Redborne Upper School and Community College
Ampthill, MK45 2NU · Central Bedfordshire local authority
Ampthill’s School Grade C− better than 21% of towns in England
What stands out about Redborne Upper School and Community College
- Its own letter, B−: GCSE results better than 49% of England’s secondary schools
- Over capacity: 1,657 pupils for 1,418 places
- 15% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (fewer than England’s 30%)
- Ofsted: Good, July 2024 (shown, not graded)
- 93% of families who put it first got a place for September 2025 (377 of 406)
- Progress 8 of +0.08 in 2023/24, the last year DfE published it: pupils did about as well at GCSE as pupils nationally with the same results at 11
- Homes in its postcode sector (MK45 2) sold for a median £435,000; Ampthill’s is £420,000
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 391 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Redborne Upper School and beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 45.3
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 45% of schools · Central Bedfordshire avg 43.7
Grade 5+ in English and maths 46%
A strong pass · higher than 52% of schools · Central Bedfordshire avg 41%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
+0.08: about average. How pupils did at GCSE against pupils nationally with the same results at 11. Not published since 2023/24 (no Key Stage 2 tests in 2020 and 2021).
Disadvantaged pupils, 2025/26
Attainment 8 for the 64 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools
England’s figures are of its graded mainstream state schools, each school counted once; grammar schools are included, which is why the right-hand tail is long. Small cohorts are suppressed.
How hard is it to get a place at Redborne Upper School and Community College?
93% of the families who put it first got a place for September 2025.
Years when some first choices missed out: 2019 (3), 2021 (32), 2022 (18), 2023 (4), 2024 (13), 2025 (29). The council runs the coordinated admissions; each school’s rules (siblings, distance, faith) decide who gets in. DfE doesn’t publish the furthest distance offered, so check the council’s admissions booklet for that. The Pyramid Schools Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Central Bedfordshire council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
93% got their first choice
Ampthill and Central Bedfordshire, side by side
2025/26All 16 graded secondaries in Central Bedfordshire. Schools with more pupils on free school meals usually score lower, so a school above the crowd for its free school meals is doing better than its intake predicts. Ampthill’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cedars Upper School | B+ | 16% | 50.1 |
| Houstone School | B+ | 28% | 48.7 |
| Vandyke Upper School | B | 17% | 47.6 |
| Harlington Upper School | B− | 13% | 46.1 |
| Etonbury Academy | B | 15% | 45.8 |
| Samuel Whitbread Academy | B− | 13% | 45.7 |
| Redborne Upper School and Community College | B− | 15% | 45.3 |
| Pix Brook Academy | C+ | 13% | 44.6 |
| Fulbrook School | C+ | 17% | 43.2 |
| Priory Academy | C+ | 15% | 42 |
| Stratton School | C− | 20% | 41.5 |
| Sandy Secondary School | C | 22% | 41.4 |
| Queensbury Academy | C | 17% | 41.4 |
| Henlow Church of England Academy | C− | 20% | 41 |
| Manshead Church of England Academy | C− | 22% | 38.9 |
| All Saints Academy Dunstable | D | 37% | 35.7 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 20251,592 pupils. SEN support is extra help in school for a special educational need; an EHC plan is the council’s legal plan for pupils who need more.
Girls and boys
Redborne Upper School and Community College’s letter
Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.
How school letters are worked out
Each school’s measure is compared with every graded school in England of the same phase: for primaries, the share of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (DfE’s three-year average); for secondaries, Attainment 8 and the share with grade 5 or above in English and maths, each turned into a z-score against England’s schools and averaged. The letter comes from the share of those schools it beats, in the same bands as every grade on the site. The same method gives U.S. schools their letters, against their own state.
Graded: England’s open mainstream state schools with published results (grammar schools included, which select by test). Not graded: special schools, alternative provision, nurseries, 16–19 colleges, UTCs and studio schools, Welsh schools. Ofsted plays no part.
Ofsted inspections
Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.
Graded inspection: Good, July 2024. Ungraded inspection: School remains Good (Concerns), May 2023.
Living near Redborne Upper School and Community College
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in MK45 2, the school’s postcode sector
Ampthill property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in MK45 2 sell for a little over Ampthill’s typical price. HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales. Catchments aren’t published, so the postcode sector stands in for “around the school”.
Schools within 1.6 miles
7 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Ampthill, MK45 2NU
Redborne Upper School and Community College: common questions
Is Redborne Upper School and Community College a good school?
By its published results, about average: its GCSE results are better than 49% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is B−), with an Attainment 8 of 45.3 and 46% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Good, July 2024.
How hard is it to get into Redborne Upper School and Community College?
For September 2025, 406 families put Redborne Upper School and Community College first and 377 of them were offered a place; 379 places were offered in all.
What is Redborne Upper School and Community College’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Good (July 2024).
How much do houses cost near Redborne Upper School and Community College?
Homes in its postcode sector, MK45 2, sold for a median £435,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (539 sales).
Sources: DfE Get Information about Schools (16 October 2026), Key Stage 2 performance tables (2023–2025, three-year average) and Key Stage 4 (2025/26, provisional); Ofsted state-funded school inspections as at 30 September 2026. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Also: DfE Key Stage 4 performance, schools data (2023/24 and 2024/25 final, 2025/26 provisional) and Key Stage 2 performance tables 2024/25 by subject; DfE school census, January 2025; DfE school-level applications and offers, September 2019 to 2026 entry; HM Land Registry Price Paid by postcode sector, 2010 to August 2026.
A school’s letter is our own summary of its published results against England’s schools of the same phase; Ampthill’s School Grade is a separate grade, built from the results of the schools in and around the town against other towns. Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.