St Simon's Catholic Primary School

About St Simon's Catholic Primary School

St Simon's Catholic Primary School in Stockport holds a Good rating from its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2023, a grade it has maintained consistently across both its recent inspections. The school's exam results for the 2023/24 academic year tell a more nuanced story. While 52% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, this falls below the Stockport local authority average of 62%. In the local rankings, St Simon's sits at 45th out of 67 primary schools, placing it in the bottom half of the borough. However, individual subject scores offer a brighter picture: reading and writing both saw 70% of pupils reach the expected standard, and the average maths score of 103 and reading score of 104 are solid. Only 4% of pupils achieved the higher standard in writing, though 17% did so in both reading and maths. The school's ranking metric is based on the combined expected standard, which explains its bottom-50 tier placement nationally.

Looking closer at the Ofsted breakdown, inspectors rated every category as Good, including behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. The early years provision also received a Good rating, which is an improvement from the Requires Improvement grade it received in the 2014 inspection. With 191 pupils on roll against a capacity of 210, the school is not at full capacity but is clearly popular: for the 2025/26 intake, there were 56 applications for just 18 places, with 19 first-preference applications for those 18 spots, making it oversubscribed by a ratio of 3.11 to one. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is 10.1%, which is relatively modest.

The school offers a strong range of facilities including a sensory room, forest school area, music rooms, sports hall, ICT suite, playing fields, art studios and a chapel. Clubs cover drama, choir, chess, art, coding and book club, while sports include gymnastics, rounders, swimming and cricket. For families with children who have additional needs, the school lists provisions for specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, visual impairment, physical disability and autistic spectrum disorder. St Simon's is a Roman Catholic primary with nursery provision, and it will suit families who prioritise a faith-based setting with a broad extracurricular offer, though those focused purely on academic league table performance may want to look at higher-ranked local options like Gatley Primary School or the nearest Outstanding-rated school, St Peter's Catholic Primary School, which is 1.4 kilometres away.

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