St Hugh's Catholic Primary School

About St Hugh's Catholic Primary School

St Hugh's Catholic Primary School sits within Trafford, a local authority with a strong reputation for primary education, and it holds its own in a competitive field. Among 63 primary schools in the borough, it ranks 32nd based on the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths. The three highest-ranked peers in the area are St Vincent's Catholic Primary School, Park Road Academy Primary School and Brooklands Primary School, all of which score higher on the same metric. St Hugh's is a large Roman Catholic state primary with a nursery provision, serving 637 pupils from ages 3 to 11. It is heavily oversubscribed: for 60 places in the 2025/26 intake, there were 176 applications, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.93, and 60 first-preference applications for those 60 places. That level of demand suggests strong local confidence in the school, even if its ranking places it in the middle of the pack in Trafford.

Academically, St Hugh's delivers solid results that sit close to the local average. In the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 assessments, 70% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, just a point below the Trafford average of 71%. The school performs particularly well in reading, where 90% of pupils met the expected standard and 57% reached the higher standard. Maths is also strong, with 84% at the expected level and an average scaled score of 108. Writing is the weaker area: 74% reached the expected standard and only 11% achieved the higher standard. Nationally, St Hugh's sits in the 30th percentile for the expected standard metric, and regionally in the 29th percentile across the North West. In its most recent Ofsted inspection in October 2024, the school was rated Good across all areas, including quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, early years provision, and leadership and management. This was a change from its previous Outstanding rating in 2013.

The school offers a practical range of facilities including a dining hall, ICT suite, sports hall, library and chapel. Sports on offer include rounders, cricket, tennis and football, and clubs extend to gardening, film club and coding. For families with children who have special educational needs, the school lists provisions for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, and speech, language and communication needs. Parent View responses, based on 211 respondents, show strong overall satisfaction: 89% would recommend the school, and 73% strongly agreed that their child is happy. However, the SEND support question was more polarised, with 27% strongly agreeing and 27% strongly disagreeing that the school gives SEND children the support they need. This is a school that suits families who value a faith-based, well-subscribed local primary with solid but not standout results, and who are prepared for a competitive admissions process.

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