SF School Facts UK

All-through school in Dunstable, Central Bedfordshire

Priory Academy

Priory Academy, Britain Street, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, LU5 4JA

Ofsted Good · 2023 Full
School website 01582661158
Ofsted Good April 2023
Attainment 8 46.2 around the middle nationally
Pupils 830 over capacity (119%)
Local deprivation 6/10 mid-range

Ofsted

Goodas at 20 April 2023

Remained Good at its last ungraded inspection, on 20 April 2023.

Ofsted stopped awarding single-word overall grades in September 2024. This grade is 3 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

Current published outcome
Good
Last overall grade in this dataset
Good
Days since inspection
1,261 days
Framework era
Historic overall-grade framework (ended September 2024)

These four fields describe the latest published inspection on this record. The dataset does not keep a previous inspection row, so a school inspected under the current framework will usually have no overall grade to show as “prior”.

GCSE results 2024/25

Attainment 8 score

46.2 England 47

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

Grade 5+ in English & maths

50% England 46.2%

Grade 4+ in English & maths

70% England 66.2%

EBacc average point score

4.1 England 4.2

Entered the EBacc

30% England 40.8%

On Attainment 8 this school is around the middle of state-funded secondaries in England.

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

Progress 8 2023/24

-0.21confidence interval -0.50 to 0.07

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
830
Places
700
How full
Full — 830 pupils against 700 places
Girls / boys
394 / 436
Overall absence
7%

secondary schools average 8.6%

Persistently absent
18%

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

Free school meals, last 6 years
14%

England 25.7%

English as an additional language
17%

England 18.7%

With an EHC plan
5%

England 3.5%

On SEN support
11%

England 15%

School funding 2025-26 financial year

Not found for this URN in the 2025-26 release.

Evidence found
Not found for this URN in the 2025-26 release; this is not represented as £0.
Source coverage
DfE mainstream-school allocations for running costs for pupils aged 5-16, importer snapshot 23 August 2026.
What this means
The official mainstream allocation release does not provide a publishable row for this establishment.
What this does not mean
The school received no public funding or has no budget; other establishment types and funding streams use different publications.

Allocation is not expenditure. DfE says this release combines the schools block with several other revenue grants and excludes capital spending. Funding is shown for context and is never used in School Facts ordering, peer groups or quality claims. Source, licence and coverage.

Roads and getting there

Road casualties within 500m

Child pedestrian casualties
4

England average 1.6 — pedestrians under 16, over five years

All reported collisions
71

England average 24.2 over five years

Of those, serious or fatal
13
Busiest road nearby
A505

15,685 vehicles a day (2025)

Public transport

Bus stops within 500m
13

England average 11.9

Nearest station
Leagrave Rail Station

4.5 km away — railway station

Traffic volume is the context the collision count needs: a school beside a major road will record more collisions than one on a quiet street without being any less well run.

Every collision reported to the police within 500m of the school over the five years to 2024, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe — counts rise with traffic and with how built up an area is, and a rural school on a fast road may have fewer collisions but a worse one. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position.

What pupils do next

After GCSEs

In education, work or training
98%

England 91.4%

Stayed in education
93%

England 85.4%

Started an apprenticeship
3%

England 3.5%

Stayed at this school's sixth form
45%
No sustained destination
2%

England 5.8%

Pupils in the cohort
96

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

The area around the school

6/10 Deprivation decile

Among around the middle for England.

5/10 Child poverty decile

Among around the middle for England for children in low-income families.

Indices of Deprivation 2019, for the small area the school stands in. 1 means the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. The second measure counts only children living in low-income families, which is the one that describes the intake a school is likely to draw on.

What homes cost nearby

Median sale price
£325,000

postcode sector LU5 4 · 405 sales

Typical range
£229,500 to £375,000

middle half of sales

Detached
£407,500
Semi-detached
£366,525
Terraced
£310,500
Flat
£186,250

Homes around this school are close to the England average.

Every residential sale registered in this postcode sector since January 2024, from HM Land Registry. A sector covers roughly 2,500 addresses. England's median over the same period was £293,000.

Who lives there

Adults with a degree
30%

England 33.8%

Adults with no qualifications
17%

England 18.3%

In professional or managerial work
9%

England 13.4%

Households deprived in 2+ ways
22%

England 17.8%

Residents in very good health
45%

England 48.4%

Housing

Owned by the occupier
70%

England 62.7%

Social housing
13%

England 17%

Privately rented
17%

England 19.2%

Detached homes
35%

England 38.2%

Four or more bedrooms
12%

England 22.5%

No car
21%

England 21.9%

Census 2021, for Central Bedfordshire 030A and the wider neighbourhood around it. These figures describe the area, not the pupils — children may travel in from much further away, and for selective, faith and independent schools they usually do.

School details

Type
Academy converter
Phase
All-through
Ages
Ages 9–16
Gender
Mixed
Religious character
None
Sixth form
No
Nursery
No
Boarding
Day school
Headteacher
Headteacher: Ian Bailey
Opened as this establishment
1 June 2012
Register status
Open
Local authority
Central Bedfordshire
Ward
Dunstable East
Constituency
Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard
URN
138181

The unique reference number used in all official school data.

Official DfE record
Open the register entry

The source record for this establishment and URN.

The URN identifies this registered establishment. If a school converts or is replaced, DfE may issue a new URN; this page does not stitch different establishments together by a similar name.

Nearest all-through schools

SchoolOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8DistanceCompare
Queensbury AcademyAcademy sponsor led No overall grade 40 -0.56-0.76 to -0.37 0.7 mi
All Saints Academy DunstableAcademy sponsor led No overall grade 36.9 -0.88-1.14 to -0.63 1 mi
Manshead Church of England AcademyAcademy sponsor led Report card 2026 43 -0.53-0.72 to -0.33 1.1 mi
The Chalk Hills AcademyAcademy sponsor led Good 2023 45.7 -0.02-0.19 to 0.14 · not a win 1.4 mi
Houstone SchoolFree schools No overall grade 46.1 -0.74-1.16 to -0.33 2.1 mi
Challney High School for BoysAcademy converter Outstanding 2023 47.7 0.560.37 to 0.74 2.2 mi
Al Hikmah Boys SchoolOther independent school No overall grade — — 2.2 mi
Challney High School for GirlsAcademy converter No overall grade 50.1 0.740.54 to 0.93 2.2 mi

Schools like this

The 12 state schools in England whose intake most closely matches this one — same phase and sector, and as near as the data allows on size, disadvantage, SEN, English as an additional language and the deprivation of the surrounding area. These are the schools it can fairly be judged against.

This school 46.2
Median of its 11 closest peers 49.8
Central Bedfordshire average 45
England average 47

Attainment 8 score. This school is behind the schools that teach a comparable intake.

SchoolAreaOfstedAttainment 8Progress 8Compare
St Augustine's Catholic CollegeAcademy converter Trowbridge Good 2024 51.4 0.330.10 to 0.56
St Benedict's Catholic CollegeVoluntary aided school Colchester Good 2023 54.7 0.230.02 to 0.44
Whitecross HerefordAcademy converter Hereford Good 2023 46.5 -0.30-0.50 to -0.10
The Trinity SchoolFree schools Colchester No overall grade — —
Great Western AcademyFree schools Swindon Good 2023 45.5 0.12-0.11 to 0.35 · not a win
St Benedict's Catholic SchoolAcademy converter Bury St Edmunds No overall grade 49.8 0.17-0.05 to 0.40 · not a win
The Holy Cross SchoolAcademy converter New Malden Good 2022 59.2 0.950.71 to 1.19
St Simon Stock Catholic SchoolAcademy converter Maidstone Report card 2026 46.6 0.210.00 to 0.42 · not a win
Hasmonean High School for BoysAcademy converter London Good 2023 56.5 0.700.41 to 1.00
St Bede's Inter-Church SchoolAcademy converter Cambridge Outstanding 2024 61.6 1.020.80 to 1.23
The Burgess Hill AcademyAcademy sponsor led Burgess Hill No overall grade 44.6 -0.46-0.65 to -0.27
John F Kennedy Catholic SchoolAcademy converter Hemel Hempstead Report card 2026 47.9 0.15-0.05 to 0.36 · not a win

Matching uses only characteristics a school does not choose. It is not a ranking, and a close match on intake does not make two schools interchangeable — sixth form, faith character, admissions rules and simple geography all matter and are not in the calculation.

Evidence ledger

Reference dates and join methods are kept separate because the figures do not all describe the same year or geography.

EvidencePublisherReference dateHow it reaches this page
School identityGet Information About Schools23 August 2026Exact URN 138181; unified importer snapshot
Inspection evidenceOfsted management information31 July 2026Exact URN; inspection 20 April 2023
AttainmentDfE performance tables2024/25Exact URN; phase-specific definitions
Progress 8DfE performance tables2023/24Exact URN; confidence interval retained
Pupil intakeDfE school census2024/25Exact URN; suppressed values remain missing
Funding allocationDfE school funding statistics2025-26 financial yearNo row for this URN in the mainstream-school release; not represented as zero
Roads and transportDfT road casualties, traffic and NaPTANFive-year road window; access-node snapshotCoordinate join within the stated radius
NeighbourhoodONS Census2021LSOA/MSOA containing the school, not pupil homes
DeprivationEnglish Indices of Deprivation2019LSOA containing the school
Home pricesHM Land Registry Price Paid DataSales since January 2024School postcode sector, not a catchment

These sources are published for reuse under the Open Government Licence v3.0, including the Crown database-right notice that accompanies Price Paid Data. Definitions and source notes. If something here looks wrong, the school's own website is the authority on admissions and open days.

Questions this school record can answer

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What does the latest inspection evidence say?

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How should I compare nearby schools?

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