High-achieving primary schools setting their young pupils up with the skills they need to succeed can be found dotted across Yorkshire.
The government’s latest preliminary performance figures for state-funded primary schools were released today (12 December), a week after it published delayed performance figures for secondary schools. From this new data, we’ve created a league table ranking state primary schools across all of Yorkshire’s council areas.
It is based on the percentage of each school’s pupils who completed Year 6 in the most recently ended school year, 2023-24, who met the government’s expected standards in three essential school skills: reading, writing and maths. All schools included on the list had at least 90% of their pupils hit this target. This gave many smaller village and community schools the chance to shine, while also allowing larger primary schools in and around cities like York and Leeds - typically with many more pupils to get across the goalposts - to prove they too can excel.
Each school included also had an overall Ofsted rating of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ before this measure was recently dropped, or, if they’ve been inspected more recently, had at least ‘good’ grades across the board. This means that the quality of education provided, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management and student safeguarding were all found to meet or exceed government standards last time the school was inspected.
Here were 22 schools from across Yorkshire that stood out from the pack:
13. St Mary's CofE Junior and and Infant School
St Mary’s is an Anglican primary school in the village of Mill Bank, near Sowerby Bridge in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted, and is a smaller school with a roll size of 81. In the 2023/24 school year, 92% of its pupils met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 59% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
14. All Saints' CofE Primary School
All Saints is an Anglican primary school in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, with a roll size of about 345. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 91% of its pupils met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 59% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
15. Fairburn Community Primary School
This is a community primary school in Fairburn, North Yorkshire. It was formerly rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted, and has about 89 pupils. In the 2023/24 school year, 91% of its pupils met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 58% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
16. Lord Deramore's Primary School
Lord Deramore’s is a primary school in Heslington, on the outskirts of York, North Yorkshire. It was formerly rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted, and has about 218 pupils. In the 2023/24 school year, 91% of its pupils met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 62% locally and 61% nationally. | Google