Widcombe Infant School

Widcombe Infant School is a highly inclusive, nurturing and friendly school where pupils feel safe, known and supported. Inclusion is central to the school's work: leaders identify needs early, draw on external expertise, provide high-quality pastoral care and use pupil premium funding effectively so that disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND learn alongside their peers and progress well. Personal development is a notable strength, with rich creative and enrichment opportunities, strong community links, and a clear focus on wellbeing, safety and citizenship. Safeguarding standards are met. Pupils achieve well in most subjects, particularly in phonics and early reading, and attendance is improving, including for disadvantaged pupils. Behaviour is positive and pupils are polite, kind and ready to learn. However, provision is not yet consistently strong across the wider curriculum: some learning activities do not deepen pupils' knowledge or build well enough on prior learning, and in the early years some adult-child interactions do not extend vocabulary or help children practise new words. Leaders, trustees and staff work cohesively, with accurate self-evaluation and effective governance through the Palladian Academy Trust. The school's next steps focus on ensuring that teachers consistently design activities that build and deepen knowledge across the wider curriculum, and that early years staff maximise high-quality interactions indoors and outdoors. The school is smaller than average, with low proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals and pupils with SEN support, and no resourced SEND provision.

Strengths

• Inclusion is central and highly effective for vulnerable pupils, including those with SEND and disadvantaged pupils.
• Staff identify pupils' needs early and use external professional guidance to provide bespoke support.
• High-quality pastoral care helps pupils manage emotions in a caring and sensitive manner.
• Leaders build effective partnerships with parents and carers of pupils with SEND.
• The pupil premium strategy is implemented effectively and monitored for academic and pastoral impact.
• Personal development is rich, with deliberate creative and artistic opportunities for all pupils.
• Pupils develop British values, citizenship and social responsibility through charity and community activities.
• The school actively promotes physical health and mental wellbeing, including through the daily mile and clubs.
• Pupils achieve well in most subjects and consistently above the national average in the phonics screening check.
• Pupils with SEND progress well from their starting points through the curriculum.
• Pupils are polite, kind and have positive attitudes to learning.
• Staff apply the behaviour policy consistently, creating a calm and orderly environment.
• Attendance is improving and persistent absence is reducing, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.
• The curriculum is ambitious and well sequenced, with accurate leader oversight of its quality.
• Most teaching is effective, and gaps in reading, spelling and language development are quickly addressed.
• Early years provision has a well-designed curriculum and makes reading a priority from the outset.
• Leadership and governance are effective, with trustees robustly holding leaders to account.
• Staff are proud to work at the school and value leaders' consideration for workload and wellbeing.
• There is a strong sense of belonging, and parents express unanimous support and trust for the school.

Areas for Improvement

• Some wider curriculum activities do not consistently build and deepen pupils' knowledge, understanding and skills.
• Pupils do not achieve as well as they could in some wider curriculum subjects because learning is not always deepened or linked to prior learning.
• Some learning activities do not match pupils' needs as well as they could, limiting depth of knowledge for some pupils.
• Some early years adult-child interactions do not extend children's vocabulary or support them to practise new words.
• Early years staff do not consistently maximise high-quality interactions inside and outside the classroom.

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Widcombe Infant School attended 95.9% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 4.7% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 13.0%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 0.0% of pupils at Widcombe Infant School were suspended at least once (nationally 1.1%). No pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Widcombe Infant School had 23.9 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 12.2% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 15.7%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 8.2% of pupils at Widcombe Infant School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 4.4% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded primary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2024–25 Widcombe Infant School received £6,403 and spent £6,083 for each of its 178 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £123,000 (£694 per pupil).

Across all 13 schools of Palladian Academy Trust, income was £6,949 and spending £6,535 per pupil.

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in Bath · Bath and North East Somerset local authority: places and applications

Widcombe Infant School is part of Palladian Academy Trust, which runs 13 schools. The nearest others:

• Widcombe CofE Junior School Bath
• Oldfield Park Infant School Bath
• Oldfield Park Junior School Bath
• Combe Down CofE Primary School Bath
• Ralph Allen School Bath
• St Philip's CofE Primary School Bath
• St Martin's Garden Primary School Bath
• Winsley CoE VC Primary School Bradford-On-Avon
• Westwood-with-Iford Primary School Bradford-On-Avon
• Fitzmaurice Primary School Bradford-On-Avon

What is Widcombe Infant School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Widcombe Infant School is Expected standard, from an inspection in February 2026.

When was Widcombe Infant School last inspected by Ofsted?

Widcombe Infant School was last inspected in February 2026.

How many pupils does Widcombe Infant School have?

Widcombe Infant School has 182 pupils on roll.

What age range does Widcombe Infant School cover?

Widcombe Infant School for pupils aged 5 to 7.

Where is Widcombe Infant School?

Widcombe Infant School is at Archway Street, Bath, Somerset, BA2 4JG.