St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, Sabden

About St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, Sabden

St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School in Sabden is a small village primary with just 68 pupils, and its headline academic metrics sit well below the Lancashire local authority average for similar schools. At Key Stage 2, only 10% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, compared with a county average of 60%. That is a stark gap, and it places the school at the very bottom of the Ribble Valley rankings — 25th out of 25 primaries — and in the bottom 1% nationally. The school's reading and maths average scores tell a similar story: a reading average of 101 and a maths average of 95, with no pupils reaching the higher standard in any of the three subjects. These are not the numbers most parents hope to see, and they suggest that for a family prioritising strong academic outcomes at the end of primary, this school may not be the right fit.

That said, the picture is not entirely one-dimensional. In its most recent graded inspection in 2014, Ofsted rated the school Good overall, with leadership and management also judged Good. A subsequent ungraded inspection in 2022 confirmed that the school remains Good, meaning the leadership team has maintained quality despite the challenging results. The previous inspection in 2011 also rated the school Good, so there is consistency in the judgement. At Key Stage 2, individual subject results show some variation: 60% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, and 50% did so in writing, which are closer to the national picture, while maths was the weakest area at just 10% expected. The school's Progress 8 data is not available, so it is difficult to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils' starting points, but the raw outcomes are clearly below par.

St Mary's is a Roman Catholic school with a chapel on site, and it offers a range of facilities including a sensory room, sports hall, forest school and gymnasium. The school has identified SEND provisions for moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, and autistic spectrum disorder, which suggests it is equipped to support children with additional needs. The school was oversubscribed for 2025/26 entry, with 17 applications for 5 places and all first-preference applicants offered a spot, giving an oversubscription ratio of 3.4. This level of demand in a small village setting may reflect local reputation or faith preference rather than academic league table performance. For families who value a small, faith-based community school with strong pastoral and SEND support, and who are comfortable with below-average exam results, St Mary's could be a good match.

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