St Helen's Catholic Primary School

About St Helen's Catholic Primary School

St Helen's Catholic Primary School sits within the Barnsley local authority, a mixed state primary for children aged 3 to 11. It is one of 77 primary schools in the area and, based on its Key Stage 2 results, ranks 34th out of 70 schools in the LA, placing it in the top half locally. Its nearest outstanding-rated primary is Hunningley Primary Academy, 4.6 km away, which also ranks among the top three peers in the authority alongside Hoylandswaine Primary School and Thurgoland Church of England Primary School. The school is Roman Catholic in character and led by headteacher Natalie Kelly. It is relatively small, with 119 pupils against a capacity of 150, and a high proportion of pupils — 42 per cent — are eligible for free school meals. The school also offers nursery provision for younger children.

Academically, St Helen's performs broadly in line with the local average. In the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 assessments, 65 per cent of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with a Barnsley LA average of 63 per cent. The school's strongest individual subject was writing, where 78 per cent met the expected standard, followed by reading and maths, both at 74 per cent. At the higher standard, 9 per cent of pupils achieved the top scores across all three subjects. Average scaled scores were 104 in reading and 103 in maths. The school's most recent Ofsted inspection, in May 2023, confirmed it remains Good overall, with Good ratings for leadership and management, early years provision, and the quality of education. This is a notable improvement from its previous graded inspection in 2018, when it was rated Requires Improvement.

The school offers a range of facilities including a sports hall, gymnasium, ICT suite, library, chapel, music rooms, playing fields and a forest school. Sports on offer include gymnastics, cross country, rounders, netball and dance, while clubs include drama, book club, film club and choir. SEND provision covers specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, speech, language and communication needs, hearing impairment, autistic spectrum disorder, and social, emotional and mental health support. For the 2025/26 intake, the school was oversubscribed: it received 25 applications for 11 places, with 10 first-preference offers made from 10 first-preference applications, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.27. This suggests strong local demand, particularly from Catholic families or those seeking a smaller, faith-based primary with a broad range of enrichment activities and a clear upward trajectory in its Ofsted history.

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