When it comes to developing the skills young children will need for future success, the primary school years matter.
The summer holidays have now come to an end for most schoolchildren across Northumberland, who will have headed back to school on Monday - or will be doing so sometime in the coming week. Their return to the classroom marks the start of the new, 2025/26 school year, and for the 2,500 new children set to enter Reception classes across the county, the start of a lifelong learning journey.
With this in mind, we’ve revisited the top-performing primary schools across the Northumberland County Council area based on our own unique metric. The key figure this draws on is the proportion of each school’s pupils who completed Year 6 in the 2023/24 academic year (the most recent data currently available), and met the Government’s expected standards in three essential school skills areas: reading, writing and maths.
We’ve only included schools which had at least 70% of their pupils meet this important mark, giving both smaller village schools and larger ones in centres like Blyth and Cramlington the opportunity to shine. But grades aren’t the only marker of what makes a school an excellent place to learn, so we’ve also made sure each school included had a positive rating in its latest Ofsted inspection.
These inspections 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 that the quality of education, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and safeguarding practices all met or exceeded Government standards.
Here were the 18 local primary schools which came out on top:
1. Eastlea Primary School
At the top of the list is Eastlea, a local authority-maintained primary school in Cramlington. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted, and has a roll size of about 222. 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
2. Bede Academy
Bede Academy is a Christian all-through academy in Blyth, most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. It has more than 2,000 students on its roll overall. In the 2023/24 school year, 81% of its primary pupils met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths – compared to averages of 56% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
3. Belsay Primary School
This is a primary academy in the village of Belsay, near Ponteland. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted, and has a roll size of about 83. In the 2023/24 school year, 81% of its pupils also met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths. | Google
4. Shilbottle Primary School
This is another smaller, village primary academy in Shilbottle, near Alnwick. It was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted, and has about 81 pupils. In the 2023/24 school year, 80% of its pupils met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths – compared to averages of 56% locally and 61% nationally. | Google