St Cuthbert's Church of England Primary School

About St Cuthbert's Church of England Primary School

St Cuthbert's Church of England Primary School sits within the Blackburn with Darwen local authority, where it ranks 48th out of 52 primary schools — placing it in the bottom half of the area's state primaries. The top-performing peers nearby include The Olive School, Blackburn, Blackburn the Redeemer CofE Primary, and St Gabriel's Church of England Primary School, all of which score significantly higher on the same ranking metric. The school is a mixed, state-funded primary for children aged 4 to 11, with a Church of England character and a current roll of 195 pupils against a capacity of 225. It is oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, receiving 41 total applications for 17 places, with all 17 first-preference applicants receiving offers. The school's most recent graded Ofsted inspection, carried out in May 2024, rated its overall effectiveness as Requires Improvement — a notable drop from its previous Outstanding rating in 2017. Leadership and management, quality of education, personal development, and behaviour and attitudes all received the same Requires Improvement grade, while early years provision was rated Good.

Academically, the school's Key Stage 2 results for the 2023/24 academic year show that just 32% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined — well below the local authority average of 59%. In reading, 50% reached the expected standard and 6% achieved a higher standard; in writing, 32% met the expected standard and none reached the higher standard; in maths, 47% met the expected standard and 9% achieved the higher standard. Average scaled scores were 101 in reading and 100 in maths. Progress measures are not available in the data, but the school's ranking nationally places it in the bottom 5% of all primary schools on the combined expected standard metric. The school has no official sixth form and no nursery provision. These outcomes suggest that while the school serves a community with above-average levels of disadvantage — 30.3% of pupils are eligible for free school meals — academic attainment is significantly below the local norm.

The school offers a range of facilities including a library, playing fields, sports hall, art studios, ICT suite and a chapel. Sports provision covers cricket, netball, tennis, football, cross country, dance and athletics, while extracurricular clubs include chess, book club, coding, science club and art club. SEND support is available for a broad spectrum of needs: specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. The school is oversubscribed, with a ratio of 2.41 applicants per place, so families applying will need to be aware of the competition for places. Given its current Ofsted rating and academic profile, St Cuthbert's may suit families who prioritise the school's Church of England character and its range of facilities and clubs, but who are prepared to work with the school during its period of required improvement.

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