St James' Church of England Primary School

Voluntary aided school·Primary school Blackburn with Darwen·BB3 0QP
Composite score
37.2
Compare St James' Church of England Primary School with another school
#11,781
National rank
#1760
In North West
#42
In Blackburn with Darwen
Top 80%
Nationally

Performance (KS2 SATs)

% meeting expected RWM
50%
% achieving higher RWM
4%
Reading average scaled score
104.0
National avg ≈ 105
Maths average scaled score
104.0
National avg ≈ 104
Reading progress
—
Maths progress
—

Ofsted judgements

Legacy framework · Read full report ↗

Quality of education
Good
Behaviour and attitudes
Good
Personal development
Good
Leadership and management
Good
Safeguarding effective?
Yes
Early years provision
Good

Getting a place

Offered a place after putting it first
90%
31 first choices, 30 places
First choices per place
1.03
more first choices than places
Applications naming the school
96
any preference, for 30 places
First preferences per place, last five years▲ 0.14
00.511.5
1 per place
1.0020220.9620230.9620240.8920251.032026

Red dashed line = one first choice per place. How to read this

We do not have a checked cut-off distance for St James' Church of England Primary School yet. Blackburn with Darwen does publish allocation figures and we are working through them council by council — we only show a distance once we have found it in the council’s own document.

Application figures: DfE, school level applications and offers (2026 intake).

School profile

Age range
4–11
Pupils on roll
191
Gender
Mixed
Religious character
Church of England

Pupil background

% FSM ever-6
26.7%
Typical primary: 21.5%
% EAL
19.9%
Typical primary: 9.6%

Special educational needs

% SEN support
11.5%
Typical primary: 14.3%
% with an EHC plan
5.8%
Typical primary: 3.0%

Attendance

Overall absence
6.2%
Typical primary: 5.3%
Persistently absent
19.9%
Typical primary: 13.3%

Staffing & funding

Pupils per teacher
20.3
Typical primary: 20.7
Spend per pupil
£7,159
Typical primary: £6,960

“Typical” = the median primary school in England. What this means

Nearby primary schools

Location

School overview

St James' Church of England Primary School is a primary school serving Blackburn with Darwen, classified by the DfE as a voluntary aided school with a Church of England religious character. It has 191 pupils aged 4 to 11 on roll. 50% of its pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at the end of Key Stage 2, below the national average (national figure: 61%). Performance is little changed year on year. On our composite score, which combines the DfE attainment measures above, this places it in the lower half of primary schools nationally.

Pupils achieved an average scaled score of 104 in reading and 104 in maths (national averages are about 105 and 104). 4% reached the higher standard across all three subjects (around 8% do so nationally). St James' Church of England Primary School is oversubscribed: about 9 in 10 of the families who made it their first choice were offered a Reception place for September 2026, with 31 first choices for 30 places. Overall pupil absence was 6.2%. There are about 20.3 pupils per teacher. St James' Church of England Primary School does not currently have a recent graded Ofsted judgement on record (often the case for newer or recently converted schools), so it is worth asking when its next inspection is expected. This overview is generated automatically from the latest published DfE performance tables and Ofsted data; figures are rounded, and you can check the originals via the official links above.

Compare St James' Church of England Primary School with another school