King James Academy Royston
Royston, SG8 7JH · Hertfordshire local authority
Royston’s School Grade C− better than 16% of towns in England
What stands out about King James Academy Royston
- Its own letter, C−: Key Stage 2 results better than 24% of England’s primary schools
- Its own letter, D: GCSE results near the bottom of England’s secondary schools (better than 12%)
- 53% meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths, 9 points below England’s schools
- 25% get grade 5 or above in English and maths, 23 points below England’s schools
- Room to spare: 947 pupils for 1,321 places
- 19% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (fewer than England’s 30%)
- Ofsted: Good, April 2024 (shown, not graded)
- Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026 (3 of 3)
- Progress 8 of +0.19 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 (SG8 7) sold for a median £410,000; Royston’s is £378,000
Results
DfE · GCSEs 2025/26, provisional · 98 pupilsEach bar is a group of England’s 3,224 graded secondary schools. The schools King James Academy Royston beats are shaded green.
Attainment 8 40.5
Average grade across 8 GCSEs ×10 · higher than 21% of schools · Hertfordshire avg 50.8
Grade 5+ in English and maths 25%
A strong pass · higher than 6% of schools · Hertfordshire avg 53%
Attainment 8, three years
The mark is England’s average that year
Progress 8, 2023/24
+0.19: 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 21 pupils DfE counts as disadvantaged (free school meals in the last 6 years, or looked after) and the rest, beside England’s schools
Reading, writing and maths 53%
Met the expected standard, DfE’s 3-year average 2023–2025 · higher than 24% of England’s 14,979 graded primaries · Hertfordshire avg 63%
Each subject, 2025
Met the expected standard; the mark is England’s schools · average scaled score: reading 104, maths 102 (100 = the expected standard)
Disadvantaged pupils, 2025
Met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths: the 24 disadvantaged pupils 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 King James Academy Royston?
Every family who put it first got a place for September 2026.
In every year shown, every family who put it first was offered a place. 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 Diamond Learning Partnership Trust sets the admissions rules. Apply through Hertfordshire council’s coordinated admissions.
Outline = places offered · green = families who put it first · striped = more first choices than places
100% got their first choice
Royston and Hertfordshire, side by side
2025/26All 77 graded secondaries in Hertfordshire. 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. Royston’s schools are coloured by their letter.
Show as a table
| School | Letter | Free school meals | Attainment 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dame Alice Owen's School | A+ | 4% | 73.6 |
| Watford Grammar School for Boys | A+ | 7% | 66.3 |
| Sandringham School | A+ | 8% | 65.7 |
| St George's School | A+ | 5% | 65.6 |
| Watford Grammar School for Girls | A+ | 7% | 65.5 |
| Parmiter's School | A | 7% | 65 |
| St Clement Danes School | A+ | 5% | 64 |
| Sir John Lawes School | A | 10% | 63.9 |
| Rickmansworth School | A | 6% | 63.7 |
| Beaumont School | A | 4% | 63 |
| Hockerill Anglo-European College | A | 5% | 62.3 |
| The Hertfordshire & Essex High School and Science College | A | 6% | 62 |
| Hitchin Girls' School | A | 7% | 61.8 |
| St Albans Girls' School | A | 12% | 60.7 |
| Yavneh College | A | 6% | 59.5 |
| Roundwood Park School | A | 8% | 59.1 |
| The Bishop's Stortford High School | A | 7% | 58.8 |
| Presdales School | A | 10% | 58.7 |
| Hitchin Boys' School | A | 9% | 56.8 |
| St Mary's Catholic School | A | 10% | 56.8 |
| Queens' School | A | 11% | 56.2 |
| Loreto College | A | 15% | 56.2 |
| The Saint John Henry Newman Catholic School | A− | 10% | 55.7 |
| Nicholas Breakspear Catholic School | A | 12% | 55 |
| Bishop's Hatfield Girls' School | A− | 20% | 54.5 |
| Verulam School | A | 15% | 54.4 |
| Ashlyns School | A− | 12% | 54 |
| Richard Hale School | A− | 10% | 54 |
| The Broxbourne School | A− | 13% | 53.5 |
| Simon Balle All-Through School | A− | 10% | 52.9 |
| Samuel Ryder Academy | B+ | 20% | 52.4 |
| John F Kennedy Catholic School | A− | 17% | 51.9 |
| Freman College | B+ | 14% | 51.8 |
| Croxley Danes School | A− | 16% | 51.6 |
| Tring School | A− | 14% | 51.4 |
| Chancellor's School | B+ | 18% | 51 |
| Goffs Academy | B+ | 20% | 50.6 |
| Saint Joan of Arc Catholic School | B+ | 11% | 50.6 |
| Katherine Warington School | B+ | 14% | 50.6 |
| The Chauncy School | B | 17% | 49.4 |
| Stanborough School | B+ | 19% | 49.3 |
| The Nobel School | B+ | 20% | 49 |
| Saint Michael's Catholic High School | B− | 14% | 48.8 |
| The Knights Templar School | B | 20% | 48.3 |
| The Grange Academy | B | 26% | 48.2 |
| Barclay Academy | B | 24% | 48 |
| Monk's Walk School | B | 20% | 47.9 |
| The Hemel Hempstead School | B | 19% | 47.3 |
| Leventhorpe | B | 13% | 47.1 |
| Kings Langley School | C+ | 15% | 46.9 |
| The Priory School | B | 27% | 46.5 |
| Haileybury Turnford | B− | 35% | 46.2 |
| Robert Barclay Academy | C+ | 23% | 45.6 |
| Birchwood High School | B− | 18% | 45.5 |
| Westfield Academy | B− | 27% | 45.5 |
| The Thomas Alleyne Academy | C+ | 26% | 44.9 |
| The Reach Free School | C | 21% | 44.7 |
| Goffs - Churchgate Academy | C+ | 34% | 44.2 |
| Townsend Church of England School | C | 26% | 43.9 |
| Longdean School | C+ | 26% | 43.7 |
| St Mary's Church of England High School (VA) | C | 28% | 42.8 |
| Laureate Academy | C | 39% | 42.7 |
| Future Academies Watford | C | 35% | 42.6 |
| The Marlborough Science Academy | C− | 21% | 42.6 |
| Bushey Meads School | C+ | 23% | 42.5 |
| The Highfield School | C | 27% | 42 |
| Marriotts School | C− | 32% | 41.8 |
| King James Academy Royston | D | 19% | 40.5 |
| The John Warner School | C− | 20% | 40.1 |
| Barnwell School | C− | 31% | 38.7 |
| The Adeyfield Academy | C− | 34% | 38.7 |
| Fearnhill School | D | 40% | 37.5 |
| Ridgeway Academy | D | 34% | 37.4 |
| Onslow St Audrey's School | D− | 32% | 36.1 |
| Hertswood Academy | D | 33% | 35.4 |
| The Sele School | D | 33% | 35.1 |
| The Astley Cooper School | D− | 34% | 33.5 |
Who goes here
DfE school census, January 2025939 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
King James Academy Royston’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, April 2024.
Living near King James Academy Royston
For families thinking of moving: what homes cost around the school, and the other schools close by.
Home prices in SG8 7, the school’s postcode sector
Royston property prices →Median sale price each year, 2010 to 2025
By type, the 36 months to August 2026
Homes in SG8 7 sell for a little over Royston’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
5 state schoolsLocation
Directions ↗Royston, SG8 7JH
King James Academy Royston: common questions
Is King James Academy Royston a good school?
By its published results, well below average: its GCSE results are better than 12% of England’s secondary schools (its letter is D), with an Attainment 8 of 40.5 and 25% getting grade 5 or above in English and maths, against 47.3 and 47% for England’s schools. Ofsted: Good, April 2024.
How hard is it to get into King James Academy Royston?
For September 2026, 3 families put King James Academy Royston first and all of them were offered a place; 6 places were offered in all.
What is King James Academy Royston’s Ofsted rating?
Its latest inspection outcome is Good (April 2024).
How much do houses cost near King James Academy Royston?
Homes in its postcode sector, SG8 7, sold for a median £410,000 over the 36 months to August 2026 (405 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; Royston’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.