St Johns Primary School

About St Johns Primary School

St Johns Primary School in Newcastle upon Tyne sits well below the local authority average for Key Stage 2 outcomes, with just 54% of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with a Newcastle average of 63%. That nine-point gap places the school 44th out of 55 primaries in the borough, firmly in the bottom half of local schools. The picture is more mixed when you look at individual subjects: 71% of pupils met the expected standard in reading and 68% did so in writing and maths, but the proportion reaching the higher standard in reading was only 7%, and in maths 25%. These figures reflect a school serving a community with high levels of disadvantage — 68.1% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, more than three times the national average — and the context matters when interpreting the results.

Despite the below-average headline scores, St Johns was rated Good in its most recent Ofsted inspection in March 2024, with the ungraded visit confirming the school remains Good and is improving. Leadership and management were also judged Good. The previous graded inspection in 2014 gave the same overall rating, so the school has held a steady Good for at least a decade. Progress scores for reading, writing and maths were not published in the data, which makes it harder to judge how much value the school adds relative to its intake. What is clear is that the proportion of pupils achieving the higher standard in reading, writing and maths combined was just 4%, and the school ranks in the bottom 50 nationally on the expected standard metric. For parents focused purely on academic outcomes, St Johns is not a high-performing school by local or national measures.

The school is oversubscribed: for 30 places in 2025/26, it received 49 applications, with 31 first-preference applications and 30 offers made. That suggests strong local demand despite the modest results. Facilities include an outdoor playground, gymnasium, music rooms, sports hall, playing fields and a chapel, and the school runs clubs ranging from book club and choir to gardening, science and eco club. Sports on offer include dance, football, cricket and swimming. SEND provision is broad, covering specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, physical disability, autistic spectrum disorder and other difficulties. With nursery provision on site and a 3–11 age range, St Johns suits families in the west of Newcastle who value a community primary with strong pastoral and SEND support, and who are realistic about academic outcomes in a high-deprivation context.

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