Lakelands Primary School
Sign up to save this school and be told when Essex republishes its distance.
Free schools in Colchester, CO3 8AJ, taking ages 4 to 11, 340 on roll.
Will an address get in?
In the 2025/26 round, the furthest-away child offered a place at Lakelands Primary School lived 3.787 miles away, according to Essex. Put a postcode in and it is measured against that distance.
Applying for September 2027? Primary applications close on 15 January 2027, with offers on 16 April 2027. The address on the deadline is the one the council uses. How it works.
The circle is 3.787 miles, the distance the school admitted from in 2025/26. Real admission areas are not circular: this is the distance, not a boundary.
What kind of school this is
| Admissions | Non-selective |
| Religious character | No religious character |
| Sixth form | Does not have a sixth form |
| How full | 340 pupils in 420 places (81% full) |
| Trust | THE CHELMSFORD LEARNING PARTNERSHIP |
| Local authority | Essex |
Department for Education register (GIAS).
How the school is doing
| Ofsted | Outstanding, inspected 18 June 2023 |
| Year | Meeting the expected standard |
|---|---|
| 2024/25 | not published |
| 2023/24 | not published |
| 2022/23 | not published |
Ofsted, and the Department for Education's published performance data.
Who goes to Lakelands Primary School
| Girls and boys | 54.7% girls, 45.3% boys |
| English as an additional language | 13.5% of pupils |
| Free school meals | 17.6% of pupils eligible |
DfE school census, most recent published year.
What it costs to live within reach of Lakelands Primary School
The postcode districts whose centre falls inside the 3.787 miles the school admitted from in 2025/26, cheapest first, by the median of real sales around each district's centre. The cheapest is CO1 at £230,000; the dearest, CO3, £357,000. A district is wide, so check the address itself, not the list.
| District | Area | From the school | Median sold price |
|---|---|---|---|
| CO1 | Colchester | 2.8 mi | £230,000 117 sales |
| CO2 | Colchester | 2.8 mi | £280,000 96 sales |
| CO6 | Colchester | 3.5 mi | £350,000 10 sales |
| CO3 | Colchester | 1.0 mi | £357,000 98 sales |
Sold prices from HM Land Registry, via each district's area guide. Districts without enough recorded sales to rank are not shown.
The fee-paying alternative
Weighing Lakelands Primary School against the independent sector? Every fee-paying school around CO3: ages, selection, and how full each one is →
Checking the house as well as the school
The full report measures the distance from every nearby school to one address, alongside sold prices, flood risk, crime and the other checks on the same house.
Common questions
What is the catchment area for Lakelands Primary School?
Lakelands Primary School does not have one in the sense most people mean. Like most English schools, an oversubscribed year offers places outward from the school until they run out. The nearest thing to an answer: the furthest child admitted in 2025/26 lived 3.787 miles away, per Essex.
How close do I need to live to get a place at Lakelands Primary School?
Nobody can say in advance, and anyone who does is guessing. 3.787 miles was enough in 2025/26. The distance moves every year with the number of applications, so treat last year's figure as evidence, not a promise.
Does buying a house near Lakelands Primary School guarantee a place?
No. Admission criteria usually put looked-after children, siblings ahead of distance, so places can be filled before distance is reached. Councils also check that the address is genuinely where the child lives.
Every Essex school's distance
All Essex schools with a published admission distance, tightest first →
How school admissions actually work, and what the distance means →
Admission distance published by Essex. School details from the Department for Education's register, ratings from Ofsted. Read how every figure on this site is sourced on the methodology page. If something here looks wrong, tell us and it goes on the accuracy log.