Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School is a welcoming, inclusive school at the heart of its community, where pupils feel happy and parents are positive about the support their children receive. Inspectors found high expectations for all pupils and a curriculum that is increasingly well adapted, including for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities and for pupils who arrive unable to speak English. Pupils benefit from a wide range of trips, strong reading support and an exceptional early years start, while behaviour and pupils’ wider development are particular strengths. Leadership is strong, with committed staff and effective support from The Romero Catholic Multi-Academy Company. Governance and trust support are helping the school to improve, and safeguarding arrangements are effective. The main areas for improvement are the consistency of checks on pupils’ learning in a few subjects, where misconceptions and gaps are not always identified quickly enough, and the identification and correction of spelling, punctuation and handwriting errors so pupils do not repeat the same mistakes. This was the school’s first routine inspection since the COVID-19 pandemic and its first section 5 inspection.

Strengths

• Highly inclusive and welcoming community school where pupils feel happy and valued.
• Strong leadership and governance, with well-matched improvement priorities and effective trust support.
• High expectations for all pupils, with curriculum adaptations helping many to know and remember more.
• Exceptional early years provision with caring relationships and purposeful outdoor learning.
• Exemplary pupil behaviour and calm, respectful classrooms.
• Exceptional wider development, including leadership roles, charity work and public speaking.
• Effective support for pupils with SEND and for pupils who arrive unable to speak English.
• Strong reading culture with daily support for pupils who need help to keep up.
• Wide range of trips and visits that enrich the curriculum.
• Pupils develop a sophisticated understanding of neurodiversity, empathy and tolerance.
• Effective safeguarding arrangements.
• Staff feel supported and benefit from collaboration across the trust.

Areas for Improvement

• Spelling, punctuation and handwriting errors are not consistently identified and addressed, so some pupils repeat mistakes.
• In a few subjects, checks on learning do not identify misconceptions and knowledge gaps quickly enough.
• Some pupils do not have secure foundations for new learning in a few subjects, affecting fluency and recall.

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School attended 96.2% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 10.3% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 13.0%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 0.7% of pupils at Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School were suspended at least once (nationally 1.1%). No pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School had 24.0 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 17.5% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 15.7%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 18.1% of pupils at Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 3.1% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded primary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2024–25 Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School received £6,600 and spent £6,658 for each of its 446 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £211,000 (£473 per pupil).

Across all 8 schools of The Romero Catholic Academy, income was £7,461 and spending £7,446 per pupil.

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

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• Secondary Schools

All schools in Coventry · Coventry local authority: places and applications

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School is part of The Romero Catholic Academy, which runs 8 schools. The nearest others:

• St John Fisher Catholic Primary School Coventry
• St Gregory's Catholic Primary School Coventry
• Corpus Christi Catholic School Coventry
• Good Shepherd Catholic School Coventry
• SS Peter and Paul Catholic Primary School Coventry
• St Patrick's Catholic Primary School Coventry
• Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School Coventry

What is Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School is Good, from an inspection in June 2025.

When was Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School was last inspected in June 2025.

How many pupils does Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School have?

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School has 453 pupils on roll.

What age range does Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School cover?

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

What are Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 77% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School?

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School is at Brays Lane, Stoke, Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Coventry, West Midlands, CV2 4DW.