St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, Ryhope

About St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, Ryhope

St Patrick's Catholic Primary School in Ryhope was rated Good in its most recent Ofsted inspection in March 2024, a rating it has held consistently across its last two inspections. The school's academic story is best told through its Key Stage 2 results for the 2023/24 academic year, where 54% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined. That figure sits below the Sunderland local authority average of 67%, placing the school 67th out of 73 primary schools in the area. Digging into the individual subjects, the picture is mixed: 88% of pupils reached the expected standard in writing, and 75% did so in reading, but maths was weaker at 63%. The proportion of pupils achieving the higher standard in any subject was low, with just 13% hitting that mark in maths and only 4% in reading. The school's national ranking places it in the bottom half of all primary schools in England, at the 71st percentile.

Ofsted's breakdown of the 2024 inspection gives a more rounded view. Every category assessed — quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, and early years provision — was judged Good. The previous inspection in 2015 had also rated overall effectiveness as Good, with leadership and management and early years provision both requiring improvement at that time, so the school has clearly strengthened in those areas. With 169 pupils on roll against a capacity of 175, the school is nearly full. It serves a community where 20.1% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, slightly above the national average. The school's Progress 8 scores for reading, writing and maths are not available in the data, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds on top of starting points.

The school is oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 35 applications for 14 places, a ratio of 2.5 applicants per place, with 13 first-preference offers made. Facilities include a library, sports hall, outdoor playground, ICT suite and a chapel. Sports on offer are cricket, athletics, netball and rounders, while clubs range from gardening and coding to chess, film club and choir. The school has a broad SEND offer, with provisions for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing impairment, autistic spectrum disorder and other difficulties. This is a small, Catholic primary school that suits families prioritising a faith-based environment and a wide range of extracurricular activities, though parents should weigh the below-average KS2 outcomes against the school's strong Ofsted behaviour and personal development ratings. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is St Paul's CofE Primary School, just 0.4 km away.

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