St Wilfrids Catholic Primary School

About St Wilfrids Catholic Primary School

St Wilfrids Catholic Primary School in Arun was rated Good overall by Ofsted in its most recent inspection in 2018, a significant improvement from its previous Requires Improvement rating in 2016. The school’s leadership and management were also judged Good, and its early years provision was singled out as Outstanding. When it comes to the most telling academic metric for a primary school, the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined sits at 48 per cent. That is below the West Sussex local authority average of 56 per cent, placing the school 128th out of 226 primaries in the county. Nationally, it ranks in the bottom half of schools on this measure, at the 82nd percentile. The picture is more mixed when you look at individual subjects: 70 per cent of pupils met the expected standard in reading, and 65 per cent in writing, but maths was lower at 57 per cent.

At the higher standard, the gaps widen further. Just 26 per cent of pupils achieved a higher score in reading, 9 per cent in maths, and none at all in writing or in the combined reading, writing and maths measure. Average scaled scores were 105 for reading and 102 for maths, both slightly above the national baseline of 100. The school has no progress scores published for any subject, so it is not possible to see how much value it adds relative to pupils’ starting points. In the local authority rankings for Arun, St Wilfrids sits 18th out of 27 schools, putting it in the bottom 50 per cent of its immediate area. Its three top-performing local peers — Heron Way, Barns Green and Aldingbourne Primary Schools — all achieved ranking scores of 84 or higher, compared with St Wilfrids’ score of 48.

The school is a small Roman Catholic primary with 158 pupils against a capacity of 210, and it is heavily oversubscribed: for 2025/26 entry, there were 46 applications for just 14 places, with all 14 first-preference offers taken up. That gives an oversubscription ratio of 3.29, so securing a place is competitive. Facilities include a chapel, sensory room, forest school, art and music rooms, and an ICT suite. Sports on offer include swimming, netball, tennis and cricket, and clubs include book, science and drama. The school has identified SEND provisions for specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health needs, speech and language needs, and autistic spectrum disorder. With 19.6 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a moderately disadvantaged intake. It suits families who prioritise a Catholic faith setting and a small, close-knit school community, but who are aware that academic outcomes in core subjects are below the local average.

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