St George's Catholic Primary School - a Catholic voluntary academy

About St George's Catholic Primary School - a Catholic voluntary academy

St George's Catholic Primary School sits in a fairly middling position within North Yorkshire's primary landscape, but its headline metrics tell a slightly more nuanced story. The local authority average for pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at Key Stage 2 is 60 per cent; St George's comes in at 54 per cent, which is six points below that benchmark. That gap places the school at rank 149 out of 292 primary schools in the county, putting it just inside the bottom half of its local peers. Yet the picture isn't uniformly below average. In reading, 77 per cent of pupils hit the expected standard, comfortably above the typical LA figure, and 62 per cent did so in both maths and writing. Where the school really struggles is at the higher end: zero pupils reached the higher standard across all three subjects, and only 8 per cent did so in maths. So while the school is broadly in line with or ahead of the LA on basic attainment in individual subjects, it's the combined headline figure that drags the ranking down.

The school's most recent Ofsted inspection, in September 2023, rated it Good across every category — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision all scored a 2. That's a solid, consistent result, and notably an improvement on the previous inspection in 2015, where early years provision was rated Outstanding (a 1) but leadership and management was also Good. On the academic side, the average scaled scores for reading (102) and maths (101) are both above the national baseline of 100, which suggests pupils are making reasonable progress even if the combined expected standard figure looks weaker. The school's Progress 8 data isn't available here, so it's hard to say how much value the school adds relative to intake, but the Ofsted judgement implies that teaching and leadership are functioning well. With 56.7 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals — a very high proportion — the context is clearly challenging, and the school's results should be read with that in mind.

St George's is a small school, with 90 pupils against a capacity of 105, and it offers nursery provision for children from age three. The site includes a library, playing fields, a sports hall, a forest school, an ICT suite, a sensory room, music rooms and a chapel — a decent range for a primary of this size. Sports on offer include football, tennis, gymnastics, swimming and rounders, and there are clubs for drama, choir, eco and gardening. The school is oversubscribed: for 2025/26, it received 31 applications for 10 places, with all 10 first-preference applicants offered a spot, giving an oversubscription ratio of 3.1. SEND provision covers specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, and speech, language and communication needs. This is a school that suits families looking for a small, Catholic, community-focused primary with strong early years provision and a realistic approach to attainment in a disadvantaged context.

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