The Hermitage Infant School

This is a small, community-focused infant school in St John’s, Woking, educating pupils from Nursery through to Year 2, with a linked junior route nearby. The recent story is one of improvement. The latest inspection (March 2025) judged Quality of Education, Behaviour and Attitudes, Personal Development, and Leadership and Management as Good, with Early Years Provision graded Outstanding.

Leadership is overseen by Executive Headteacher Clare Spires, who is listed as headteacher on official records. The school is part of the SWAN Trust, which the March 2025 report also notes in its governance context.

Demand for entry at the start of school can change from one admissions round to the next, so families should use Surrey's current coordinated admissions timetable and oversubscription criteria rather than relying on older application figures. For September 2027 Reception entry, applications open on 2 November 2026, close on 15 January 2027, and offers are issued on 16 April 2027.

The tone set by the school’s formal expectations is clear, but it is not a high-pressure infant setting. The March 2025 inspection report describes an inclusive ethos central to the school, with a focus on ensuring children are supported and known as individuals. For parents, the practical implication is reassuring: the school is trying to be consistent and predictable, which is what most children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 respond to best.

Early Years is a defining strength, and that matters because this is where routines, language, and learning behaviours are built. With Early Years Provision graded Outstanding, the school has evidence behind its approach to settling children, building independence, and making learning feel manageable and structured from the start.

Leadership continuity also matters in small schools. Clare Spires is the named executive headteacher and the school is explicit that leadership spans both the infant and junior schools. For families with younger siblings or those thinking ahead to Year 3, that joined-up leadership can make policy and culture feel more coherent across the two sites.

For infant schools, published end-of-Key-Stage headline measures (like Key Stage 2) are not the centre of the conversation, and the most robust external “results” evidence tends to come via inspection judgements about quality of education, early reading, and curriculum delivery.

The most recent inspection provides a clear marker of where the school sits now: Good across the core categories, with Outstanding Early Years. The useful way to interpret that as a parent is not as a badge, but as a proxy for consistency. In a school serving ages 2 to 7, “Good” usually translates into routines that work, classrooms that are calm enough for learning, and leaders who have a handle on what is being taught and why.

Early reading is an area where parents often want specifics. The school states it uses a systematic synthetic phonics scheme, Read Write Inc, to build secure foundations in reading. The practical implication is that home reading tends to be structured and incremental, and parents should expect regular small-step practice rather than a loose, pick-your-own approach.

Teaching at this age is about building automaticity and confidence, without making children feel that school is a test. The school’s curriculum pages emphasise building knowledge through stories, poems, rhymes, and non-fiction texts alongside the structured phonics route, which is a sensible blend for a mixed-intake infant school.

In practice, a strong infant offer usually has three features:

• Language first: talk, vocabulary, stories, and explicit phonics.

• Routines and behaviour norms: children know what “good learning” looks like.

• Fine motor and early number fluency: writing stamina and early maths confidence are built gradually.

The external evidence you have here aligns best with that profile through the Early Years judgement and the description of the school’s ethos and organisation in the inspection report.

Most pupils will leave at the end of Year 2 and move on to junior provision for Year 3. In Surrey, this transition is a normal feature of areas with infant and junior configurations, and it means families should plan ahead earlier than they might expect.

Surrey’s primary admissions guidance explicitly references the need to apply for a Year 3 place if a child is leaving Year 2 of an infant school in July 2026, since many infant schools do not have Year 3 intake. The practical implication is simple: even if Reception went smoothly, you may be back in an admissions cycle again sooner than friends in all-through primaries.

Admissions depend on which entry point you mean, because there are two real pathways here.

Reception (age 4)

Applications for starting school in September 2027 in Surrey open on 2 November 2026, with the closing date on 15 January 2027. Offers are issued on 16 April 2027, and responses are due by 30 April 2027.

Oversubscription criteria still matter for this route. Families should check the current Surrey and trust admissions information carefully, especially sibling criteria, staff-child criteria where applicable, and distance tie-breaks if demand exceeds available places.

The SWAN Trust admissions policy describes how Reception applications for The Hermitage Infant School are ranked when oversubscribed, including the ordering of looked-after children, exceptional social or medical need, siblings (including a sibling in the linked junior school), children of staff, and then other children, with distance used when a tie-break is needed within a criterion.

Nursery (age 2 to 4)

Nursery is not the same as Reception admissions. The school publishes “stay and play” style visits for nursery admissions, with dates shown across October and then into the spring term in the published list. The key takeaway is the pattern: early autumn and then early spring tend to be when families can expect nursery visit opportunities, and places can fill early when a nursery expands or changes its offer.

At infant age, “pastoral” is mostly the design of the school day: predictable routines, calm adult responses, and clear expectations that do not change from classroom to classroom.

The school’s parent materials describe behaviour expectations using simple rule language (for example, class rules framed around being ready, respectful, and safe), alongside a focus on praise and recognition. The practical implication for families is that consistency at home and school should align well, especially for children who benefit from clear boundaries and calm repetition.

Safeguarding messaging is also explicit in parent-facing documentation, with references to trust-wide safeguarding policy and procedures, which is typical for a trust-run school and helpful for clarity.

Extracurricular life in an infant school should be age-appropriate and not overload children, particularly in Reception and Year 1. The school’s clubs timetable provides concrete examples of what is actually offered, rather than generic “lots of clubs” claims.

Examples from the published infant timetable include:

• Year 1 and Year 2 Musical Theatre

• London TKD Martial Arts

• Year 2 Lunchtime Library Club

• Year 1 and Year 2 Football, plus Year 1 and Year 2 Girls Football

• Year 1 and Year 2 Dance

Wraparound is also part of the wider offer. The school describes breakfast club and after-school club arrangements, and the parent handbook sets out the operating times in a practical way for working families.

The published school day timings for the infant school are: a school day start of 8:40am and finish at 3:10pm, with gates opening at 8:30am and closing at 8:45am, and afternoon gates opening at 3:00pm and closing at 3:20pm.

Breakfast club is described in parent materials as starting at 7:15am, and after-school club runs until 5:45pm.

For travel, this is a Woking location in St John’s, so many families will be weighing walkability and drop-off flow as much as bus or rail. If you are moving house with admissions in mind, it is sensible to use FindMySchool’s Map Search to sanity-check your likely distance to the school gates against oversubscription realities, then treat it as a guide rather than a promise.

• Reception admissions planning. Surrey's September 2027 Reception round opens on 2 November 2026, closes on 15 January 2027, and has offer day on 16 April 2027. Families should plan alternatives as well as hoping for first preference.

• A second admissions moment arrives quickly. As an infant school, many children will need a Year 3 move. Surrey’s guidance makes clear that families may need to apply again for junior entry after Year 2, depending on local school structures.

• Inspection context. The most recent inspection marks a stronger position than the prior judgement, but it also implies that consistency and improvement work are active, not historical. Families should ask how improvements are being sustained day-to-day.

The Hermitage Infant School is best understood as an improving local infant option with a particularly strong Early Years phase and a now-secure set of “Good” judgements across the wider school. It suits families who want a structured start to schooling, value predictable routines, and are comfortable engaging early with admissions planning. Securing entry is the main constraint, and families should also plan ahead for the Year 3 transition.