Living in Pontefract with children
Pontefract, Wakefield and North Yorkshire. What the published figures say about its schools, its homes and daily life, each with its source and date. 32,982 people in 14,347 households; 28.5% of households have dependent children (Census 2021 (ONS, via NOMIS), summed over the town's output areas).
Schools
43 schools: 36 state primary, 6 state secondary, 1 sixth form or collegePontefract on the schools map →Every school in Pontefract, with inspection, league band and the last place offered
State primary schools (36)
| School | Inspection | League table | Last place offered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ark Larks Hill Primary School | Outstanding | Top 1% · 1st in Wakefield | — |
| Ark Carleton Park Primary School | Outstanding | Top 1% · 2nd in Wakefield | — |
| Ark Halfpenny Lane Primary School | Outstanding | Top 5% · 4th in Wakefield | — |
| Ark The Rookeries Carleton Primary School | Good | Top 5% · 5th in Wakefield | — |
| Outwood Primary Academy Bell Lane | Good | Top 5% · 9th in Wakefield | — |
| Ark Orchard Head Primary School | Good | Top 10% · 13th in Wakefield | — |
| Ark De Lacy Primary School | Outstanding | Top 25% · 17th in Wakefield | — |
| West End Academy | Improved significantly | Top 25% · 19th in Wakefield | — |
| Ackworth Howard Church of England Voluntary Controlled Junior and Infant School | Good | Top 25% · 20th in Wakefield | — |
| Badsworth Church of England Voluntary Controlled Junior and Infant School | School remains Good | Top 25% · 22nd in Wakefield | — |
| Ackworth Mill Dam School | Ofsted report card | Top 25% · 25th in Wakefield | — |
| Featherstone All Saints CofE Academy | Standards maintained | Top half · 29th in Wakefield | — |
| St Giles C of E Academy | Improved significantly | Top half · 31st in Wakefield | — |
| St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Pontefract | Good | Top half · 36th in Wakefield | — |
| Grove Lea Primary School | Outstanding | Top half · 41st in Wakefield | — |
| Darrington Church of England Primary School | Good | Lower half · 61st in Wakefield | — |
| Featherstone North Featherstone Junior and Infant School | School remains Good | Lower half · 67th in Wakefield | — |
| St Helen's CE Primary School | Good | Lower half · 69th in Wakefield | — |
| Ash Grove Primary Academy | Good | Lower half · 80th in Wakefield | — |
| St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Moorthorpe | School remains Good | Lower half · 81st in Wakefield | — |
| Holy Family and St Michael's Catholic Primary School, A Voluntary Academy | School remains Good | Lower half · 82nd in Wakefield | — |
| Upton Primary School | School remains Good | Lower half · 83rd in Wakefield | — |
| South Elmsall Carlton Junior and Infant School | Good | Lower half · 86th in Wakefield | — |
| Featherstone Purston St Thomas Church of England Voluntary Controlled Junior School | Requires improvement | Lower half · 90th in Wakefield | — |
| Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School | Good | Lower half · 91st in Wakefield | — |
| Cherry Tree Academy | Requires improvement | Lower half · 93rd in Wakefield | — |
| Moorthorpe Primary School With Inclusion Resource | School remains Good | Lower half · 94th in Wakefield | — |
| Fitzwilliam Primary School | Requires improvement | Lower half · 95th in Wakefield | — |
| King's Meadow Academy | Requires improvement | Lower half · 96th in Wakefield | — |
| South Kirkby Academy | Good | Lower half · 97th in Wakefield | — |
| Streethouse Junior, Infant and Nursery School | Ofsted report card | Lower half · 99th in Wakefield | — |
| Ark Northfield Primary School | Requires improvement | — | — |
| Featherstone Girnhill Infant School | School remains Good | — | — |
| Featherstone Purston Infant School | Good | — | — |
| Kirk Smeaton Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School | Good | — | — |
| South Kirkby Common Road Infant and Nursery School | Ofsted report card | — | — |
State secondary schools (6)
| School | Inspection | League table | Last place offered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ark The King's School | Good | Top half · 6th in Wakefield | — |
| Ark Carleton High School | Improved significantly | Top half · 8th in Wakefield | — |
| St Wilfrid's Catholic High School & Sixth Form College: A Voluntary Academy | Ofsted report card | Top half · 11th in Wakefield | — |
| Minsthorpe Community College | School remains Good | Top half · 12th in Wakefield | — |
| Outwood Academy Hemsworth | Good | Lower half · 16th in Wakefield | — |
| The Featherstone Academy | School remains Good | Lower half · 17th in Wakefield | — |
Sixth forms and colleges (1)
| School | Inspection | League table | Last place offered |
|---|---|---|---|
| New College Pontefract | Outstanding | Top half · 2nd in Wakefield | — |
Rank: the school's place among its council's schools of the same phase, from three years of DfE results (kinplace's league table, how it is worked out); schools with hidden or no results get none. Inspections: Ofsted and ISI. Last place offered: the council's offer-day figures. School register: DfE Get Information about Schools, updated 17 October 2026.
Homes and prices
Typical sale, last 12 months (Land Registry)The middle sale of each type, September 2025 to August 2026: half sold for more, half for less (104 detached, 135 semi-detached, 56 terraced, 22 flat or maisonette sales). Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, standard sales inside the ONS built-up area outline of Pontefract. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Look up a home in Pontefract →Getting around
Stops and stations (NaPTAN), and broadband (Ofcom)Source: DfT, NaPTAN (National Public Transport Access Nodes). Straight-line distances.
Gigabit broadband can be ordered at 90% of premises, and superfast (30 Mbit/s) at 98%, on average across the 2,548 postcodes in WF9, WF8, WF7. Check the postcode you are looking at: it can differ street by street.
Source: Ofcom Connected Nations, July 2025, fixed broadband coverage by postcode (an average of postcodes, not of homes).
Safety and environment
The town centre; addresses varyChildcare
Ofsted early years register; published pricesWhat Ofsted found: 3 outstanding; 16 good, or expected standard; 1 not inspected yet. A typical nursery place in this region costs about £6.17 an hour for a two-year-old.
All of them: 1 in North Yorkshire · 19 in Wakefield.
Sources: Ofsted, Childcare providers and inspections; each nursery's own fees page, read by 16 October 2026; Coram Family and Childcare, Childcare Survey 2026: average nursery price for 50 hours a week after the working-parent entitlement (paying for 20 hours), by region.
Childcare costs near you →Key dates, Wakefield
The next dates for families applyingApplication deadlines and offer days: Wakefield · North Yorkshire.
Every date, and reminders →Nearby towns
Keep Pontefract in your plan beside the other towns you are weighing up, and see each school here worked out for your address and your children.Add Pontefract to your plan
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Sources are named beside each figure. How we know · All sources.