Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School
Linden Lea, Rawtenstall, Rossendale, BB4 6DX
- Phase
- Primary
- School type
- Community school
- Ages
- 4 to 11
- Gender
- Mixed
- Headteacher
- Mr Daniel Hargreaves
- Constituency
- Rossendale and Darwen
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Capacity
- 210
- Pupils on roll
- 109
- URN
- 119280
- Local authority
- Lancashire
- Website
- School website
- Telephone
- 01706215233
About this school
Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School is a community primary school in Rossendale. It teaches children aged 4 to 11 and has 109 pupils on roll.
You can read Ofsted's latest judgement for the school below. Where the Department for Education has published them, its results and pupil characteristics appear below. Seeing a school for yourself shows what no page can, so arrange a visit before you apply.
Ofsted judgement
Ofsted did not give an overall grade. Between September 2024 and September 2025 inspections graded each area of a school's work without a single overall judgement, ahead of the move to report cards. How Ofsted report cards work
- Quality of education
- Requires improvement
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Requires improvement
- Personal development
- Good
- Leadership and management
- Requires improvement
- Early years
- Requires improvement
- Safeguarding
- Effective
Exam results
Key stage 2 (end of primary school)
| Measure | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at the end of key stage 2 | 31 | 25 | 25 |
| Met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths | 23% | 12% | 32% |
| Reached the higher standard in reading, writing and maths | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Expected standard in reading | 52% | 36% | 60% |
| Expected standard in maths | 26% | 12% | 40% |
| Expected standard in grammar, punctuation and spelling | 52% | 36% | 52% |
| Average scaled score in reading | 99.0 | 98.0 | 102.0 |
| Average scaled score in maths | 97.0 | 93.0 | 97.0 |
| Reading progress | -6.30 | - | - |
| Writing progress | -7.00 | - | - |
| Maths progress | -7.20 | - | - |
Progress measures ended nationally after the 2022/23 school year, when the key stage 1 assessments they were based on were stopped. Blank progress figures in later years are not missing school data.
Trends over time
How Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School has moved over recent years against the local and national picture. Every figure is shown in the table beneath its chart.
| Year | This school | Lancashire average | England average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 23% | 58.3% | 57.9% |
| 2023/24 | 12% | 58.3% | 58.8% |
| 2024/25 | 32% | 58.8% | 60.3% |
Department for Education KS2 performance data, published school results.
| Year | This school | England average |
|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 6.4% | 6.8% |
| 2023/24 | 8.6% | 6.6% |
| 2024/25 | 7.6% | 6.2% |
Department for Education pupil absence data.
| Year | This school |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 165 |
| 2023/24 | 150 |
| 2024/25 | 120 |
School census, spring count each academic year.
How Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School compares
Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School ranked 417th of 445 primary schools in Lancashire for KS2 results in 2024/25. Its KS2 result was higher than 7% of England primary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 19% of England schools in 2024/25.
| School | KS2 RWM (2024/25) | Absence | FSM (6 years) | Pupils | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| This school | 32% | 7.6% | 46.7% | 109 | — |
| St James-the-Less Roman Catholic Primary School, Rawtenstall | 81% | 3.5% | 14.1% | 211 | 0.8 miles |
| St Mary's CofE Primary School Rawtenstall | 50% | 5.5% | 23.4% | 182 | 0.8 miles |
| Rawtenstall St Paul's Church of England Primary School | 44% | 4.8% | 14.3% | 276 | 1.1 miles |
| Haslingden Broadway Primary School | 48% | 4% | 11.9% | 207 | 1.2 miles |
| St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, Haslingden | 71% | 3% | 18.6% | 139 | 1.2 miles |
Results reflect each school's cohort as much as its teaching, and free school meals share is context, not a judgement. Small gaps between neighbouring schools are rarely meaningful on their own.
School context
From the 2024/25 school census and absence figures.
- Free school meals (last 6 years)
- 46.67%
- English as an additional language
- 1.7%
- Overall absence
- 7.6%
- Persistent absence
- 17.6%
Location
Nearby schools
-
St James-the-Less Roman Catholic Primary School, Rawtenstall0.8 miles
Primary · Rossendale
-
St Mary's CofE Primary School Rawtenstall0.8 miles
Primary · Rossendale
-
Rawtenstall St Paul's Church of England Primary School1.1 miles
Primary · Rawtenstall
-
Haslingden Broadway Primary School1.2 miles
Primary · Rossendale
-
St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, Haslingden1.2 miles
Primary · Rossendale
Other schools in Rossendale
Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School ranks 12th of the 13 ranked primary schools in Rossendale.
- Crawshawbooth Primary School Primary
- Haslingden Broadway Primary School Primary
- Haslingden Primary School Primary
- Helmshore Primary School Primary
- Rawtenstall Newchurch Church of England Primary School Primary
- St Anne's Church of England Primary School Primary
- St James-the-Less Roman Catholic Primary School, Rawtenstall Primary
- St Mary's CofE Primary School Rawtenstall Primary
- St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, Haslingden Primary
- St Peter's Roman Catholic Primary School, Newchurch Primary
- Water Primary School Primary
- Waterfoot Primary School Primary
Common questions
- What year groups does Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School teach?
- Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School teaches children aged 4 to 11. It is a primary school in Rossendale.
- Who is the headteacher of Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School?
- The headteacher of Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School is Mr Daniel Hargreaves, as recorded in the Department for Education's register of schools.
- When was Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School last inspected?
- Ofsted has inspected Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School, and its latest judgement is set out in the inspection section on this page, with the framework and the date it was made.
- How big is Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School?
- Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School has 109 pupils on roll, teaching children aged 4 to 11.
- Is Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School full?
- Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School has capacity for 210 pupils and 109 on roll (52%), so it has space against its published capacity. Places are allocated through the local authority's admissions process, so capacity alone does not tell you whether a place is available.
- Is Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School a faith school?
- No. Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School has no designated religious character.
- Does Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School have a nursery?
- No. The schools register records Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School as having no nursery classes.
- How have Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School's results changed over recent years?
- Its share of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths was 23% in 2022/23 and 32% in 2024/25. The year-by-year figures, alongside local and national averages, are charted in the trends section on this page.
- How does Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School rank locally?
- Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School ranked 417th of 445 primary schools in Lancashire for key stage 2 results. Its KS2 result was higher than 7% of England primary schools that published results in 2024/25. Its absence rate was lower than 19% of England schools in 2024/25. Results reflect each cohort as well as the school, so treat rankings as a starting point.
- What is Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School's absence rate?
- Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School's overall absence rate is 7.6% in the latest published census, above the England average of 6.2%.
- What are Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School's exam results?
- Where the Department for Education has published them, Rawtenstall Balladen Community Primary School's key stage results are shown in the results section on this page, with the last three years so you can see the trend rather than a single year.
School details come from the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register. Inspection outcomes come from Ofsted, and exam results from the Department for Education's school performance service. This page was last updated on 30 June 2026.