Best Schools in Penrith

How many schools are there in Penrith?

Penrith has 29 open schools: 26 state primary, 2 state secondary or all-through and 1 independent.

Source: DfE Get Information About Schools

Are there any Outstanding schools in Penrith?

None of the 26 graded schools in Penrith currently holds an Outstanding rating. 25 are rated Good, so 96% are Good or better. Ofsted stopped giving single-word overall grades in September 2024, so these are the grades from each school's last full inspection.

Source: Ofsted

Which secondary schools in Penrith get the best GCSE results?

Of the 2 schools in Penrith with 2026 GCSE results, the highest Attainment 8 scores - the average grade across a pupil's best eight GCSEs - were at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Penrith (selective grammar), with an Attainment 8 score of 65.2 and 85% passing English and maths at grade 5 or above; and Ullswater Community College, with an Attainment 8 score of 39.5 and 35% passing English and maths at grade 5 or above. Selective schools admit by ability, so their raw results are not a like-for-like comparison with comprehensives. Progress 8, the DfE's value-added measure, was not published for 2026.

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School PenrithUllswater Community College

Source: DfE school performance data

Which primary schools in Penrith have the best SATs results?

3 of the 18 primary schools in Penrith with 2025 Key Stage 2 results had every pupil reach the expected standard in both reading and maths: Morland Area CofE Primary School, Skelton School and Yanwath Primary School. Small schools can swing a long way from one year to the next, because each pupil is a large share of the result.

Morland Area CofE Primary SchoolSkelton SchoolYanwath Primary School

Source: DfE school performance data

Are there grammar schools in Penrith?

Yes. Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Penrith is a state grammar school in Penrith. Grammar schools admit pupils by ability through an entrance test, usually sat at the start of Year 6.

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Penrith

Source: DfE Get Information About Schools

Do schools in Penrith have catchment areas?

Most state schools in Penrith have no fixed catchment boundary. When a school is oversubscribed, Westmorland and Furness allocates places on its published criteria - usually looked-after children first, then siblings, then home-to-school distance - so the practical cut-off moves each year. Each school's page here shows an estimate of its catchment radius.

How do I apply for a school place in Penrith?

Apply to Westmorland and Furness through its coordinated admissions process, even for academies and faith schools. In England the closing date is 31 October for secondary places and 15 January for primary places, in the year before your child starts. Independent schools run their own admissions, so apply to those directly.