The wider Lancashire county has shortage of fantastic state primary schools, and the Burnley area has shown it has its fair share too.
The government’s latest preliminary performance figures for state-funded primary schools were released last month, shortly after it published its delayed performance figures for secondary schools. From this data, we’ve been able to compare how primary schools in the Burnley parliament constituency did, when it came to key performance metrics.
We’ve created a league table based on the percentage of each school’s pupils who completed Year 6 in the 2023/24 academic year, who met the government’s expected standards in three areas: reading, writing and maths. We’ve included only schools which met or exceeded 60% - the Lancashire County Council area’s average.
But academic performance isn’t everything, so we’ve also made sure that each school included 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 surpass government standards last time the school was inspected.
Here are the 9 Burnley schools that made the list:
1. St John's CofE Primary School, Cliviger
St John’s is an Anglican primary school in the Cliviger area, formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. It has a roll size of about 198 pupils. In the 2023/24 school year, 81% of its pupils met the Government’s expected standards for reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 60% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
2. Wellfield Methodist and Anglican Church School
This is an ecumenical primary school in Burnley proper. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted, and has about 203 pupils. In the 2023/24 school year, 80% of its pupils met the Government’s expected standards for reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 60% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
3. Casterton Primary Academy
Casterton is a primary school in the Burnley Lane area, formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. It has about 297 pupils. In the 2023/24 school year, 78% of its pupils met the Government’s expected standards for reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 60% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
4. Burnley Stoneyholme Community Primary School
This is a primary school in the Stoneyholme part of Burnley, formerly rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. It has a roll size of about 423. In the 2023/24 school year, 69% of its pupils met the Government’s expected standards for reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 60% locally and 61% nationally. | Google