic expectations.

The school is clearly popular locally: for the 2025/26 intake, it received 29 applications for just 13 places, with all 13 first-preference applicants offered a spot, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.23. Facilities include a forest school, chapel, music rooms, art studios, and an ICT suite, alongside a strong sporting offer covering football, cricket, swimming, athletics, tennis, netball and gymnastics. Clubs such as film club, chess, choir and art club add breadth. St Catherine's is a Roman Catholic state primary for mixed-gender pupils aged 4 to 11, with no nursery or sixth form provision. It will particularly suit Catholic families in Penrith who value a faith-based education within a small, well-regarded school that is oversubscribed but accessible to those who make it their first choice.

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