Thomas A Becket Infant School
Thomas A Becket Infant School is a council school in Worthing for boys and girls aged 4 to 7. It has 473 pupils, 23 more than it has places for. About 8 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in England.
Pelham Road, Worthing, BN13 1JB01903 235386tabinfant.org.ukMrs Becky Linford headteacherAll details
Ofsted
Ofsted hasn't published an inspection for this school yet.
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
About 34 places were empty, so most families who apply get in, though a popular year group can still fill up. Pupil numbers have fallen by 5% since 2021/22, so places are getting easier to find.
The last child to get a place lived 0.8 miles away in 2025, 920 m away in 2024, 1.7 miles away in 2023. Children in care, brothers and sisters of current pupils, faith and other priority groups are placed first. After that, the closer you live, the better your chances. Type in your postcode to see how far away you are.
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 2025. More children applied than there were places. The last place went to a child living 0.8 miles from the school. Living closer than that didn't guarantee a place, but living much further away meant missing out that year.
| Entry | Places | Applied at all | Got a place | How far the last child lived | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Primary | 150 | 166 | 150 | 0.8 miles | LA |
| 2024 Primary | 150 | 189 | 150 | 920 m | LA |
| 2023 Primary | 180 | 186 | 180 | 1.7 miles | LA |
The distances are the council's own, usually measured in a straight line from home to the school gate. If the distance is getting shorter each year, the school is getting harder to get into. See which councils we have this data for.
What a home within 0.8 miles of the school costs
Every home sold within that distance of the school (the typical cut-off over the last three years), of any type, from HM Land Registry records. If homes here cost more than the district average, that is the price people pay to live close enough to get in.
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 (53), emotional and mental health (15), Autistic spectrum disorder (8), Specific learning difficulty (3), Hearing impairment (1), Other difficulty or disability (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 473 | 502 | 536 | 526 | 536 | 536 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 8% | 11% | 12% | 13% | 14% | 11% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 15% | 14% | 6% | 8% | 9% | 14% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 14% | 9% | 8% | 7% | 6% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 1% | 2% | 1% | 2% | 2% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 95.8% 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 | 4.2% | 4.9% | 4.9% | 5.8% | 5.2% | 3.4% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 3.3% | 3.6% | 4.0% | 4.6% | 4.7% | 2.5% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 0.9% | 1.3% | 0.9% | 1.2% | 0.4% | 1.0% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 7.3% | 9.4% | 10.0% | 12.7% | 16.3% | 4.7% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 4.8 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.6 | – | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 2 | 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 council school accounts, year to March 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas A Becket Junior School | Council | 370 m | 715 | Good 2024 | 61 | Compare |
| Durrington Junior School | Council | 0.7 miles | 334 | Good 2022 | 73 | Compare |
| Durrington Infant School | Council | 0.7 miles | 217 | Report card 2026 | 62 | Compare |
| English Martyrs Catholic Primary School, Worthing | Roman Catholic | 0.8 miles | 187 | Good 2022 | 26 | Compare |
| Broadwater CofE Primary School | Church of England | 0.8 miles | 431 | Good 2023 | 81 | Compare |
| Elm Grove Primary School, Worthing | Council | 0.8 miles | 203 | Good 2024 | 60 | Compare |
| Orchards Infant School | Academy | 1.0 miles | 281 | Requires improvement 2021 | 1 | Compare |
| Orchards Junior School | Academy | 1.0 miles | 496 | Good 2024 | 30 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Thomas A Becket Infant School a good school?
We don't have enough published data to score Thomas A Becket Infant School yet.
How many pupils does Thomas A Becket Infant School have?
473 pupils aged 4 to 7 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 450 places, so it is 105% full.
Is Thomas A Becket Infant School oversubscribed, and how far away can you live?
Yes. For September 2025 the last place went to a child living 0.8 miles away. Children in care, brothers and sisters of current pupils and other priority groups come before distance, so the cut-off moves every year.
What is attendance like at Thomas A Becket Infant School?
Pupils were in school 95.8% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 7% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Thomas A Becket Infant School?
The average class had 29.6 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
- Pelham Road, Worthing, BN13 1JB
- Telephone
- 01903 235386
- Website
- www.tabinfant.org.uk
- Headteacher
- Mrs Becky Linford
- Type of school
- Council school (Community school, local authority maintained schools)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 4-7
- Gender
- Mixed
- Local authority
- West Sussex
- Ward
- Tarring
- Constituency
- Worthing West
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- URN
- 125954 · LAESTAB 9382231 · UKPRN 10071968
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, consistent financial reporting 2024/25.
- Admissions outcomes: West Sussex council's published allocation statistics (source), entry years 2023, 2024, 2025.
- House prices: HM Land Registry price paid data, December 2023 to December 2025, placed by postcode.
- 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.