Dereham Church of England Infant and Nursery Academy
Dereham Church of England Infant and Nursery Academy is a converter academy in Dereham for boys and girls aged 3 to 7. It has 180 pupils and every place is taken. About 25 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, about the same as most schools in England.
St Withburga Lane, Dereham, NR19 1ED01362 692727dereham.norfolk.sch.ukMrs Chloe Cole headteacherAll details
Ofsted
Ofsted hasn't published an inspection for this school yet. That is normal for a school that opened in 2023: new schools usually get their first inspection within three years.
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published. As a Church of England school it may put families of that faith first. Check the school's own admissions rules.
44 places were empty (24% of the total), so almost everyone who applies gets in.
Each council publishes its own figures on how many families applied and how far away the last child to get a place lived. We are adding councils one at a time. If you have a link to Norfolk council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: language and communications needs (12), emotional and mental health (7), SEN support but no specialist assessment of type of need (4), Moderate learning difficulty (3), Autistic spectrum disorder (2), Other difficulty or disability (2).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 180 | 184 | 168 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 23% | 27% | 29% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 17% | 17% | 16% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 12% | 11% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 5% | 4% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 94.4% 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 | 5.6% | 7.9% | 6.8% | 7.8% | 3.2% | 4.4% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 4.3% | 4.4% | 5.1% | 6.0% | 2.4% | 2.8% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 1.3% | 3.5% | 1.8% | 1.9% | 0.8% | 1.6% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 17.0% | 24.1% | 27.9% | 26.5% | 6.5% | 14.2% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 8.2 | 7.7 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – |
† These attendance figures are for Dereham Church of England Infant & Nursery School, the school this one replaced in November 2023. 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grove House Infant and Nursery School | Academy | 510 m | 83 | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| King's Park Infant School, Dereham | Academy | 550 m | 37 | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| Dereham Church of England Junior Academy | Academy | 730 m | 365 | Good 2024 | 29 | Compare |
| Scarning Voluntary Controlled Primary School | Voluntary | 0.8 miles | 415 | Good 2024 | 34 | Compare |
| Dereham, Toftwood Community Junior School | Council | 1.2 miles | 321 | Good 2020 | 23 | Compare |
| Toftwood Infant School | Foundation | 1.2 miles | 205 | Good 2023 | 49 | Compare |
| Yaxham Church of England Primary Academy | Academy | 2.6 miles | 67 | Good 2023 | 54 | Compare |
| St Mary's Community Primary School, Beetley | Council | 2.7 miles | 156 | Requires improvement 2023 | 4 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Dereham Church of England Infant and Nursery Academy a good school?
We don't have enough published data to score Dereham Church of England Infant and Nursery Academy yet.
How many pupils does Dereham Church of England Infant and Nursery Academy have?
180 pupils aged 3 to 7 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 180 places, so it is 100% full.
Is Dereham Church of England Infant and Nursery Academy oversubscribed?
Probably not. 44 places were empty in 2024/25 (24% of the total), so most families who apply get a place.
What is attendance like at Dereham Church of England Infant and Nursery Academy?
Pupils were in school 94.4% 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 Dereham Church of England Infant and Nursery Academy?
The average class had 24.1 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 25.4. 14% of classes had more than 30 pupils.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- St Withburga Lane, Dereham, NR19 1ED
- Telephone
- 01362 692727
- Website
- www.dereham.norfolk.sch.uk
- Headteacher
- Mrs Chloe Cole
- Type of school
- Converter academy (Academy converter, academies)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 3-7, with nursery
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- Church of England, Diocese of Norwich
- Multi-academy trust
- The Diocese of Norwich Education and Academies Trust (40 schools)
- Local authority
- Norfolk
- Ward
- Dereham Withburga
- Constituency
- Mid Norfolk
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 November 2023 (academy converter)
- URN
- 149879 · LAESTAB 9265205 · UKPRN 10092603
- Formerly
- Dereham Church of England Infant & Nursery 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.
- 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.