Acorn Infant Academy
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Acorn Infant Academy is a converter academy in Witham for boys and girls aged 3 to 7. It has 196 pupils and room for 270. About 24 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, about the same as most schools in England. We give it 36 out of 100. That puts it in line with schools like it, ahead of 51% of the 50 schools most like it. Ofsted's last grade was inspected 2024, no overall grade.
Spa Road, Witham, CM8 1NA01376 512605acornacademy.netMrs Cheryl Noble headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 17 December 2024, back when it gave schools one overall grade. Read the report on Ofsted's website.
Not judged Between September 2024 and November 2025, Ofsted graded each area but stopped giving one overall word.
Earlier inspections (1)
| Date | Type | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 15 November 2023 | Ungraded | School remains Good (Concerns) - S5 Next |
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
66 places were empty (24% of the total), so almost everyone who applies gets in. Pupil numbers have fallen by 14% since 2021/22, so places are getting easier to find.
How places were given out for September 2026. The last place was given under this rule: Criterion 4.
| Entry | Places | Applied at all | How far the last child lived | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Primary | 90 | 117 | – | LA |
Who goes here
Who a school teaches matters. That is why our score compares it with schools that take in a similar mix of children, not with every school in the country.
Specialist SEND provision. Resourced provision (extra staff and funding within a mainstream school) with 15 pupils, for speech, language and communication.
To get a place in the unit or resourced provision, a child normally needs an education, health and care plan (EHCP) that names the school. Other schools in Essex with speech, language and communication provision.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: language and communications needs (28), Moderate learning difficulty (15), Autistic spectrum disorder (8), Specific learning difficulty (5), SEN support but no specialist assessment of type of need (2), emotional and mental health (2).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 196 | 224 | 272 | 265 | 268 | 256 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 24% | 32% | 36% | 36% | 30% | 29% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 5% | 5% | 6% | 9% | 4% | 4% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 27% | 22% | 13% | 11% | 21% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 5% | 3% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 94.1% of the time. Across similar schools in England it was 94.8%.
Attendance year by year
| Measure | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22 | 2020/21 | 2018/19† | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 5.9% | 6.2% | 6.5% | 7.3% | 4.1% | 5.0% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 4.4% | 4.3% | 5.1% | 5.6% | 3.1% | 3.3% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 1.6% | 1.9% | 1.5% | 1.7% | 1.1% | 1.7% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 16.9% | 16.1% | 20.5% | 20.1% | 10.3% | 11.2% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 8.0 | 3.3 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 3.1 | – | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – |
† These attendance figures are for Powers Hall Infant School, the school this one replaced in July 2019. Same building and the same children. It got a new registration number, usually because it joined an academy trust.
Staff and money
From the government's count of school staff in November 2025 and the school's published accounts.
Money
From the academy accounts return, year to August 2025. The per-pupil figures are compared with other primary schools in England that report their accounts the same way.
Reserves are the money left over at the end of the year, kept back for emergencies and big projects. Being in the red year after year is a warning sign. Very large reserves can mean money sitting in the bank instead of being spent on today's pupils. Academy figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000 and include a share of any money the trust holds centrally.
The area around the school
Crime figures come from police.uk. The police record each crime at the nearest of a fixed set of map points rather than the exact spot, so “within 500 m” is only rough. House prices are from HM Land Registry sales nearby over the last two years.
Nearby schools
The closest primary schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Witham Oaks Academy | Academy | 0 m | 290 | Good 2023 | 45 | Compare |
| Templars Academy | Academy | 0.8 miles | 412 | Good 2024 | 11 | Compare |
| Elm Hall Primary School | Academy | 1.1 miles | 228 | Good 2024 | 45 | Compare |
| Howbridge Infant School | Foundation | 1.1 miles | 265 | Good 2023 | 39 | Compare |
| Holy Family Catholic Primary School | Academy | 1.1 miles | 201 | Good 2022 | 83 | Compare |
| Howbridge Church of England Junior School | Academy | 1.1 miles | 356 | Good 2023 | 8 | Compare |
| Chipping Hill Primary School | Council | 1.2 miles | 421 | No overall grade 2024 | 81 | Compare |
| Rivenhall Church of England Primary School | Academy | 2.0 miles | 128 | Good 2023 | 35 | Compare |
Compared with schools like it
Our score compares Acorn Infant Academy with the 47 schools in England whose pupils are most like its own. We match on family income, how many children are learning English, special needs, the neighbourhood, the size of the school and how it admits pupils. Those 47 schools are dotted all over the country, so we don't list them. What matters is where this school sits among them.
How the score was worked out
The score is out of 100. A 36 means that once everything below is added up, this school comes out ahead of 36% of primary schools in England. Results bounce around from year to year, especially in small schools, so we also show a likely range: 16 to 64. Every part is judged against schools with a similar mix of pupils. For small schools we pull each part towards the group average, so one unusual year can't swing the score too far.
| What we looked at | How much it counts | Against schools like it | Effect on the score | Based on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results over three years | 0% | no data | – | |
| Ofsted inspection | 20% | in line | +0.03 | Ofsted grade, 1.7 years old |
| Progress pupils make | 0% | no data | – | |
| Direction of travel over five years | 10% | below | -0.09 | results and attendance falling year on year |
| Attendance and behaviour | 10% | below | -0.11 | 2024/25; 160 pupils |
| Results, allowing for the mix of pupils | 0% | no data | – | |
| What parents say | 0% | no data | – |
Worked out on 13 September 2026 (method v1). Read how the score works, including every weight and the checks we run. Think a number is wrong? Tell us.
Questions parents ask
Is Acorn Infant Academy a good school?
It is about average. Acorn Infant Academy scores 36 out of 100. That is in line with schools that take in a similar mix of pupils, and ahead of 51% of the 50 schools most like it in England. The score could fairly be anywhere from 16 to 64, so a few points either way between schools doesn't mean much. Its results have been slipping over the last five years.
What is Acorn Infant Academy's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Acorn Infant Academy not judged at its last full inspection on 17 December 2024.
How many pupils does Acorn Infant Academy have?
196 pupils aged 3 to 7 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 270 places, so it is 73% full.
Is Acorn Infant Academy oversubscribed?
Probably not. 66 places were empty in 2024/25 (24% of the total), so most families who apply get a place.
What is attendance like at Acorn Infant Academy?
Pupils were in school 94.1% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 17% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Acorn Infant Academy?
The average class had 20.4 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 25.4. No class had more than 30 pupils.
Does Acorn Infant Academy have specialist SEND provision?
Yes. It has resourced provision (extra staff and funding within a mainstream school) for speech, language and communication. To get a place there, a child normally needs an education, health and care plan (EHCP) that names the school.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Spa Road, Witham, CM8 1NA
- Telephone
- 01376 512605
- Website
- www.acornacademy.net
- Headteacher
- Mrs Cheryl Noble
- Type of school
- Converter academy (Academy converter, academies)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 3-7, with nursery
- Gender
- Mixed
- Multi-academy trust
- Bridge Academy Trust (11 schools)
- Local authority
- Essex
- Ward
- Witham West
- Constituency
- Witham
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 July 2019 (academy converter)
- URN
- 147255 · LAESTAB 8812679 · UKPRN 10083659
- Formerly
- Powers Hall Infant School
Where these figures come from
- School details: Department for Education, Get Information About Schools, refreshed daily (this page rebuilt 13 September 2026).
- Inspections: Ofsted management information, monthly; latest publication in our data 27 August 2026.
- Attendance: DfE pupil absence in schools in England, 2024/25 full year.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Staff: DfE school workforce census, November 2025.
- Class sizes: DfE schools, pupils and their characteristics, January 2026.
- Pupil premium: DfE allocations and conditions of grant, 2026 to 2027.
- Money: DfE financial benchmarking and insights tool, academy accounts return 2024/25.
- Admissions outcomes: Essex council's published allocation statistics (source), entry years 2026.
- Neighbourhood: police.uk street-level crime, HM Land Registry price paid data, NaPTAN bus stops, English Indices of Deprivation 2025.
- All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full list and update calendar.