Thursby Primary School

About Thursby Primary School

Thursby Primary School is a small state primary in Cumberland, operating well below its capacity of 140 pupils with just 107 children on roll. That spare capacity is notable given the school is oversubscribed for Reception places: for the 2025/26 intake, it received 19 applications for 12 places, with all 12 first-preference applicants offered a spot. The oversubscription ratio of 1.58 suggests solid local demand, but the school isn't stretched to its limits. Its free school meal rate of 19.4% sits above the national average for primary schools, indicating a catchment with above-average levels of disadvantage. The school is mixed, non-religious, and serves ages 3 to 11, with a nursery on site. Headteacher Carl Barnes leads a team that has kept the school stable through its most recent Ofsted inspection, which confirmed it remains Good.

Academically, Thursby performs around the middle of the pack in Cumberland. In the 2023/24 KS2 assessments, 58% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, slightly above the local authority average of 54%. That places the school 46th out of 111 primary schools in the LA, and in the bottom half nationally. Individual subject results show reading and writing as relative strengths, with 79% of pupils reaching expected levels in both, compared to 63% in maths. Higher-standard attainment is modest: just 5% achieved the higher benchmark across all three subjects, though 26% did so in reading and writing individually. Progress scores are not available in the data, so it's hard to say how much value the school adds, but the raw outcomes suggest a solid, if not exceptional, academic offering.

The school offers a decent range of facilities for its size, including a library, sensory room, ICT suite, sports hall and playing fields, plus a chapel on site. Sports provision covers swimming, cricket, gymnastics, netball, tennis, athletics and rounders, and there are clubs for art, choir, drama, gardening, science and book club. SEND support is targeted at specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, speech and language needs, and social, emotional and mental health challenges. For families considering Thursby, the key takeaway is a small, oversubscribed but not overcrowded school with solid KS2 results that beat the local average, a good Ofsted rating, and a broad-enough enrichment offer. It will particularly suit families who value a manageable school community and don't need a high-performing academic outlier.

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