South Yorkshire continues to be home to plenty of primary schools with a strong track record of giving their young pupils a solid educational foundation.
The Government’s preliminary performance figures for state-funded primary schools were released last month, shortly after it published delayed performance figures for secondary schools. From this data, we’ve been able to compare how state primary schools across the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield council areas did in the most recent school year - to create a league table of South Yorkshire’s top performers.
The key figure it’s based on is 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 key areas: reading, writing and maths. This has given some smaller village schools the chance to shine, as well as the larger city schools that made the list.
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 are the 17 schools from across South Yorkshire that stood out from the crowd in the last school year:
5. Roughwood Primary School
Roughwood is a primary school in Rotherham, with about 266 pupils. It was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 85% of its pupils also met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 59% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
6. Thurgoland Church of England Primary School
This is an Anglican primary school in the village of Thurgoland, in the Barnsley borough. It has a roll size of about 206, and was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 85% of its pupils once again met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 61% both locally and nationally. | Google
7. Dobcroft Junior School
Dobcroft is a junior school in Sheffield which takes children from the age of 7. It has about 380 pupils, and was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 84% of its pupils met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 56% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
8. Hunningley Primary Academy
Hunningley is a primary school in Barnsley, with about 409 pupils. It was formerly rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 84% of its pupils also met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 61% both locally and nationally. | Google