How far do you need to live from a school in Bedford to get a place?

It depends on the school. Across the 12 Bedford schools with a published figure, the last child admitted lived a median of 0.88 miles away; the tightest was Priory Primary School at 0.22 miles. The distance moves every year with demand.

Do Bedford schools have catchment areas?

Most English schools do not. When a school is oversubscribed, places are offered outward from the school until they run out, so what exists is how far the last admitted child lived, which the council publishes after each round. That is the figure on this page.

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How far Bedford schools admitted from

For every oversubscribed school, Bedford publishes how far away the last child offered a place lived. This is that figure for 12 schools, tightest first. A short distance means a school that fills up close to its gates; a long one means places went further afield.

12schools with a published figure

0.88 mithe middle school's distance

7filled within a mile

The tightest is Priory Primary School at 0.22 miles in 2026/27; the most far-reaching, Willow Grove Primary School, admitted from 3.83 miles.

Primary schools

School	Ofsted	Admitted from	Round	How full
Priory Primary School Bedford	No current grade	0.22 mi	2026/27	104%
Livingstone Primary School Bedford	Good	0.32 mi	2026/27	103%
Balliol Primary School Bedford	Good	0.51 mi	2026/27	81%
Great Denham Primary School Bedford	Outstanding	0.85 mi	2026/27	104%
Shackleton Primary School Bedford	Good	0.88 mi	2026/27	101%
Great Ouse Primary Academy Bedford	Good	1.19 mi	2026/27	108%
Kempston Rural Primary School Kempston	Good	1.46 mi	2026/27	105%
Castle Newnham School Bedford	No current grade	2.72 mi	2026/27	92%
Willow Grove Primary School Wixams	No current grade	3.83 mi	2026/27	12%

Secondary schools

School	Ofsted	Admitted from	Round	How full
Bedford Free School Bedford	Outstanding	0.6 mi	2026/27	107%
Goldington Academy Bedford	Good	0.75 mi	2026/27	128%
Bedford Academy Bedford	Good	2.35 mi	2026/27	99%

Reading the numbers

These are not catchment areas: most English schools have none. Each figure is the distance from the school to the home of the furthest child who was offered a place under the distance criterion in that round, as Bedford measures it, which is usually a straight line from a fixed point at the home to one at the school. Looked-after children, siblings and, at faith schools, faith criteria come before distance, so a school can fill before distance is reached at all. The figure moves every year with the number of applications. How the whole process works →

Checking an address against these

Each school's page has a checker that measures a postcode against that school's distance. The full property report measures every nearby school at once, alongside sold prices, flood risk and the rest of the house.

Admission distances published by Bedford. School details and grades from the Department for Education's register and Ofsted. If a figure looks wrong, tell us and it goes on the accuracy log.