Orchards Infant School

About Orchards Infant School

Orchards Infant School is a state primary in Worthing, within the West Sussex local authority. It sits among 226 primary schools of the same type in the LA, where only seven hold an Outstanding rating from Ofsted. The nearest Outstanding alternative is Springfield Infant School and Nursery, 3.6 kilometres away. Among its local peers, Barns Green Primary School and Heron Way Primary School both rank highest with a score of 86, followed by Aldingbourne Primary School at 84. Orchards itself is a mixed, non-religious infant school for children aged 3 to 7, with a nursery on site. It currently has 272 pupils against a capacity of 412, and 19.9 per cent of children are eligible for free school meals. The school is led by headteacher Paul Jones.

In its most recent Ofsted inspection in 2021, Orchards Infant School received an overall effectiveness rating of Requires Improvement, a grade it also held in its previous inspection in 2017. The breakdown shows that early years provision was rated Good, but quality of education, personal development, behaviour and attitudes, and leadership and management were all judged as Requires Improvement. The school does not publish Key Stage 2 SATs results because it only covers infants up to age 7, so no direct academic comparison to the West Sussex LA average of 56 per cent at KS2 is possible. However, the lack of a higher Ofsted grade and the consistency of the Requires Improvement rating across two inspections suggest that academic outcomes and pupil development have been areas of sustained focus for the leadership team.

The school offers a range of facilities including a library, playing fields, a forest school, an outdoor playground, and a chapel. Sports provision covers rounders, cricket, football, dance, tennis, netball, and swimming, while clubs include drama, choir, chess, and coding. SEND support is extensive, with provisions for specific learning difficulties, moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech and language communication, multi-sensory impairment, physical disability, autistic spectrum disorder, and a resourced provision. For the 2025/26 intake, the school was oversubscribed: 164 applications were received for 62 places, with 60 first-preference offers made, giving an oversubscription ratio of 2.65. This suggests strong local demand despite the Ofsted rating, likely driven by its nursery provision, SEND resources, and the practical appeal of a small infant-only setting for families in Worthing.

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