St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

About St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

St Joseph's Catholic Primary School is a small state primary in Cumberland, serving just 45 pupils aged 4 to 11. It sits within a local authority that contains 144 primary schools, and its ranking of 107th places it firmly in the bottom half of the LA table. The top-performing peers in the area — Jericho Primary School, Irthington Village School, and Shankhill CofE Primary School — all hold higher ranking scores, which gives a sense of the competitive landscape for families comparing options. The school is Roman Catholic in character and led by headteacher Annette Savage. It is oversubscribed for the 2025/26 intake, with 5 first-preference applications for 5 places and a total of 6 applications overall, suggesting that while demand is modest, it is still slightly higher than the number of places available. The school has capacity for 84 pupils, so there is room to grow, and 26.7% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is above the national average.

Academically, the school's most recent Ofsted inspection in January 2025 confirmed a Good rating, with leadership and management, early years provision, and overall effectiveness all judged Good. The previous graded inspection in 2015 also rated the school Good, and the ungraded visit in 2025 noted that standards were maintained. However, the Key Stage 2 results for 2023/24 tell a more challenging story. Only 25% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing, and maths combined, compared with the Cumberland LA average of 54%. The school's average reading score was 98 and maths score 96, both below the national benchmark of 100. Just 13% of pupils achieved the higher standard in each subject. In the national rankings, the school sits in the bottom 50 tier, at the 98th percentile — meaning only 2% of schools nationally scored lower on this metric.

The school offers a range of facilities including a dining hall, library, gymnasium, playing fields, and a chapel, and pupils can take part in sports such as athletics, netball, football, and swimming. Clubs include choir, coding, film club, art club, and science club. SEND provisions cover specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, visual impairment, and autistic spectrum disorder. Parent View responses from 14 families in the 2024/25 period show strong satisfaction: 100% agreed their child is happy, 92% felt their child does well, and 100% agreed the school has high expectations. However, 21% disagreed that behaviour is well managed, and 14% disagreed that concerns are dealt with properly. This is a school that will suit families who value a small, faith-based setting with strong pastoral care, but who are realistic about its academic outcomes relative to local averages.

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