Willow Bank Infant School
Willow Bank Infant School is a converter academy in Reading for boys and girls aged 5 to 7. It has 152 pupils and room for 180. About 4 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in England. Ofsted's last grade was good, back in 2022.
Duffield Road, Woodley, Reading, RG5 4RW0118 969 5452willowbankinfant.comMrs N Taylor-Dickens headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
A shorter visit on 6 July 2022 found nothing to change the school's grade. Read the report on Ofsted's website.
Good overall. A shorter follow-up visit found nothing to change that. The last full inspection was before September 2019, which is as far back as Ofsted's public records go, so we can't show its date or the grades for each area.
This inspection is more than 4 years old. When Ofsted next visits, the school will get a report card instead of one grade.
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
About 25 places were empty, so most families who apply get in, though a popular year group can still fill up.
In 2025 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 2025. Every child who applied got a place (50 offers for 60 places).
| Entry | Places | Applied at all | Got a place | How far the last child lived | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Primary | 60 | 130 | 50 | – all offered | LA |
Who goes here
Who the school teaches, from the latest school census.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: Autistic spectrum disorder (8), language and communications needs (3), SEN support but no specialist assessment of type of need (2), Hearing impairment (1).
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 95.7% 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 | 4.3% | 5.3% | 6.5% | 7.8% | 2.0% | 3.2% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 3.2% | 4.2% | 5.7% | 6.9% | 1.6% | 2.3% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 1.1% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.4% | 0.8% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 7.4% | 15.7% | 18.4% | 24.4% | 1.6% | 4.1% | 12.8% |
† These attendance figures are for Willow Bank Infant School, the school this one replaced in April 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willow Bank Junior School | Academy | 0 m | 235 | Good 2023 | – | Compare |
| St Dominic Savio Catholic Primary School | Roman Catholic | 880 m | 420 | Outstanding 2020 | 100 | Compare |
| Woodley CofE Primary School | Church of England | 980 m | 291 | Good 2024 | 58 | Compare |
| Beechwood Primary School | Academy | 0.7 miles | 244 | Requires improvement 2023 | 5 | Compare |
| Sonning Church of England Primary School | Academy | 0.7 miles | 210 | No overall grade 2025 | 99 | Compare |
| Rivermead Primary School | Academy | 0.9 miles | 429 | Report card 2026 | 75 | Compare |
| South Lake Primary School | Academy | 1.1 miles | 443 | No overall grade 2025 | 86 | Compare |
| Highwood Primary School | Academy | 1.1 miles | 429 | Good 2021 | – | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Willow Bank Infant School a good school?
Willow Bank Infant School doesn't have a score yet. Ofsted rated it good at its last inspection in July 2022.
What is Willow Bank Infant School's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Willow Bank Infant School good at its last full inspection on 6 July 2022. That was more than four years ago. When Ofsted next visits, the school will get a report card instead of a single grade.
How many pupils does Willow Bank Infant School have?
152 pupils aged 5 to 7 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 180 places, so it is 84% full.
Is Willow Bank Infant School oversubscribed?
Probably not. 25 places were empty in 2024/25 (14% of the total), so most families who apply get a place.
What is attendance like at Willow Bank Infant School?
Pupils were in school 95.7% 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 Willow Bank Infant School?
The average class had 25.6 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
- Duffield Road, Woodley, Reading, RG5 4RW
- Telephone
- 0118 969 5452
- Website
- www.willowbankinfant.com
- Headteacher
- Mrs N Taylor-Dickens
- Type of school
- Converter academy (Academy converter, academies)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 5-7
- Gender
- Mixed
- Multi-academy trust
- Orchard Learning Alliance (10 schools)
- Local authority
- Wokingham
- Ward
- Bulmershe & Coronation
- Constituency
- Earley and Woodley
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 April 2025 (academy converter)
- URN
- 149953 · LAESTAB 8722160 · UKPRN 10092936
- Formerly
- Willow Bank 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: Wokingham council's published allocation statistics (source), entry years 2025.
- 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.