Sholing Infant School
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Sholing Infant School is a converter academy in Southampton for boys and girls aged 4 to 7. It has 264 pupils and room for 270. About 19 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, a bit fewer than at most schools. We give it 99 out of 100. That puts it well above schools like it, ahead of 100% of the 50 schools most like it. Ofsted's last grade was inspected 2025, no overall grade.
Heath Road, Sholing, Southampton, SO19 2QF023 8044 7447sholinginfantschool.co.ukMrs Lisa Houghton head teacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 1 April 2025, 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.
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
The school is full, with 3 more pupils than it has places for. More families apply than can get in, so things like how close you live and whether an older brother or sister is already here decide who gets a place. Pupil numbers have stayed about the same since 2021/22.
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 Southampton council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
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.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: language and communications needs (22), Moderate learning difficulty (13), emotional and mental health (5), Autistic spectrum disorder (2), Physical disability (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 264 | 268 | 267 | 270 | 269 | 271 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 19% | 17% | 18% | 19% | 20% | 14% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 16% | 13% | 10% | 10% | 8% | 9% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 11% | 17% | 14% | 12% | 14% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 3% | 2% | 3% | 3% | 2% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 96.3% 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 | 3.7% | 4.1% | 5.2% | 6.1% | 3.4% | 3.0% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 3.0% | 3.2% | 4.3% | 5.5% | 2.9% | 2.3% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 0.7% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.7% | 0.6% | 0.7% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 8.7% | 7.6% | 11.4% | 18.8% | 7.0% | 1.7% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | – | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – |
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sholing Junior School | Academy | 160 m | 353 | Good 2022 | 13 | Compare |
| St Monica Primary School | Academy | 780 m | 331 | No overall grade 2025 | 64 | Compare |
| Bitterne Church of England Primary School | Church of England | 900 m | 395 | No overall grade 2025 | 5 | Compare |
| Ludlow Junior School | Academy | 930 m | 579 | No overall grade 2025 | 42 | Compare |
| Ludlow Infant Academy | Academy | 0.7 miles | 231 | Good 2024 | 40 | Compare |
| Thornhill Primary School | Academy | 0.7 miles | 318 | Report card 2026 | 2 | Compare |
| St Patrick's Catholic Primary School | Roman Catholic | 0.8 miles | 428 | Not inspected | 91 | Compare |
| Glenfield Infant School | Academy | 0.8 miles | 226 | Report card 2026 | 4 | Compare |
Compared with schools like it
Our score compares Sholing Infant School with the 45 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 45 schools are dotted all over the country, so we don't list them. What matters is where this school sits among them.
No school with a similar mix of pupils within 25 km scores clearly higher.
How the score was worked out
The score is out of 100. A 99 means that once everything below is added up, this school comes out ahead of 99% of primary schools in England. Results bounce around from year to year, especially in small schools, so we also show a likely range: 96 to 100. 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% | well above | +1.01 | Ofsted grade, 1.5 years old |
| Progress pupils make | 0% | no data | – | |
| Direction of travel over five years | 10% | above | +0.14 | results and attendance rising year on year |
| Attendance and behaviour | 10% | above | +0.18 | 2024/25; 185 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 Sholing Infant School a good school?
Yes, going by the figures. Sholing Infant School scores 99 out of 100. That is well above schools that take in a similar mix of pupils, and ahead of 100% of the 50 schools most like it in England. The score could fairly be anywhere from 96 to 100, so a few points either way between schools doesn't mean much.
What is Sholing Infant School's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Sholing Infant School not judged at its last full inspection on 1 April 2025.
How many pupils does Sholing Infant School have?
264 pupils aged 4 to 7 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 270 places, so it is 98% full.
Is Sholing Infant School oversubscribed?
Probably. The school was full in 2024/25, with 3 more pupils than places. How close you live, and the school's other admissions rules, decide who gets in.
What is attendance like at Sholing Infant School?
Pupils were in school 96.3% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 9% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Sholing Infant School?
The average class had 29.7 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 25.4. No class 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
- Heath Road, Sholing, Southampton, SO19 2QF
- Telephone
- 023 8044 7447
- Website
- www.sholinginfantschool.co.uk
- Head Teacher
- Mrs Lisa Houghton
- Type of school
- Converter academy (Academy converter, academies)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 4-7
- Gender
- Mixed
- Multi-academy trust
- Hamwic Education Trust (37 schools)
- Local authority
- Southampton
- Ward
- Sholing
- Constituency
- Southampton Itchen
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 February 2018 (academy converter)
- URN
- 145457 · LAESTAB 8522430 · UKPRN 10066642
- Formerly
- Sholing 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.
- 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.