St John's Catholic Infant School

About St John's Catholic Infant School

St John’s Catholic Infant School in Wirral was rated Good overall in its most recent Ofsted inspection in November 2023, with inspectors singling out behaviour and attitudes as Outstanding. That’s a notable shift from the school’s previous inspection in 2008, when it was judged Outstanding across the board. For a primary that only takes children up to age 7, the most telling academic metric is the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile, and here the school’s early years provision was rated Good. The school is clearly popular: for the 2025/26 intake, it received 76 applications for just 37 places, with 34 of those coming as first preferences. That oversubscription ratio of 2.05 to 1 tells you local families are keen to get in, even though the nearest Outstanding-rated infant alternative, Town Lane Infant School, is only a kilometre away.

Because St John’s is an infant school, there are no Key Stage 2 SATs results to compare against the Wirral local authority average of 53% reaching the expected standard. Instead, the school’s academic story is best read through its Ofsted breakdown. The quality of education was judged Good, as was personal development. The early years provision, which covers the Reception year, also came out as Good. That’s a solid set of grades, particularly given that only six of the 90 primary schools in Wirral currently hold an Outstanding rating. The school’s 16% of pupils eligible for free school meals is slightly below the national average, suggesting a relatively mixed intake. With a headteacher who has been in post since at least the 2023 inspection, the leadership and management was also rated Good, indicating stable direction.

The school sits on a site that includes a chapel, a library, art studios, playing fields, and a forest school area, which is a decent spread for a small infant school. Sports on offer include dance, tennis, cross country, and football, while clubs cover drama, gardening, and eco club. For children with additional needs, the school has provisions for moderate learning difficulty, social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication difficulties, and autistic spectrum disorder. There is nursery provision for three-year-olds, which feeds into the main school. With 207 pupils on roll against a capacity of 180, the school is over its official number, which explains the oversubscription. This is a faith-based, community-focused infant school that suits Catholic families in Wirral who want a Good-rated option with strong behaviour standards and a forest school ethos, but who are prepared to apply early given the competition for places.

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