St Cuthbert's Catholic Academy

About St Cuthbert's Catholic Academy

St Cuthbert's Catholic Academy is a state primary school in Blackpool, a local authority where only two out of 30 primary schools currently hold an Outstanding Ofsted rating. The school itself is rated Good, a significant improvement from its previous Inadequate grade, and it sits 18th out of 30 primaries in the LA rankings. The top-performing peers locally are Kincraig Primary School, Blackpool St Nicholas CofE Primary School, and Westcliff Primary Academy, all of which score higher on the ranking metric. St Cuthbert's is a mixed Roman Catholic school for children aged 2 to 11, with a nursery on site. It has 248 pupils against a capacity of 254, and a third of its students are eligible for free school meals, which is notably higher than the national average. The headteacher is Sarah Smith, and the school's most recent ungraded inspection in March 2023 confirmed that it remains Good.

In the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 assessments, 48% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. That is below the Blackpool LA average of 58%, placing the school 19th out of 23 primaries in the LA on this measure and in the bottom 50 nationally. However, individual subject results tell a more nuanced story: 78% of pupils reached the expected standard in maths, 74% in reading, and 67% in writing. Average scaled scores were 103 in both reading and maths, which is exactly the national benchmark. At the higher standard, 26% achieved in reading and 11% in maths, though no pupils reached the higher threshold in writing or across all three subjects. The school's previous Ofsted inspection in 2017 rated leadership and management, early years provision, and overall effectiveness as Good, with the early years provision again judged Good in the 2023 ungraded inspection.

The school is oversubscribed for 2025/26, with 39 applications for 26 places and 24 first-preference offers made, giving a ratio of 1.5 applicants per place. Facilities include a dining hall, library, sports hall, ICT suite, playing fields, a forest school, an outdoor playground, and a chapel. Sports on offer range from cricket and athletics to gymnastics and netball, and clubs include drama, book club and choir. The school has a broad SEND offer, with provisions for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, hearing impairment, multi-sensory impairment, and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a school that has climbed from a low point in its inspection history and now serves a diverse intake with a high proportion of disadvantaged pupils, making it a solid local option for Catholic families in Blackpool who value a supportive SEND framework and a forest school setting.

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