St Thomas Moorside CofE (VA) Primary School

About St Thomas Moorside CofE (VA) Primary School

St Thomas Moorside CofE (VA) Primary School sits within the Oldham local authority, where it ranks 59th out of 67 primary schools on the key stage 2 expected standard measure. That places it in the bottom half of schools locally, well behind the top-performing Church of England peers in the area — Christ Church CofE Primary School, St Martin's CofE Junior Infant and Nursery School, and St Anne's CofE Lydgate Primary School all score significantly higher on the same metric. The school is oversubscribed for 2025/26, with 26 applications for 17 places and all 17 first-preference offers accepted, suggesting strong local demand despite the middling ranking. Headteacher Adam Laskey leads a mixed-gender primary with nursery provision for children aged 3 to 11, and the school has a Church of England religious character. Its most recent Ofsted inspection in June 2024 rated the school Good overall, a downgrade from its previous Outstanding rating in 2015, when leadership, early years provision and overall effectiveness were all judged outstanding.

Academically, the school's key stage 2 results for 2023/24 show a mixed picture. Just 39% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, well below the Oldham local authority average of 58%. Only 6% reached the higher standard across all three subjects. In individual subjects, writing was the strongest area, with 61% reaching the expected standard, compared with 48% in maths and 45% in reading. Average scaled scores were 100 in reading and 99 in maths, both close to the national baseline of 100. The school's ranking in the North West region places it at the 90th percentile, meaning nine out of ten primary schools in the region outperform it on this measure. Nationally, it sits at the 92nd percentile among primary schools. Progress scores are not available in the data, so it is difficult to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils' starting points.

The school offers a range of facilities including a library, playing fields, an outdoor playground, music rooms and a chapel. Sports provision covers rounders, netball, dance, gymnastics, swimming, tennis and athletics, while clubs include science, coding and gardening. SEND support is available for pupils with moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs, hearing impairment and physical disability. With 49.2% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a community with above-average disadvantage. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is Glodwich Infant and Nursery School, 3.8 km away. St Thomas Moorside will suit families who value a Church of England ethos and a school that, while not academically top-ranked, is clearly popular enough locally to be oversubscribed and offers solid pastoral and SEND support alongside a broad extracurricular programme.

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