Our Lady and St Joseph Catholic Primary School Review 2026: Elite KS2 outcomes with a clear Catholic mission

A small voluntary aided Catholic primary with unusually strong published Key Stage 2 outcomes and an ethos built around service, responsibility, and purposeful pupil leadership. The most recent graded Ofsted inspection (15 and 16 November 2022) judged the school Outstanding across every area, including early years provision, with safeguarding confirmed as effective.

Size is part of the appeal. With a published capacity of 115 and around 100 pupils on roll in recent official datasets, staff are able to know families well, and leadership can keep standards consistent across mixed cohorts and year groups.

The school’s performance data is hard to ignore. In the latest published KS2 outcomes 98% met the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined, and 55% achieved the higher standard, far above the England higher standard average of 8%. For families seeking a high-performing primary with a clear faith identity, this is a compelling combination.

The school’s public messaging is unusually coherent, and it is repeated consistently across inspections and school communications: pupils are expected to take responsibility for each other, to act with generosity, and to see learning as something that should be used for good. In the November 2022 Ofsted report, leaders describe an ambition to develop pupils as “architects of a better world”, and that theme is echoed in the later denominational inspection, which links curriculum planning to social justice and practical charity.

There is a strong pupil-leadership strand running through everyday life. The denominational inspection (Catholic Schools Inspectorate, 09 to 10 May 2024) describes structured roles for pupils in prayer and liturgy, plus a wider culture of outreach and service. The same report references planned developments to a liturgy shelter, and practical tools designed to link prayer at school with prayer at home, including “Prayer Bear Bags” in year groups.

Leadership is shared across a wider partnership of schools, which appears to be a meaningful part of how the school operates rather than a purely administrative umbrella. The school website lists the senior leadership team and identifies Miss Sarah Hendricks as Headteacher, alongside executive leadership roles across the partnership.

The Ofsted inspection history also records that the executive headteacher was appointed to lead the school in September 2019, suggesting the current phase of improvement has been in place long enough to embed routines and curriculum sequencing.

Faith is present without being reduced to a badge. Collective worship is a visible feature of school life, and the denominational inspection grades Catholic life and mission, religious education, and collective worship at the highest level within that framework.

For Catholic families, that depth will feel like alignment. For families who are not Catholic but are open to a Christian ethos, the key question is comfort with regular prayer and a values framework that references Christ explicitly.

The headline here is the school’s Key Stage 2 attainment profile.

In the most recent published KS2 outcomes:

• 98% reached the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics combined.

• 55% achieved the higher standard in reading, writing and mathematics, compared with an England average of 8%.

• Reading, mathematics, and grammar, punctuation and spelling scaled scores are well above the standardised benchmark of 100, with a combined total score of 335 across reading, GPS and mathematics.

For parents comparing schools locally, the ranking picture is also striking. Based on FindMySchool rankings derived from official outcomes data, the school is ranked 99th in England for primary outcomes and 1st in the Lymington local area, placing it among the highest-performing in England (top 2%).

With a small cohort, families should interpret percentages sensibly. When year groups are modest in size, the attainment profile can move more from one year to the next than it would in a larger two-form entry school. Even with that caveat, the scale of the gap above England averages suggests an embedded culture of high expectations.

Curriculum and teaching are described in official reports as deliberate and carefully sequenced. The November 2022 inspection report states that leaders are meticulous about what pupils should know and remember, and that sequencing is embedded from Reception through to Year 6.

Early reading appears to be a particular strength. The same report describes a bespoke phonics scheme and a system where pupils who need additional help are identified quickly and supported to catch up.

In practical terms, for families, this matters because it reduces the likelihood that early gaps persist into Key Stage 2 and begin to limit access to wider curriculum content.

The denominational inspection adds detail on religious education as a taught subject, describing strong staff subject knowledge, purposeful assessment and feedback, and ambitious vocabulary development even in younger year groups.

For Catholic families, this suggests religious education is treated as a serious academic discipline as well as a faith practice.

As a primary school, the main transition is from Year 6 to Year 7, and the school uses its communications channels to support families through that process. The school’s blog shows organised visits for Year 6 to local secondary provision, including a prospective pupil tour at Priestlands School, with information shared to parents about open events and the Hampshire secondary application deadline cycle.

The school does not consistently publish a quantified list of destination secondary schools, so it is best to treat transition planning as individual: families should check their Hampshire secondary options early, attend open events, and confirm how faith criteria apply where relevant. In practice, many families in the area consider local comprehensive secondaries alongside Catholic secondary options further afield, depending on the child and on travel.

This is a voluntary aided Catholic primary in Hampshire, so the admissions route combines local authority coordination with faith-based criteria and supplementary paperwork.

For Reception entry (Year R) for September 2026 in Hampshire, the published timetable is: applications open 1 November 2025, closing date 15 January 2026, with the national notification date for on-time applicants on 16 April 2026.

The school’s own admissions information also highlights 15 January 2026 as the key deadline for primary applications.

A practical detail that matters: the school states that applications also require a Supplementary Information Form (SIF), and that applications may be ranked lower without a completed and returned form.

For Catholic schools, this is often the document that evidences baptismal status, parish practice, or other faith criteria. Families who want a realistic chance should treat the SIF as essential, not optional, and submit it well before deadlines.

Demand for places can be material even in small schools. The most recent entry data available here indicates 26 applications for 11 offers, which equates to 2.36 applications per place. When demand is tight, paperwork accuracy and deadline discipline become decisive.

If you are using distance as part of your decision-making, do not assume the previous year’s pattern will repeat. Families shortlisting should use FindMySchoolMap Search to measure their own address-to-gate distance precisely, then compare that with recent allocation patterns and the school’s oversubscription criteria.

The school’s inspection history emphasises calm routines, secure behaviour, and a strong sense of belonging. The November 2022 inspection report highlights exceptionally strong behaviour and a culture where pupils feel safe and included.

For parents, the implication is a learning environment where teaching time is protected and pupils can concentrate without persistent low-level disruption.

Support for vulnerable pupils is referenced explicitly, with leaders described as ensuring that disadvantaged pupils benefit consistently from the opportunities on offer, and with staff described as knowing pupils well and adapting support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

Because the school is small, families considering SEND support should still ask detailed questions about the exact offer for their child, including staffing, external agency input, and how plans are implemented day to day.

Faith also plays a pastoral role. The denominational inspection describes a culture of sanctuary and welcome, with outreach and social action linked to curriculum and pupil leadership.

That can be reassuring for families who value moral formation and community responsibility as much as academic outcomes.

The school’s extracurricular and enrichment profile is documented most clearly through its own communications rather than through broad claims.

Named clubs and activities that appear consistently in school communications include:

• Gardening Club, with hands-on environmental work such as planting, habitat projects and eco-focused initiatives.

• Poetry Club, linked to performance and recitation through the Poetry By Heart format.

• A School Choir that performs out in the community, including visits to local care settings.

• Earlybirds, a before-school provision that also appears to run club-style activities.

Several themes come through in how the school chooses activities: community connection, leadership, and practical service. Choir performances in community venues are not just a music opportunity, they are also a structured way of teaching pupils to contribute outwardly. Gardening activities are framed around stewardship and wildlife, which aligns with the wider Catholic social teaching strand described in the denominational inspection.

For families, the implication is that extracurricular life is not treated as an optional add-on for a few children. Instead, it functions as another channel for developing confidence, responsibility and communication skills.

The school day is clearly set out in the parents section of the school website: classrooms open at 8.20am, morning registration is 8.30am, and the afternoon session finishes at 3.15pm.

Wraparound care is available, with Earlybirds starting at 7.45am and Nightingales running until 5.00pm, both bookable through the school office.

This matters for working families because it provides a defined start and end point without having to rely on informal arrangements.

Parking and drop-off safety are explicitly addressed, including a stated 5mph expectation within the school car park and guidance around keeping access routes clear.

For transport planning, Pennington and Lymington have established local bus and rail links, and many families will build routines around walking and cycling where feasible. As always, families should sanity-check travel time at peak drop-off conditions.

• Faith expectations are real. This is a Catholic voluntary aided school, with collective worship and faith formation integrated into school life. Families not comfortable with that day-to-day reality should consider whether a community primary would suit them better.

• Competition can be sharp in a small school. The available admissions figures indicate more than two applications per place. In that context, deadline discipline and completing the supplementary form properly can matter as much as preference order.

• Small cohorts can amplify year-to-year swings. The attainment profile is exceptionally strong, but families should remember that a small Year 6 can make percentages move more than in larger schools. Ask how the school maintains consistency across cohorts.

• Leadership is partnership-based. Executive leadership operates across a federation of schools, which can bring shared training and expertise, but it also means senior leaders’ time is spread. Some families value that wider capacity; others prefer a fully standalone leadership model.

This is a high-performing Catholic primary with a clear moral mission and a track record of strong external validation. Academic outcomes place it among the highest-performing primaries in England, and the school’s public documentation suggests behaviour, safety, and curriculum sequencing are tightly managed.

Best suited to families who want a faith-rooted education, value pupil leadership and service, and are prepared to engage carefully with the admissions process. The main constraint is entry rather than educational quality, particularly in a small school where a limited number of places can make competition feel immediate.