St Oswald's Church of England Primary Academy

About St Oswald's Church of England Primary Academy

St Oswald's Church of England Primary Academy sits well below the Bradford local authority average for its key stage 2 headline measure. While the LA average for pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined stands at 59%, St Oswald's achieves 50%. That gap places the school 117th out of 157 primary schools in the borough, firmly in the bottom half of local schools. The picture is similar nationally, where it ranks in the 80th percentile — meaning roughly four in five schools nationally outperform it on this metric. The school's most recent Ofsted inspection, in November 2023, rated overall effectiveness as Requires Improvement, a downgrade from its previous Good rating in 2018. Leadership and management, along with quality of education, were both judged to require improvement, though inspectors noted that personal development, behaviour and attitudes, and early years provision all remain Good.

Looking more closely at the 2023/24 key stage 2 results, the picture is mixed. In writing, 69% of pupils met the expected standard, which is a solid outcome, and 60% did so in maths. Reading was slightly lower at 58%. However, the proportion reaching the higher standard is very low across all three subjects: just 2% in reading, writing and maths combined, 8% in reading alone, 17% in maths and 4% in writing. Average scaled scores sit at 101 for both reading and maths, exactly the national baseline. Progress measures are not available in the data, so it is unclear whether pupils are making typical gains from their starting points. The school's ranking score of 50 on the key stage 2 expected standard metric places it in the bottom 50 nationally, and it is the lowest-ranked of the four schools within a kilometre that have data.

St Oswald's is a Church of England primary with nursery provision for children from age two, and it is oversubscribed: for 41 places in 2025/26, it received 61 applications, with 41 first-preference offers made. The school has a high proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at 47.2%, well above the national average, and it lists provisions for a wide range of special educational needs, including dyslexia, autism, speech and language difficulties, and social, emotional and mental health needs. Facilities include a library, gymnasium, ICT suite, art studios and a chapel, and the school offers a broad set of clubs from choir and chess to gardening, coding and science club. For families considering this school, the data suggests a setting that serves a high-needs community and is popular locally, but whose academic outcomes currently lag behind both the LA average and many nearby alternatives.

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