St Martin & St Mary Church of England Primary School

About St Martin & St Mary Church of England Primary School

St Martin & St Mary Church of England Primary School holds a Good rating from its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2024, with the school judged to have remained at that standard in a subsequent ungraded visit. The inspection breakdown reveals real strengths in leadership and management, which were rated Outstanding, and early years provision also earned an Outstanding grade. On the headline academic metric for primary schools, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined was 39 per cent in the 2023/24 academic year. That is notably below the Westmorland and Furness local authority average of 58 per cent, placing the school 87th out of 99 primary schools in the area. Nationally, it sits in the bottom half of schools on this measure. The school’s ranking score of 39 reflects this, and it is worth noting that the top-performing local peer, Yarlside Academy, scored 100 on the same metric.

Looking more closely at the individual subject results, 65 per cent of pupils met the expected standard in maths and the same proportion in writing, while reading was slightly lower at 57 per cent. The average scaled scores in both reading and maths were 101, exactly the national benchmark. Higher standard attainment was low across the board: 13 per cent in reading, 4 per cent in maths and just 2 per cent in writing. Progress scores are not available in the data, so it is difficult to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points. The Ofsted report does not provide a separate grade for quality of education, but the Outstanding leadership rating suggests strong oversight of teaching and learning. With 361 pupils on roll against a capacity of 420, the school is not full, and the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is 8.2 per cent, below the national average.

The school offers a nursery provision for children from age two, and admission for the 2025/26 reception year was oversubscribed, with 33 first-preference applications for 33 places and a total of 42 applications overall. Facilities include playing fields, an outdoor playground, art studios, an ICT suite, music rooms and a chapel. Sports on offer are netball, athletics, rounders and cross country, while clubs range from book club and gardening to science club, choir, coding and eco club. The school has identified five categories of special educational needs and disabilities it supports, including dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social emotional and mental health needs, speech language and communication needs, and physical disability. This is a Church of England primary in Westmorland and Furness that suits families who prioritise strong early years provision and leadership, and who are comfortable with a school where combined academic outcomes are below the local average but individual subject results are closer to national norms.

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