At the top of the list is this local authority-maintained Anglican primary school, in the village of Harewood, just north of the city. It has a roll size of about 96, and was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 90% of its pupils met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 59% locally and 61% nationally.placeholder image
At the top of the list is this local authority-maintained Anglican primary school, in the village of Harewood, just north of the city. It has a roll size of about 96, and was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 90% of its pupils met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 59% locally and 61% nationally. | Google

The 20 best performing state primary schools in Leeds - as the new school year approaches

Amber Allott
By Amber Allott

Education & science writer

Published 11th Aug 2025, 11:55 GMT

These local primary schools excel at helping their pupils master the basics 📚

Across Leeds, a whole new cohort of children will be embarking on the first step of their education journey in a matter of weeks.

Families are in the midst of the summer holidays, but the new 2025/26 school year is right around the corner - set to begin around September 1 for most schools in the area. Amongst those returning to the classroom across the wider city will be more than eight thousand children whose families applied for a new primary school place this year, with a large portion of them likely joining Reception classes.

This is where they will start to build up many of the essential school skills that will carry them through the rest of their time in education. With this in mind, we’ve taken a closer look at the top-performing primary schools across the Leeds City Council area, based on our own metric.

The key figure we use is the proportion of each school’s pupils who completed Year 6 in the most recently-completed 2023/24 academic year, who met the Government’s expected standards in three essential school skills areas: reading, writing and maths. We’ve only included schools which had over 80% of their pupils meet this important mark. It is worth noting that this data has now been finalised, so results and placings may differ slightly from earlier reports based on interim results.

On top of that, we made sure that each school included had a positive rating in its latest Ofsted inspection. These are undergoing some changes, but we’ve restricted the list to schools with either a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ overall grade under the previous system, or positive ratings across all categories under the current one. This means their quality of education, student behaviour and attitudes, school leadership and management, and safeguarding practices all met or exceeded Government standards.

Here were the 20 Leeds area schools that came out on top:

Lady Elizabeth Hastings is a local authority-maintained Anglican primary school in the village of Ledston. It has a roll size of about 138, and was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 81% of its pupils also met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 59% locally and 61% nationally.

19. Lady Elizabeth Hastings CofE Primary School

Lady Elizabeth Hastings is a local authority-maintained Anglican primary school in the village of Ledston. It has a roll size of about 138, and was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 81% of its pupils also met the Government’s expected standards in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 59% locally and 61% nationally. | Google

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Rounding out the list is this local authority-maintained Anglican primary in the Meanwood area, the last Leeds-area school with more than 80% of its pupils hitting Government targets. It has a roll size of about 217, and was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 81% of its pupils again reached expected standards in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 59% locally and 61% nationally.

20. Meanwood Church of England Primary School

Rounding out the list is this local authority-maintained Anglican primary in the Meanwood area, the last Leeds-area school with more than 80% of its pupils hitting Government targets. It has a roll size of about 217, and was most recently rated ‘good’ overall by Ofsted. In the 2023/24 school year, 81% of its pupils again reached expected standards in reading, writing and maths - compared to averages of 59% locally and 61% nationally. | Google

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