St Columba CE Primary School

About St Columba CE Primary School

St Columba CE Primary School in Fareham is a small Church of England primary that sits at the very bottom of the local authority rankings for its key stage 2 outcomes, a stark contrast to the Hampshire average. Just 28% of its pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with a local authority average of 61% — a gap of 33 percentage points. The school ranks 294th out of 425 primary schools in Hampshire, placing it in the bottom 50% nationally. Its ranking score of 28 out of 100 is far behind the top local peers, such as Preston Candover CE Primary (100) and Our Lady and St Joseph Catholic Primary (94). These headline figures suggest a school that is significantly underperforming against its peers, though the context of its pupil intake is important: 46.1% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well above the national average, and the school is very small, with just 89 pupils against a capacity of 210.

Despite the weak headline results, St Columba’s most recent Ofsted inspection in June 2024 rated the school Good across all five categories — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. This is a remarkable turnaround from its previous inspection in 2019, when it was judged Inadequate overall, with leadership and management rated Requires Improvement. The improvement in leadership under headteacher Katie Viola appears to have been a key driver. In terms of individual subject scores at key stage 2, reading and writing were relative strengths: 56% of pupils met the expected standard in reading and 61% in writing, though only 44% did so in maths. Higher-attaining pupils were few — just 6% achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and maths combined — and the average maths score of 96 was below the national benchmark of 100.

St Columba offers a broad range of facilities for a school of its size, including an ICT suite, sensory room, gymnasium, sports hall, playing fields and a chapel. Sports provision covers football, athletics, gymnastics, cricket, cross country and netball, while clubs include science, chess, film, coding and art. The school has a strong SEND focus, with provisions for dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language difficulties, autistic spectrum disorder and other difficulties. Admissions for 2025/26 show the school is oversubscribed: 26 applications for 17 places, with 14 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 1.53. This suggests that local families value the school despite its academic results, perhaps for its small size, pastoral support or recent improvement trajectory. It would suit families prioritising a nurturing, well-supported environment over top-tier academic outcomes.

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