Holy Cross Catholic Primary School
St Helens, WA10 1LN · St. Helens local authority
St Helens’s School Grade C+ better than 38% of towns in England
What stands out about Holy Cross Catholic Primary School
- Its own letter, D: Key Stage 2 results near the bottom of England’s primary schools (better than 7%)
- 42% meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, 20 points below England’s schools
- 35% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (more than England’s 25%)
- Ofsted report card, January 2026: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (10 of 10)
- Homes in its postcode sector (WA10 1) sold for a median £97,997; St Helens’s is £172,500
Results
DfE · Key Stage 2Reading, writing and maths 42%
Met the expected standard, DfE’s 3-year average 2023–2025 · higher than 7% of England’s 14,979 graded primaries · St. Helens avg 62%
Each subject, 2025
Met the expected standard; the mark is England’s schools · average scaled score: reading 103, maths 101 (100 = the expected standard)
Disadvantaged pupils, 2025
Met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths: the 14 disadvantaged pupils and the rest, beside England’s schools
England’s figures are of its graded mainstream state schools, each school counted once; grammar schools are included, which is why the right-hand tail is long. Small cohorts are suppressed.
How hard is it to get a place at Holy Cross Catholic Primary School?
Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.
In every year shown, every family who put it first was offered a place. The council runs the coordinated admissions; each school’s rules (siblings, distance, faith) decide who gets in. DfE doesn’t publish the furthest distance offered, so check the council’s admissions booklet for that. The school’s governing body sets the admissions rules. Apply through St. Helens council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places · the 10 most in demand
100% got their first choice
St Helens and St. Helens, side by side
2023–2025All 52 graded primaries in St. Helens. Schools with more pupils on free school meals usually score lower, so a school above the crowd for its free school meals is doing better than its intake predicts. St Helens’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | KS2 expected standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Mary's Catholic Primary School | A+ | 7% | 88% |
| St Mary & St Thomas CofE Primary School | A+ | 44% | 83% |
| St Aidan's CofE Primary School Billinge | A | 19% | 81% |
| St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School | A | 9% | 79% |
| Eccleston Lane Ends Primary School | A | 7% | 78% |
| St Peter's CofE Primary School | A | 9% | 77% |
| St Julie's Catholic Primary School | A | 6% | 77% |
| Eaves Primary School | A | 22% | 76% |
| St Bartholomew's Catholic Primary School | A | 8% | 76% |
| Bleak Hill Primary School | A− | 8% | 75% |
| St Ann's Church of England Primary School | A− | 10% | 75% |
| Garswood Primary and Nursery School | A− | 9% | 73% |
| Eccleston Mere Primary School | A− | 12% | 71% |
| St Teresa's Catholic Primary School, Devon Street | A− | 37% | 71% |
| Queen's Park CofE/Urc Primary School | B+ | 45% | 69% |
| St John Vianney Catholic Primary School | B+ | 23% | 68% |
| Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School | B+ | 29% | 68% |
| Rainford Brook Lodge Community Primary School | B+ | 7% | 68% |
| Billinge Chapel End Primary School | B+ | 13% | 68% |
| Parish Church of England Primary School, St Helens | B | 29% | 67% |
| Willow Tree Primary School | B | 55% | 67% |
| Longton Lane Community Primary School | B | 21% | 65% |
| Nutgrove Methodist Primary School | B− | 19% | 64% |
| Rainford CofE Primary School | B− | 10% | 64% |
| Allanson Street Primary School | B− | 45% | 63% |
| Thatto Heath Community Primary School | B− | 43% | 63% |
| Ashurst Primary School | B− | 28% | 63% |
| St Theresa's Catholic Primary School | B− | 48% | 63% |
| The District CofE Primary School | B− | 46% | 63% |
| St Peter and St Paul Catholic Primary School | B− | 18% | 62% |
| Grange Valley Primary School | C+ | 14% | 60% |
| Oakdene Primary Academy | C+ | 9% | 59% |
| Sutton Oak CofE Primary School | C+ | 43% | 58% |
| Carr Mill Primary School | C | 44% | 57% |
| Rivington Primary School | C | 30% | 56% |
| Haydock English Martyrs' Primary School | C | 27% | 56% |
| St Anne's Catholic Primary School | C | 32% | 54% |
| Sherdley Primary School | C− | 18% | 52% |
| Newton-le-Willows Primary School | C− | 20% | 52% |
| Legh Vale Primary School | C− | 24% | 52% |
| St James' Church of England Primary School | C− | 44% | 52% |
| Wargrave CofE Primary School | C− | 36% | 50% |
| St. Mary's Blackbrook Catholic Primary School | C− | 30% | 50% |
| Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School | C− | 11% | 50% |
| Robins Lane Community Primary School | C− | 29% | 49% |
| Broad Oak Community Primary School | C− | 60% | 49% |
| Lyme Community Primary School | D | 36% | 47% |
| St Austin's Catholic Primary School | D | 33% | 47% |
| Sutton Manor Community Primary School | D | 43% | 45% |
| Holy Cross Catholic Primary School | D | 35% | 42% |
| Merton Bank Primary School | D | 51% | 40% |
| Rectory CofE Primary School | D− | 41% | 33% |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025206 pupils. SEN support is extra help in school for a special educational need; an EHC plan is the council’s legal plan for pupils who need more.
Girls and boys
Holy Cross Catholic Primary School’s letter
Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.
How school letters are worked out
Each school’s measure is compared with every graded school in England of the same phase: for primaries, the share of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (DfE’s three-year average); for secondaries, Attainment 8 and the share with grade 5 or above in English and maths, each turned into a z-score against England’s schools and averaged. The letter comes from the share of those schools it beats, in the same bands as every grade on the site. The same method gives U.S. schools their letters, against their own state.
Graded: England’s open mainstream state schools with published results (grammar schools included, which select by test). Not graded: special schools, alternative provision, nurseries, 16–19 colleges, UTCs and studio schools, Welsh schools. Ofsted plays no part.
Ofsted inspections
Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.
Report card, inspection starting January 2026.
Before the report card: Graded inspection: Good, October 2021.
Living near Holy Cross Catholic Primary School
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in WA10 1, the school’s postcode sector
St Helens property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in WA10 1 sell for well under St Helens’s typical price. HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales. Catchments aren’t published, so the postcode sector stands in for “around the school”.
Schools within 1.6 miles
17 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗St Helens, WA10 1LN
Holy Cross Catholic Primary School: common questions
Is Holy Cross Catholic Primary School a good school?
By its published results, well below average: its Key Stage 2 results are better than 7% of England’s primary schools (its letter is D), with 42% of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, against 62% for England’s schools. Ofsted: a report card in January 2026.
How hard is it to get into Holy Cross Catholic Primary School?
For September 2026, 10 families put Holy Cross Catholic Primary School first and all of them were offered a place; 12 places were offered in all.
What is Holy Cross Catholic Primary School’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection (January 2026) gave a report card: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met. Ofsted stopped giving one-word overall grades in September 2024.
How much do houses cost near Holy Cross Catholic Primary School?
Homes in its postcode sector, WA10 1, sold for a median £97,997 over the 36 months to August 2026 (78 sales).
Sources: DfE Get Information about Schools (16 October 2026), Key Stage 2 performance tables (2023–2025, three-year average) and Key Stage 4 (2025/26, provisional); Ofsted state-funded school inspections as at 30 September 2026. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Also: DfE Key Stage 4 performance, schools data (2023/24 and 2024/25 final, 2025/26 provisional) and Key Stage 2 performance tables 2024/25 by subject; DfE school census, January 2025; DfE school-level applications and offers, September 2019 to 2026 entry; HM Land Registry Price Paid by postcode sector, 2010 to August 2026.
A school’s letter is our own summary of its published results against England’s schools of the same phase; St Helens’s School Grade is a separate grade, built from the results of the schools in and around the town against other towns. Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.