Families of more than 5,000 primary school starters across Sheffield will soon be sending their children off to a brand new primary school.
Just like thousands of others across the wider city, they’ll be entrusting these schools with an important task; building up a solid foundation of essential academic skills their pupils will need to thrive throughout the rest of their time in education - and beyond.
The end of the current school year is now upon us, with the summer holidays set to begin around July 23 for most schools in the Sheffield City Council area. Pupils will then head back for the 2025/26 school year at the start of September, including the thousands of new starters entering Reception classes.
To mark the occasion, we’ve taken a closer look at the performance of state-funded primary schools across the Sheffield council area - to celebrate those that have excelled at teaching pupils key school skills. This is based on our own unique metric, which primarily draws on the proportion of each school’s pupils who completed Year 6 in the most recently-completed 2023/24 academic year, and met the Government’s expected standards in three essential school skills areas: reading, writing and maths.
We’ve limited the list to local schools with more than 75% of their pupils meeting this important mark, surpassing both the citywide and national averages. This data has now been finalised, so it is worth noting that results and placings may differ slightly from earlier reports based on interim results.
But performance isn’t the only thing that makes a school a great place to learn, so we also made sure each one we included had a positive rating in its latest Ofsted inspection. These are in the middle of some big changes, but we’ve restricted the list to schools with either a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ overall grade under the previous system, or positive ratings across all categories under the current one. This means their quality of education, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and safeguarding practices all met or exceeded government standards.
Here were the 15 schools that came out on top:
1. Mundella Primary School
At the top of the list is Mundella, a local authority-maintained primary school in the Norton Lees area. It has a roll size of about 415, and in a recent Ofsted inspection, was found to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ in all categories. In the 2023/24 school year, 85% of its pupils met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 56% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
2. Dobcroft Junior School
Next up is this local authority-maintained junior school in the Millhouses area, for pupils aged 7 to 11. It has about 380 pupils, and was most recently 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
3. Angram Bank Primary School
Angram Bank is a local authority-maintained primary school in the High Green area. It has a roll size of about 216, and was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 82% of its pupils met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 56% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
4. Totley Primary School
This is a primary academy in the Totley area. It has about 423 pupils, and in a recent Ofsted inspection, was found to be ‘outstanding’ in all categories. In the 2023/24 school year, 82% of its pupils also met the government’s expected standards in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 56% locally and 61% nationally. | Google