Whitchurch CofE Junior Academy

About Whitchurch CofE Junior Academy

Whitchurch CofE Junior Academy was rated Good across all five categories in its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2023, a significant improvement from its previous overall rating of Inadequate in 2017. The school’s leadership and management, quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and personal development all received a Good mark. On the key academic metric for primary schools, 58% of pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined in the 2023/24 Key Stage 2 assessments. That figure sits just one percentage point below the Shropshire local authority average of 59%, placing the school 47th out of 88 primary schools in the area. While this is a solid middle-of-the-pack result, the school ranks in the bottom 50% nationally for this measure, suggesting there is room to push more pupils over the expected threshold.

Looking deeper into the individual subject scores, the school’s strongest performance was in maths, where 79% of pupils reached the expected standard and the average scaled score was 104. Reading and writing expected rates were lower, at 64% and 78% respectively, and the proportion of pupils achieving the higher standard across all three subjects was just 6%. The school does not publish progress scores for reading, writing or maths, so it is not possible to see how much value it adds relative to pupils’ starting points. However, the Ofsted report noted that behaviour and attitudes are Good, and the school has a clear Church of England character. With 26.3% of pupils eligible for free school meals, the school serves a community with above-average disadvantage compared to the national primary average.

The school offers a broad range of facilities including a sports hall, playing fields, an ICT suite, art studios, a sensory room and a chapel. Sports provision covers netball, football, dance, cricket, cross country, rounders and gymnastics, and there are clubs for choir, science, chess and book club. SEND provision is well-documented, supporting pupils with specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, moderate learning difficulties, speech and language needs, hearing and visual impairments, and social, emotional and mental health needs. With a capacity of 360 and 312 pupils on roll, the school is not oversubscribed, which may appeal to families looking for a stable, community-focused junior school in Shropshire. Whitchurch CofE Junior Academy is best suited to parents who value a supportive, faith-based environment with solid but not outstanding academic outcomes, and who want a school that has demonstrably turned around its performance under current headteacher Sarah Camacho.

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