St Peter's Catholic Primary School

About St Peter's Catholic Primary School

St Peter's Catholic Primary School sits within the West Sussex local authority, a large county with 226 primary schools. In the most recent local rankings, the school placed 107th, placing it in the middle of the pack. Its closest top-performing peers in the area include Barns Green Primary School, Heron Way Primary School, and Aldingbourne Primary School, all of which scored higher on the same ranking metric. St Peter's is a state-funded Roman Catholic primary for mixed-gender pupils aged 4 to 11, with headteacher Mary Claffey leading a school of 202 children, just shy of its 210-pupil capacity. The school is oversubscribed: for the 2025/26 intake, it received 57 applications for 22 places, with all 22 first-preference applicants offered a spot, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.59. Just 4% of pupils are eligible for free school meals, well below the national average, and the school does not offer nursery provision or a sixth form.

Academically, St Peter's holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a significant improvement from its previous Requires Improvement judgement in 2013. In its most recent graded inspection, leadership and management, early years provision, and overall effectiveness were all rated Good. At Key Stage 2, 53% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing, and maths combined, which is slightly below the West Sussex local authority average of 56%. The school's strongest individual subject was reading, where 80% reached the expected standard and 33% achieved a higher score. Maths saw 73% at expected and 20% at the higher level, while writing lagged behind at 60% expected and just 10% higher. Average scaled scores were 106 in reading and 104 in maths. Nationally, the school ranks in the bottom half for its combined KS2 measure, sitting at the 73rd percentile.

Parents are overwhelmingly positive. In the most recent Parent View survey, 94% would recommend the school, and 97% agreed or strongly agreed that their child is happy. Strong majorities also felt children are safe and well behaved. The school offers a solid range of facilities including a chapel, forest school, music rooms, and an ICT suite, plus sports like netball, football, and cricket. Clubs include drama, choir, chess, gardening, book club, and science club. SEND provision is broad, covering specific learning difficulties, speech and language needs, autism, and physical disabilities, though 14% of responding parents have a child with SEND. This is a faith-based school that suits Catholic families in Mid Sussex who prioritise a supportive, community feel and are comfortable with solid but not outstanding academic outcomes.

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