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St James Catholic Primary School

Primary · Birmingham · B45 9BN

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Outstanding

Graded inspection under the pre-November 2025 system

This is an overall-effectiveness grade from the previous inspection framework. The school has not yet had a report-card inspection.

Quality of education: OutstandingBehaviour & attitudes: OutstandingPersonal development: OutstandingLeadership & management: OutstandingSafeguarding effective: Yes

Inspected 26 September 2023

Read the Ofsted report ↗

At a glance

210 pupils · 100% of 210 capacity

School type
Academy converter
Age range
4–11
Gender
Mixed
Religious character
Roman Catholic
Free school meals
20% of pupils
English as additional language
3.3% of pupils
SEN support
6.2% of pupils
EHC plan
1.4% of pupils
Website
http://www.stjamescatholicprimary.co.uk
URN
141820

Admissions demand: Reception entry, September 2026

1.52 first-choice applications per place

29 places offered · 44 first-choice applications · heavily oversubscribed

First-choice applications per place, by entry year

19/20
20/21
21/22
22/23
23/24
24/25
25/26
26/27

Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE. A ratio above 1.00 means more families named this school first choice than there were places.

Admissions cutoff distance: Reception

Every applicant was offered a place for 2026 entry, so distance was not needed to decide places.

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One free check a month, no account needed. No cutoff distance applied in 2026, so there is no boundary for your address to be inside of. The check shows how far you live from the school and how many rounds running it has placed every applicant. Premium adds unlimited checks, the nearby schools that do ration places by distance and whether you are inside them, and the address check across every school at once.

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Cutoff distances as published by the local authority. Siblings and other priority groups are offered places first; cutoffs move year to year.

Key stage 2 results (2024/2025)

30 pupils at the end of key stage 2 in 2024/2025

Reaching the expected standard in reading, writing & maths
93%
England 62%
Reaching the higher standard
17%
England 8%
Average scaled score (reading)
111
England 106
Average scaled score (maths)
114
England 105

Source: DfE performance tables 2024/2025. “Suppressed” means the DfE withholds figures for very small cohorts.

Schools with a similar intake

Meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, 2024/2025

This school93%
Median of its 12 closest peers75%
Birmingham average64.5%
England62%

On meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, this school is ahead of the schools that teach a comparable intake.

The twelve below are matched on intake alone, from every state school in England, so most are not local. They are the evidence behind the comparison above, not a shortlist. For schools you could realistically apply to, see nearby schools.

SchoolOfstedResult
Holy Trinity Church of England Primary SchoolLittleborough · 87 miles awayGood71%
Saint Joseph's Catholic Primary School, A Catholic Voluntary AcademySaltburn-by-the-Sea · 156 miles awayOutstanding (2017)82%
St Raphael's Catholic Primary SchoolStalybridge · 76 miles awayGood80%
St Patrick's Catholic Primary SchoolWorkington · 168 miles awayGood53%
St James-the-Less Roman Catholic Primary School, RawtenstallRossendale · 91 miles awayGood81%
Stalbridge Church of England Primary SchoolStalbridge · 100 miles awayGood65%
St Giles' Catholic Primary SchoolStoke-on-Trent · 41 miles awayGood81%
Rishton St Peter and St Paul's Church of England Primary SchoolBlackburn · 97 miles awayGood60%
St Bartholomew's CofE Primary SchoolBolton · 83 miles awayGood63%
Hatfield Woodhouse Primary SchoolDoncaster · 92 miles awayGood79%
Overton St Helen's Church of England Primary SchoolMorecambe · 118 miles awayGood64%
Glemsford Primary AcademySudbury · 115 miles awayGood86%

The 12 state schools in England whose intake most closely matches this one: same phase and admissions type, and as near as the data allows on size, free school meals, English as an additional language, SEN and the child poverty of the surrounding area (IDACI 2025). Matching uses only characteristics a school does not choose. It is not a ranking, and a close match on intake does not make two schools interchangeable: sixth form, faith character, admissions rules and plain geography all matter and are not in the calculation. Results: DfE performance tables, 2024/2025. How the matching works.

Attendance (2025/26 autumn term)

Sessions missed (overall absence)
6%
England 6.5%
Pupils missing 10%+ of sessions (persistent absence)
15.6%
England 18.1%

Autumn-term absence, DfE pupil absence data. Lower is better.

Staffing

Pupils per qualified teacher
23.6
England 18.5

Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.

Teacher retention (2024/25)

100% of teachers stayed at the school the following year

School Workforce Census, DfE. The ratio counts full-time-equivalent qualified teachers; retention follows teachers in post one November to the next. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Spending per pupil

This school£6,614
Typical primary school£6,959

Total expenditure ÷ pupils, academy finance return (DfE Schools Financial Benchmarking, latest year). Higher spending is not a measure of quality. It often reflects greater pupil need or a smaller school. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Inspection history since 2015

Ofsted management information. Ungraded and monitoring visits do not award a new grade. How the two inspection systems work.

The area around the school

Child poverty (IDACI)
2/10among the most deprived fifth of England
Overall deprivation (IMD)
3/10more deprived than most of England

English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG), decile of the small area the school stands in: 1 is the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. IDACI counts only children in low-income families, which is the measure closest to the intake a school is likely to draw on.

Census 2021This areaEngland
Adults with a degree or higher24%33.9%
Adults with no qualifications21.2%18.1%
In managerial or professional work27.1%33.2%
Households deprived in two or more ways18.3%18.1%
Residents in very good health45.5%48.5%
Homes owned by the occupier70.8%62.3%
Social housing11.5%17.1%
Privately rented17.5%20.5%
Detached houses2.7%22.9%
Flats17.5%22.2%
Homes with four or more bedrooms6.5%21.1%
Households with no car or van23.8%23.5%

Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01009167 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,167 adults that the school stands in. These figures describe the area, not the pupils. Children travel in from further away, and for selective, faith and some other schools usually much further. Open Government Licence v3.0.

What homes cost nearby

Median sale price
£239,000356 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
Typical range
£200,000–£297,000the middle half of sales
England median
£300,000all sales over the same period
Detached (40)£392,500
Semi-detached (181)£250,000
Terraced (98)£225,000
Flat (37)£78,000

Homes around this school are cheaper than most school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 1 km across every state school.

Every residential sale registered with HM Land Registry within 1 km of the school (straight line) since January 2024, market sales of houses and flats only. A sale is dated by completion and registered weeks later, so the most recent months are incomplete. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Postcodes located with OS Code-Point Open: contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026; contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026; contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Roads around the school

Child pedestrian casualties
3an urban school averages 2.0
Collisions at school-run times
2an urban school averages 5.8
All reported collisions
18an urban school averages 30.6
Of those, serious or fatal
7an urban school averages 6.1

Every collision reported to the police within 500 m of the school in 2021–2025, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics (STATS19). "Child pedestrians" counts casualties aged under 16 on foot; "school-run times" means weekdays 07:30–09:00 and 15:00–16:30 outside August. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe: counts rise with traffic and with how built-up an area is, which is why the comparison is with other urban schools. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Nearby schools