St Raphael's Catholic Primary School

About St Raphael's Catholic Primary School

St Raphael's Catholic Primary School sits within Ealing, a London borough with 65 primary schools, and ranks 35th among them — squarely in the middle of the pack. The three top-performing peers in the local authority are Ark Byron Primary Academy, Little Ealing Primary School and Southfield Primary School, all of which outrank it on the same KS2 metric. Still, St Raphael's holds a solid position: it falls within the top 50 nationally for its tier, and its most recent graded Ofsted inspection, carried out in 2012, rated it Good overall, with leadership and management also judged Good. An ungraded inspection in 2022 confirmed the school remains Good. That consistency matters in a borough where 14 primaries have achieved Outstanding. The nearest Outstanding-rated school, Gifford Primary School, is about two kilometres away, so for Catholic families in particular, St Raphael's offers a faith-based option that is performing reliably without being among the very highest scorers locally.

Academically, the school's 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results show 71% of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined — exactly in line with the Ealing local authority average of 71%. That puts it in the middle of the field, but the detail is more nuanced. In writing, 88% of pupils met the expected standard, well above the reading figure of 75% and maths at 81%. At the higher standard, the picture is patchier: 32% reached the higher bar in reading, 29% in maths, but only 9% in writing and just 7% across all three subjects. Average scaled scores sit at 105 for both reading and maths, which is slightly above the national benchmark of 100. The school does not publish progress scores for any of the three core subjects, so it is not possible to say how much value it adds relative to pupils' starting points. Still, the expected-standard results are respectable and consistent with the local norm.

The school is oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, it received 93 applications for 49 places, with 46 of those coming as first preferences. That ratio of 1.9 applicants per place suggests strong local demand, particularly among Catholic families. Facilities include a library, playing fields, art studios, a forest school and a chapel, and the sports programme covers cross country, gymnastics, rounders, athletics, netball and cricket. After-school clubs range from choir and drama to coding and chess. The nursery provision means children can join from age three, and the SEND department is well-equipped, offering support for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, speech and language needs, social and emotional mental health challenges, hearing impairment and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a school that suits families who want a faith-based primary with a broad extracurricular offer and a clear track record of meeting the borough average, without necessarily pushing for the highest academic ceilings.

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