Ursuline Catholic Primary School

About Ursuline Catholic Primary School

Ursuline Catholic Primary School in Sefton holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it has maintained across its two most recent inspections, including an ungraded visit in 2024 that confirmed the school remains Good. The most telling academic metric is the Key Stage 2 combined reading, writing and maths expected standard: just 30% of pupils reached that benchmark in 2023/24. That figure is well below the Sefton local authority average of 59%, and it places the school 57th out of 59 primary schools in the borough. In the North West region, Ursuline ranks in the bottom 5% of schools, and nationally it sits in the 97th percentile of lowest-performing schools on this measure. The school’s ranking score of 30 on this metric puts it firmly in the bottom 50 tier, a significant gap from the top-performing local primaries like St Thomas Church of England Primary School, Lydiate, which scores 93.

Breaking down the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 results, the picture is mixed across subjects. In reading, 55% of pupils met the expected standard and 22% reached the higher standard, with an average scaled score of 102. Writing fared better, with 70% achieving the expected standard, though only 3% reached greater depth. Maths was weaker: 35% met the expected standard, just 5% hit the higher standard, and the average scaled score was 98. Progress scores are not available for the school, so it is not possible to say how much value the school adds relative to pupils’ starting points. The school’s most recent graded Ofsted inspection, in 2015, rated leadership and management, early years provision, and overall effectiveness all as Good. The 2024 ungraded inspection found the school continues to meet the same standard, though no breakdown for quality of education, personal development, or behaviour was published in the data.

Ursuline is a state primary for mixed pupils aged 4 to 11, with a Roman Catholic character and a headteacher, Nichola Robinson, leading a school that is near capacity at 414 pupils against a capacity of 420. It is oversubscribed: for 2025/26, there were 147 applications for 59 places, with 48 offers made to first-preference families out of 49 first-preference applications. The school offers a range of facilities including a sports hall, ICT suite, music rooms, library, forest school, and a chapel. Sports include tennis, gymnastics, rounders, and football, while clubs cover science, art, coding, and choir. The school has a broad SEND offer, with provisions for specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication needs, hearing impairment, physical disability, and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a school that suits Catholic families in Sefton who prioritise a faith-based environment and a wide range of enrichment activities, but who should be aware that academic outcomes at Key Stage 2 are significantly below local averages.

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