Bedford Road Primary Academy
Kempston, MK42 8QH · Bedford local authority
Kempston’s School Grade C− better than 17% of towns in England
What stands out about Bedford Road Primary Academy
- Its own letter, D: Key Stage 2 results near the bottom of England’s primary schools (better than 12%)
- Ofsted report card, December 2025: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met (shown, not graded)
- 98% of families who put it first got a place for September 2026 (40 of 41)
- Homes in its postcode sector (MK42 8) sold for a median £300,000; Kempston’s is £290,000
How hard is it to get a place at Bedford Road Primary Academy?
98% of the families who put it first got a place for September 2026.
Years when some first choices missed out: 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. Knowledge Schools Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Bedford council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
98% got their first choice
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025373 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
Bedford Road Primary Academy’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.
Report card, inspection starting December 2025.
Before the report card: Graded inspection: Requires improvement, May 2022.
Living near Bedford Road Primary Academy
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in MK42 8, the school’s postcode sector
Kempston property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in MK42 8 sell for a little over 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
16 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Kempston, MK42 8QH
Bedford Road Primary Academy: common questions
Is Bedford Road Primary Academy a good school?
By its published results, well below average: its Key Stage 2 results are better than 12% of England’s primary schools (its letter is D), with 0% of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, against 62% for England’s schools. Ofsted: a report card in December 2025.
How hard is it to get into Bedford Road Primary Academy?
For September 2026, 41 families put Bedford Road Primary Academy first and 40 of them were offered a place; 41 places were offered in all.
What is Bedford Road Primary Academy’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection (December 2025) gave a report card: achievement needs attention, safeguarding met. Ofsted stopped giving one-word overall grades in September 2024.
How much do houses cost near Bedford Road Primary Academy?
Homes in its postcode sector, MK42 8, sold for a median £300,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (327 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.