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B

Daubeney Academy

SecondaryAges 11–16Academy

Kempston, MK42 7PS · Bedford local authority

Kempston’s School Grade C− better than 17% of towns in England

Its letter
59%
of England’s secondaries have lower GCSE results
Getting in
94/95
first choices offered a place, 2026 (England: 84%)
How full
576 pupils
99% of its 583 places
Free school meals
29%
29 in 100 pupils eligible · outlined square = England’s schools (30)
The gist

What stands out about Daubeney Academy

  • Its own letter, B: GCSE results better than 59% of England’s secondary schools
  • Ofsted: Inspected, July 2025 (shown, not graded)
  • 99% of families who put it first got a place for September 2026 (94 of 95)
  • Progress 8 of +0.02 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 (MK42 7) sold for a median £290,000; Kempston’s is £290,000

Results

DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 118 pupils

Each bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools Daubeney beats are shaded green.

Attainment 8 46.1

Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 50% of schools · Bedford avg 45.1

20304050607080England avg 47.3Daubeney 46.1

Grade 5+ in English and maths 52%

A strong pass · higher than 66% of schools · Bedford avg 44%

0%20%40%60%80%100%England avg 47.3%Daubeney 52%

Attainment 8, three years

The mark is England’s average that year

2023/24
35.6
2024/25
38.5
2025/26
46.1

Progress 8, 2023/24

−1 behind0 = national+1 ahead

+0.02: 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 33 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools

Disadvantaged
33.2England 38.6
Not disadvantaged
51England 50.6
Grade 4 or above in English and maths61%
England’s schools 66% · Bedford 63% · a standard pass

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.

Getting in

How hard is it to get a place at Daubeney Academy?

99% of the families who put it first got a place for September 2026.

95
families put it first for September 2026
111
places offered
99%
of first choices offered a place (England’s secondaries: 84%)
First choices and places, by year of entry
20192020202120222023202420252026
Families who put it firstPlaces offered
Red figures: first choices not offered a place

Years when some first choices missed out: 2023 (1), 2024 (1), 2026 (1). 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. Chiltern Learning Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Bedford council’s coordinated admissions.

Demand for secondary schools nearby, September 2026

Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places

1.54 per place
64% got their first choice
1.06 per place
92% got their first choice
0.97 per place
95% got their first choice
0.92 per place
100% got their first choice
0.89 per place
100% got their first choice
Daubeney
0.86 per place
99% got their first choice

Kempston and Bedford, side by side

2025/26

All 12 graded secondaries in Bedford. 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. Kempston’s schools are coloured by their letter.

35394347515510%20%30%40%50%Pupils eligible for free school meals →Attainment 8 →KempstonDaubeney
ABCDElsewhere in BedfordDaubeney
Show as a table
SchoolLetterFree school mealsAttainment 8
Goldington AcademyA−23%52
Bedford Free SchoolA−30%51
Lincroft AcademyB+14%50.4
Sharnbrook AcademyB15%47.7
Daubeney AcademyB29%46.1
Wootton AcademyC+19%44.8
Bedford AcademyC40%44.4
Wixams AcademyC+23%43.9
St Thomas More Catholic SchoolC22%41
Mark Rutherford SchoolC−30%40.7
Biddenham International School and Sports CollegeC−36%40.3
Kempston AcademyD30%38.4

Who goes here

DfE school census, January 2025

561 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.

SEN support
16.8%England 14%
EHC plan
4.5%England 3.2%
English as an additional language
35.7%England 19%
Free school meals in the last 6 years
26.7%England 29.6%

Girls and boys

Girls 48%Boys 52%
Its letter

Daubeney Academy’s letter

Its own results against England’s schools, not the town’s School Grade.

Secondary: Attainment 8 and grade 5+ English and maths BBetter than 59% of 3,224 schools
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.

A+ 95+A 85–94A− 75–84B+ 65–74B 55–64B− 45–54C+ 35–44C 25–34C− 15–24D 5–14D− 0–4

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

Ofsted inspections

Shown, not graded: Ofsted is never part of a letter or the School Grade.

Graded inspection (no overall grade since September 2024), July 2025.

The full reports on Ofsted ↗

Living nearby

Living near Daubeney Academy

For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.

Home prices in MK42 7, the school’s postcode sector

Kempston property prices →
£290,000
median sale, 346 sales in 36 months · Kempston £290,000

Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025

£100K£150K£200K£250K£300K£350K2010201520202025MK42 7Kempston
MK42 7Kempston

By type, the 36 months to August 2026

Detached
£425K
Semi-detached
£308K
Terraced
£270K
Flat
£210K
MK42 7Kempston

Homes in MK42 7 sell for about the same as Kempston’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

15 state schools
0.5 mi1 mi1.5 miNB−A−C−C+C−B+CC−A−DB+CDDDBDaubeney Academy
ABCDNo letterPrimarySecondary / all-through

Kempston, MK42 7PS

Daubeney Academy: common questions

Is Daubeney Academy a good school?

By its published results, above average: its GCSE results are better than 59% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is B), with an Attainment 8 of 46.1 and 52% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Inspected, July 2025.

How hard is it to get into Daubeney Academy?

For September 2026, 95 families put Daubeney Academy first and 94 of them were offered a place; 111 places were offered in all.

What is Daubeney Academy’s Ofsted rating?

Its latest inspection outcome is Inspected (July 2025).

How much do houses cost near Daubeney Academy?

Homes in its postcode sector, MK42 7, sold for a median £290,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (346 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; Kempston’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.