Primary schools across the East Midlands helped thousands of children start their educational journey on the right foot in the last school year.
The government’s latest preliminary performance figures for state-funded primary schools were released this week, a week after it published delayed performance figures for secondary schools. From this new data, we’ve created a league table ranking how state primary schools did across all of the East Midlands.
It is primarily 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 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 centres like Leicester and Nottingham - typically with many more pupils to consider - to prove they too can help most of them 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 30 primary schools from across the East Midlands that topped our list:
1. Greatworth Primary School
At the top of the list is a smaller village primary school in Greatworth, West Northamptonshire. It has a roll size of about 64, and was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 100% of its pupils met the government’s expected standard in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 63% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
2. Helmdon Primary School
Another West Northamptonshire village primary school, this one is in Helmdon, near Brackley. It has a roll size of about 107, and was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, it too had 100% of its pupils meet the government’s expected standard in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 63% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
3. John Blow Primary School
John Blow is a primary school in Collingham, Nottinghamshire, with about 170 pupils. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 100% of its pupils met the government’s expected standard in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 62% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
4. Longford CofE Primary School
This is an Anglican primary school in the village of Longford, Derbyshire. It is a smaller community school with about 54 pupils, and was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 100% of its pupils met the government’s expected standard in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 58% locally and 61% nationally. | Google