The summer holidays are in full swing for primary pupils across the country - but a new year of learning is already peeking over the horizon.
Schoolchildren are due back in class for the start of the 2025/26 school year in early September - along with some 46,520 youngsters across the East Midlands who have applied for a place at a new primary school. Thousands of these children will also be entering Reception, where they will start building up a core suite of school skills that will serve them well throughout the rest of their time in education, if not their lives.
With this in mind, we’ve revisited at the top primary schools across each of the East Midlands’ council areas, when it comes to teaching their pupils these key skills.
This league table is based on our own unique metric. The key figure it uses is the proportion of each school’s pupils that completed Year 6 in the most recently-available academic year (currently 2023/24 ), and met the Government’s expected standards in three essential areas: reading, writing and maths. We’ve only included those with the very highest percentages of pupils meeting this important mark - which has allowed smaller village schools to shine alongside larger city schools.
On top of that, we made sure that each school 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 official standards.
Here were the East Midlands schools that came out on top:
17. Hartwell Primary School
This is an Anglican primary academy in Hartwell, West Northamptonshire, with a roll size of about 177. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 92% of its pupils also met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 63% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
18. Ketton Church of England Primary School
This is an Anglican primary academy in Ketton, in the Rutland district. It has about 189 pupils, and was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 92% of its pupils met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 69% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
19. Long Whatton Church of England Primary School
This is a local authority-maintained Anglican primary school in the village of Long Whatton, near Loughborough, Leicestershire. It has about 91 pupils, and was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 92% 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
20. Briar Hill Primary School & Nursery
Briar Hill is a primary academy in Northampton, with about 331 pupils. It was most recently rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 91% of its pupils met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 63% locally and 61% nationally. | Google