Palfrey Infant School
Palfrey Infant School is a converter academy in Walsall for boys and girls aged 3 to 7. It has 310 pupils and room for 360. About 38 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far more than at most schools in England. Ofsted's last grade was requires improvement, back in 2022.
Bescot Street, Walsall, WS1 4HY01922 720713palfreyinfant.co.ukMrs Alison Walsh headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 11 October 2022, back when it gave schools one overall grade. Read the report on Ofsted's website.
Requires improvement overall.
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
In 2026 every child who applied got a place, so how far away you live didn't matter. That could change if the school gets more popular.
We measure in a straight line from the middle of your postcode to the school. The council measures its own way, and the cut-off changes every year. Use this as a rough guide, and read the council's admissions booklet before you apply.
How places were given out for September 2026. Every child who applied got a place (74 offers for 90 places). 71 families put it down as their first choice and 71 of them got in (100%).
| Entry | Places | Put it first | Applied at all | Got a place | First choices who got in | How far the last child lived | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Primary | 90 | 71 | 100 | 74 | 100% | – all offered | LA |
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 (35), Moderate learning difficulty (4), emotional and mental health (4), Autistic spectrum disorder (3), Vision impairment (1).
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 93.2% 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 | 6.8% | 6.3% | 7.9% | 5.9% | 4.8% | 4.0% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 5.0% | 4.1% | 5.6% | 4.3% | 4.1% | 2.6% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 1.8% | 2.2% | 2.3% | 1.7% | 0.7% | 1.4% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 20.1% | 13.3% | 26.6% | 17.6% | 14.0% | 6.9% | 12.8% |
† These attendance figures are for Palfrey Infant School, the school this one replaced in June 2025. 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palfrey Junior School | Council | 140 m | 359 | Report card 2026 | 12 | Compare |
| Caldmore Primary Academy | Academy | 510 m | 436 | No overall grade 2025 | 46 | Compare |
| Whitehall Nursery and Infant Academy | Academy | 560 m | 313 | Not inspected | – | Compare |
| Hillary Primary School | Academy | 820 m | 675 | Requires improvement 2023 | – | Compare |
| Whitehall Junior Community School | Council | 0.6 miles | 340 | Good 2022 | 42 | Compare |
| Blue Coat Church of England Aided Infant School | Church of England | 0.6 miles | 314 | Good 2022 | 23 | Compare |
| St Mary's The Mount Catholic Primary School | Roman Catholic | 0.7 miles | 235 | No overall grade 2025 | 83 | Compare |
| Blue Coat Church of England Aided Junior School | Church of England | 0.8 miles | 366 | Not inspected | 51 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Palfrey Infant School a good school?
Palfrey Infant School doesn't have a score yet. Ofsted rated it requires improvement at its last inspection in October 2022.
What is Palfrey Infant School's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Palfrey Infant School requires improvement at its last full inspection on 11 October 2022.
How many pupils does Palfrey Infant School have?
310 pupils aged 3 to 7 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 360 places, so it is 86% full.
What is attendance like at Palfrey Infant School?
Pupils were in school 93.2% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 20% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Palfrey Infant School?
The average class had 24.7 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 25.4. 8% 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
- Bescot Street, Walsall, WS1 4HY
- Telephone
- 01922 720713
- Website
- www.palfreyinfant.co.uk
- Headteacher
- Mrs Alison Walsh
- Type of school
- Converter academy (Academy converter, academies)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 3-7, with nursery
- Gender
- Mixed
- Multi-academy trust
- The Forge Brook Trust (5 schools)
- Local authority
- Walsall
- Ward
- Palfrey
- Constituency
- Walsall and Bloxwich
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 June 2025 (academy converter)
- URN
- 151660 · LAESTAB 3352030 · UKPRN 10097364
- Formerly
- Palfrey 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: Walsall 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.