Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School
Academy converter in St Albans, AL3 5RL, taking ages 5 to 11, 430 on roll.
Homes you looked at
Each measured from its postcode's centre against the 16.09 miles Hertfordshire published for latest published year, as the checker measures.
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Will an address get in?
In the latest published round, the furthest child offered a place lived 16.09 miles away.
Applying for September 2027? Primary applications close 15 January 2027; offers on 16 April 2027.
How this compares: every Hertfordshire school's distance, tightest first →
The circle is 16.09 miles, the distance the school admitted from in the latest published year.
Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School: 16.09 miles Maple Primary School: 15.65 miles, published by Hertfordshire
How to read this
Most English schools do not have a catchment area. When Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School is oversubscribed, places go outward from the school until they run out, so the distance moves each year with how many families applied and where they lived.
Distances are measured from the postcode's centre, not a front door; a postcode covers a few houses. Siblings, looked-after children come before distance, so a school can fill before distance counts at all.
Real admission areas are not circular: the circle is the distance, not a boundary. The labels on the map are postcode districts whose centre falls inside both circles; each opens the district's guide.
The address on the closing date is the one the council uses. How admissions work.
Source: Hertfordshire, published admission distances
Where Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School and Maple Primary School are both in reach
Both distances are drawn on the map above. Maple Primary School admitted from 15.65 miles in the latest published year, published by Hertfordshire. Its own page has the rest of its figures.
The postcode districts whose centre falls inside both published distances, cheapest first by the median of real sales around each district's centre. The cheapest is LU1 at £268,000; the dearest shown, HP3, £365,000. A district is wide, so check the address itself, not the list.
| District | Area | From Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School | From Maple Primary School | Median sold price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LU1 | Luton | 8.5 mi | 9.1 mi | £268,000 139 sales |
| WD99 | Watford | 8.8 mi | 8.3 mi | £320,000 59 sales |
| LU2 | Luton | 9.2 mi | 9.8 mi | £327,500 176 sales |
| LU4 | Luton | 10.8 mi | 11.4 mi | £336,000 98 sales |
| AL10 | Welwyn Hatfield | 4.5 mi | 4.3 mi | £340,000 64 sales |
| LU3 | Luton | 10.9 mi | 11.6 mi | £340,000 137 sales |
| WD18 | Watford | 8.6 mi | 8.2 mi | £342,000 103 sales |
| SG2 | Stevenage | 11.8 mi | 12.1 mi | £346,000 133 sales |
| WD17 | Watford | 7.5 mi | 7.1 mi | £355,000 99 sales |
| LU6 | Central Bedfordshire | 11.6 mi | 12.2 mi | £355,000 151 sales |
| AL1 | St Albans | 1.2 mi | 0.6 mi | £365,000 155 sales |
| HP3 | Dacorum | 6.1 mi | 6.1 mi | £365,000 133 sales |
Sold prices from HM Land Registry, via each district's area guide. Distances measured from each district's centre to each school's point on the Department for Education register. Only the cheapest 12 are listed. 5 more districts fall inside both without enough recorded sales to rank: AL9, HA7, N20, SG4, EN7.
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Drop Maple Primary School and go back to one school.
If the answer is no, you can appeal. In Hertfordshire, 109 of 519 secondary appeals succeeded in 2025 (21.0%; England 19.9%), counted for all the council's schools together. How every council compares.
Other schools nearby with a published distance
The closest schools to Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School that also have a council-published admission distance, nearest first.
| School | Phase | Admitted from | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bernards Heath Junior School | Primary | No limit | 0.4 mi |
| Bernards Heath Infant and Nursery School Both in reach | Primary | 18.95 mi | 0.5 mi |
| Margaret Wix Primary School Both in reach | Primary | 7.4 mi | 0.5 mi |
| Maple Primary School Both in reach | Primary | 15.65 mi | 0.6 mi |
| Alban City School Both in reach | Primary | 7.68 mi | 0.7 mi |
| Wheatfields Infants' and Nursery School Both in reach | Primary | 5.31 mi | 1.2 mi |
The distance as a picture
What kind of school this is
| Religious character | No religious character |
| Sixth form | Does not have a sixth form |
| How full | 430 pupils in 570 places (75% full) |
| Trust | AMBITION EDUCATION TRUST |
| Local authority | Hertfordshire |
Department for Education register (GIAS).
How the school is doing
| Ofsted | Ungraded inspection, January 2025: standards maintained |
| Meeting the expected standard | 69.0% in reading, writing and maths (2024/25) |
| Year | Meeting the expected standard |
|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 69.0% |
| 2023/24 | 70.0% |
| 2022/23 | 65.0% |
Ofsted, and the Department for Education's published performance data.
Who goes to Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School
| Girls and boys | 50.9% girls, 49.1% boys |
| English as an additional language | 23.0% of pupils |
| Free school meals | 14.7% of pupils eligible |
DfE school census, most recent published year.
What it costs to live within reach of Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School
Cheapest district inside the 16.09 miles: AL10, median £340,000. Dearest: AL3, £1,240,000.
| District | Area | From the school | Median sold price |
|---|---|---|---|
| AL10 | Welwyn Hatfield | 4.5 mi | £340,000 64 sales |
| AL1 | St Albans | 1.2 mi | £365,000 155 sales |
| HP2 | Dacorum | 4.9 mi | £385,575 85 sales |
| WD5 | Three Rivers | 5.4 mi | £406,500 135 sales |
| WD25 | Watford | 5.7 mi | £425,000 99 sales |
| AL5 | St Albans | 3.6 mi | £462,500 81 sales |
| AL8 | Welwyn Hatfield | 6.0 mi | £489,000 60 sales |
| AL2 | St Albans | 3.1 mi | £550,000 74 sales |
| AL4 | St Albans | 1.9 mi | £600,000 121 sales |
| WD7 | Hertsmere | 5.5 mi | £1,000,000 75 sales |
| AL3 | St Albans | 2.1 mi | £1,240,000 5 sales |
How to read this
The postcode districts whose centre falls inside the 16.09 miles the school admitted from in the latest published year, cheapest first, by the median of real sales around each district's centre. A district is wide, so check the address itself, not the list. Districts without enough recorded sales to rank are not shown.
How this compares across England: what a tight gate costs, school by school.
Source: HM Land Registry sold prices, via each district's area guide
Getting to Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School by bus
Best-served stop: The Ancient Briton, 0.2 mi away, with 3.9 buses an hour on weekday daytimes; first bus 05:59, last 23:47.
Every stop within 600 m
| Stop | From the school | Weekday daytime, an hour | Evening | Sunday | Routes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Ancient Briton | 0.2 mi | 3.9 | 2.5 | 1.9 | 321, 84, 305 |
| The Ancient Briton | 0.2 mi | 3.9 | 2.0 | 1.9 | 321, 84, 305 |
| Alverton | 0.3 mi | 1.9 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 653 |
These are scheduled departures, not buses observed running. Two stops on opposite sides of a road are two rows.
Source: operators' timetables on the Bus Open Data Service (Department for Transport), week of 8 Sep 2026
The fee-paying alternative
Weighing Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School against the independent sector? Every fee-paying school around AL3: ages, selection, and how full each one is → What it costs to live at AL3 5RL, by the school: council tax, energy, prices, rent, stamp duty →
Checking the house as well as the school
The full report checks one address against every nearby school, with sold prices, flood risk and crime.
Common questions
What is the catchment area for Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School?
Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant 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 the latest published year lived 16.09 miles away, per Hertfordshire.
How close do I need to live to get a place at Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant School?
Nobody can say in advance, and anyone who does is guessing. 16.09 miles was enough in the latest published year. 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 Garden Fields Junior Mixed and Infant 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 Hertfordshire school's distance
All Hertfordshire schools with a published admission distance, tightest first →
How school admissions actually work, and what the distance means →
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Admission distance published by Hertfordshire. 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.