St Mary and St Benedict Catholic Primary School

About St Mary and St Benedict Catholic Primary School

When you compare St Mary and St Benedict Catholic Primary School against the Coventry local authority average for Key Stage 2, the headline figure is a dead heat. The school’s proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined sits at exactly 58%, matching the LA average of 58% for primary schools. That places it squarely in the middle of the pack — ranked 44th out of 85 schools in Coventry, and in the bottom half nationally. But the devil is in the detail. While the combined figure is average, the school’s maths and reading scores tell a slightly stronger story: the average maths scaled score is 104 and reading 105, both above the national baseline of 100. However, the proportion hitting the higher standard in all three subjects is just 7%, and writing is a particular weak spot, with only 7% reaching the higher threshold compared to 24% in reading. So this is a school that gets most children to the expected level, but struggles to push them beyond it.

The school’s most recent Ofsted inspection, in January 2023, rated it Good across every category — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision. That’s a clean sweep of Good grades, and a clear improvement on its previous inspection in 2013, which also rated it Good overall but didn’t assess several of the sub-categories. In terms of academic progress, the data doesn’t include Progress 8 scores, so we can’t measure how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points. But the raw outcomes show a school that is broadly in line with its local peers. For context, the top-performing school in Coventry, St John Vianney Catholic Primary, scores 86 on the ranking metric, while St Mary and St Benedict scores 58. That’s a significant gap, but the school is not an outlier — it sits in the middle of the distribution, performing similarly to many other Coventry primaries.

St Mary and St Benedict is a Roman Catholic primary with a nursery provision, serving 351 pupils against a capacity of 354, so it’s essentially full. It’s also heavily oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake, there were 93 applications for 45 places, with 43 first-preference offers made from 49 first-preference applications — an oversubscription ratio of 2.07. That suggests strong local demand, particularly from Catholic families. The school has a high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at 41.2%, well above the national average, and its SEND provisions are broad, covering dyslexia, autistic spectrum disorder, speech and language needs, and social, emotional and mental health support. Facilities include a sensory room, chapel, ICT suite, sports hall and playing fields, with clubs ranging from drama and science to gardening. For families who want a faith-based primary that is solidly Good, oversubscribed but accessible, and strong on inclusion, this school fits the bill — just don’t expect exceptional academic stretch.

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