SF School Facts UK

All-through school in Royston, Hertfordshire

King James Academy Royston

Garden Walk, Royston, Hertfordshire, SG8 7JH

Ofsted Good · 2024 Sixth form
School website 01763242236

Ofsted

Goodas at 23 April 2024

Graded Good at its last graded inspection, on 23 April 2024.

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 2 years old and will not be updated — the school keeps it until its next inspection, which will not produce a replacement grade.

Read the Ofsted report

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

40.3 England 47

The average grade across eight GCSEs, doubling English and maths. 50 is roughly a grade 5 average.

Grade 5+ in English & maths

34% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

53% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

3.5 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

25% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is in the bottom quarter of state-funded secondaries in England.

Compared with the fifth of schools whose intake is second least disadvantaged, which is where this one sits, it is in the bottom quarter.

Progress 8 2023/24

0.19confidence interval -0.11 to 0.48

Taking that range into account, progress was not statistically different from the national average. DfE bands this as average.

Progress 8 measures how far pupils moved between the end of primary and their GCSEs, which makes it far fairer than raw attainment. It is shown for 2023/24 because it could not be calculated for 2024/25: that year group would have sat their key stage 2 tests in summer 2020, when the tests were cancelled, so there is no starting point to measure from. Every school in England is affected, not just this one.

Pupils

Pupils on roll
947
Places
1321
How full
72% full — 947 of 1321 places taken, so places are likely to be available
Girls / boys
455 / 492
Overall absence
8%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
21%

secondary schools average 23.9% — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions

Free school meals, last 6 years
21%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
7%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
3%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
13%

England 15%

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
92%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
87%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
1%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
5%
No sustained destination
6%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
119

After sixth form

Went to university
92%

England 50%

In education, work or training
100%

England 84.3%

Started an apprenticeship
0%

England 6.5%

Students in the cohort
12

Going on to university 2021/22 leavers

Went to a top third university

10% England 20.9%

The third of higher education providers whose entrants hold the highest average entry qualifications. It is the closest thing in the public data to "did they get into a competitive university", and it separates schools far more sharply than the headline progression rate does.

Went on to a degree
80%

England 65.3%

Students in the cohort
10

These follow an earlier group of leavers than the figures above, and count anyone reaching higher education within two years rather than the term after leaving, so they are not directly comparable with them.

A destination counts only if it lasted at least six months, which is why these figures lag the exam results by a year, and why the university figures track leavers from 2021/22. Small cohorts move these percentages a long way — check the cohort size before reading much into a gap.

The neighbourhood around the school

Census 2021 figures for North Hertfordshire 002D, the statistical neighbourhood the school sits in — roughly 1,500 residents. It describes the area, not the pupils, who may travel in from further away.

Adults with a degree
41%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
14%

England 18.3%

Households owning their home
86%

England 62.7%

Households in social housing
2%

England 17%

Households with no car
10%

England 21.9%

Adults economically inactive
37%

England 39.9%

School details

Type
Academy converter
Phase
All-through
Ages
Ages 9–18
Gender
Mixed
Admissions
Non-selective
Religious character
None
Sixth form
Yes
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Trust
THE DIAMOND LEARNING PARTNERSHIP TRUST
Headteacher
Headteacher: Zoe Andrews
Local authority
Hertfordshire
Ward
Royston Meridian
Constituency
North East Hertfordshire
URN
137656

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Nearest all-through schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Distance
Bassingbourn Village CollegeAcademy converter Good 2023 47.5 2.5 mi
Melbourn Village CollegeAcademy converter No grade 42.3 2.6 mi
Freman CollegeAcademy converter Good 2024 53.1 7.2 mi
Edwinstree Church of England Middle SchoolVoluntary controlled school Good 2024 7.3 mi
Sawston Village CollegeAcademy converter Good 2023 55.5 8.9 mi
The Knights Templar SchoolAcademy converter Good 2023 48.5 8.9 mi
Cambridge Academy for Science and TechnologyUniversity technical college Good 2023 56.8 10.4 mi

Schools with a similar intake

State-funded all-through schools nationally whose share of disadvantaged pupils is closest to this school's. This is the fairest like-for-like comparison the published data supports.

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8
John Hanson Community SchoolCommunity school Good 2024 43.5
Heart of England SchoolAcademy converter Good 2024 47.2
Hounsdown SchoolAcademy converter Good 2024 46.1
St Ivo AcademyAcademy converter Good 2024 47.1
Greenbank High SchoolAcademy converter Good 2022 50.6
Carmel CollegeAcademy converter No grade 53.5
Wembley High Technology CollegeAcademy converter Outstanding 2022 63.5
Turing House SchoolFree schools No grade 54.2

Where these figures come from

  • School details, address and pupil numbers — Get Information About Schools, the DfE register, as at 14 August 2026.
  • Exam results — DfE performance tables, 2024/25, and 2023/24 for Progress 8.
  • Free school meals, EAL and SEN — school census, 2024/25.
  • Ofsted — Ofsted management information, latest inspections as at 30 June 2026.
  • Neighbourhood figures — ONS Census 2021, lower layer super output area.

All published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.