St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy

School overview

St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy is a primary school serving Bacup, Lancashire, classified by the DfE as a sponsor-led academy with a Roman Catholic religious character. It has 140 pupils aged 3 to 11 on roll. At its most recent graded inspection, Ofsted rated St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy 'Inadequate'. In the most recent Key Stage 2 SATs, 15% of pupils reached the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined — well below the national average of 61%. That is down 22.0 percentage points in the proportion reaching the expected standard on the previous year, though small year groups can make these figures swing sharply from year to 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 99 in reading and 96 in maths (national averages are about 105 and 104). St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy was not oversubscribed for September 2026: all 5 families who put it first were offered a place. Overall pupil absence was 8.6%. There are about 11.5 pupils per teacher. The school serves a community with above-average levels of disadvantage: about 76% of pupils have been eligible for free school meals in the last six years, compared with roughly 24% nationally — useful context when reading the results above. If you are considering St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary Academy, it may be worth asking how leaders have responded to Ofsted's findings and what has changed since the inspection. 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.