Sunderland primary school ranked top school in North East, according to The Sunday Times

St Joseph's RC Primary School in Sunderland has been ranked the top primary school in the North East by The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2022.

The 29th edition of Parent Power, by The Sunday Times identifies the highest-achieving schools in the UK, ranked by their examination results from 2017-19.

The Primary school rankings are based on the average outcomes achieved by schools in Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) in the three years between 2017 and 2019.

Several scaled scores are included in the data where 100 indicates the standard which children are expected to achieve aged 11 – for reading; grammar, punctuation and spelling; and maths in each of the three years.

St Joseph's RC Primary School rated 110.0 for Reading, 114.7 for Grammar and 111.0 for Maths, making the Sunderland primary school top across the region.

Nationally, St Joseph’s placed at number 24.

New data revealed today, Friday December 2 is designed to help parents compare the performance of a school with other schools in the same town, local authority or nationally.

Another Sunderland school, Benedict Biscop C of E Academy, also made the top 10 table placing second in tie with Staindrop C of E Primary School in Darlington.

Alastair McCall, editor of Parent Power, said: “The need for clarity about school examination performance has never been greater after two years of centre- and teacher-assessed grades, during which for completely understandable reasons, the numbers of top grades increased dramatically.

“We felt it was important to go back to the last sets of moderated public examination outcomes from 2019, 2018 and 2017 to get the most accurate and current view of school academic achievement. By taking a three-year average, we mitigated against relatively poor performance in a one-off year.

“At a time when some schools are making hard to substantiate claims of academic prowess based on outcomes from 2021 and 2020, we believe these rankings – and all the additional information on offer in Parent Power – provide parents with a more reliable guide to academic achievement in schools today.”

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