Top 10 Primary schools in Durham

1. Headline Ofsted grade: Outstanding (1) outranks Good (2), then RI (3), then Inadequate (4).
2. More recent graded inspection dates rank higher.
3. Where available, we use the Quality of education sub-judgement as a tie-breaker.
4. Lower free school meals (%) may break remaining ties.
5. Larger roll (pupil count) is a final tie-breaker.

Only the ten highest-ranked schools are shown; we also list “near misses” just below.

• Outstanding (1): Highest judgement across key areas.
• Good (2): Strong effectiveness; meets standards consistently.
• Requires improvement (3): Not yet good; clear areas to improve.
• Inadequate (4): Significant weaknesses found.

Ungraded Section 8 visits check whether the previous graded judgement still stands, but they don’t replace it.

Learn more about Ofsted ratings.

We refresh inspections and school snapshots regularly. If a school was inspected very recently, its report may not yet appear here.

Top-10 pages only appear for areas with at least 10 primary schools that have a graded Ofsted inspection.