In a city as vast and varied as Greater Manchester, there are near-countless excellent schools for families to choose from - even for the most high-achieving youngsters.
The Government’s latest performance figures for state-funded primary schools have now been released. From this data, we’ve been able to compare how primary schools across the all of the wider city’s local authority areas did in the most recent school year, to create a league table of its top performers.
The key figure it’s based on is the proportion 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. Many schools did incredibly well, but we’ve narrowed it down to only Greater Manchester’s top performers - those with more than 92% of their pupils meeting this important mark. This has given some smaller schools in the surrounding villages the chance to shine, but equally, many city schools with rolls of over 600 pupils have also excelled.
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 were the 16 Greater Manchester schools that topped the list:
1. Broadbottom Church of England Primary School
At the top of the list is a smaller, local authority-maintained Anglican primary school in the village of Broadbottom, Tameside. It has a roll size of about 81, and was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 100% of its pupils met the government’s expected standard in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 60% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
2. Nicol Mere School
Nicol Mere is a local authority-maintained primary school in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan. It has about 420 pupils, and was formerly rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 98% of its pupils met the government’s expected standard in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 65% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
3. Gilded Hollins Community School
Gilded Hollins is a local authority-maintained primary school in Leigh, Wigan. It has about 217 pupils, and was formerly rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 97% of its pupils met the government’s expected standard in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 65% locally and 61% nationally. | Google
4. Gatley Primary School
This is a large primary academy in Gatley, Stockport. It has about 605 pupils, and was formerly rated ‘outstanding’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 95% of its pupils met the government’s expected standard in reading, writing, and maths - compared to averages of 64% locally and 61% nationally. | Google