Watling Lower School
Primary · Dunstable · LU6 3BJ
Ungraded inspection: no current grade
Ofsted's most recent visit was an ungraded inspection; its outcome was “Some aspects not as strong”. Since September 2024 these outcomes no longer confirm a named grade. This school does hold an older grade, but that outcome says the school has weakened since, so showing the old grade here would flatter it. It is in the inspection history below, with its date.
Inspected 18 December 2024
Read the Ofsted report ↗At a glance
190 pupils · 127% of 150 capacity (over capacity)
- School type
- Academy converter
- Age range
- 2–9
- Gender
- Mixed
- Free school meals
- 7.5% of pupils
- Nursery
- Yes
- URN
- 151796
Admissions demand: Reception entry, September 2026
1.25 first-choice applications per place28 places offered · 35 first-choice applications · oversubscribed
Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE. A ratio above 1.00 means more families named this school first choice than there were places.
Admissions cutoff distance: Reception
Last child offered a place under the distance criterion (2026 entry) lived within 965.81 m (≈0.60 mi)
measured in a straight line.
Cutoff distance by entry year
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Cutoff distances as published by the local authority. Siblings and other priority groups are offered places first; cutoffs move year to year.
Compare admissions across the area: Dunstable school admissions · Central Bedfordshire school admissions
Attendance (2025/26 autumn term)
Autumn-term absence, DfE pupil absence data. Lower is better.
Staffing
Full-time-equivalent, 2025/26.
School Workforce Census, DfE. The ratio counts full-time-equivalent qualified teachers; retention follows teachers in post one November to the next. Open Government Licence v3.0.
The area around the school
- Child poverty (IDACI)
- 6/10around the middle for England
- Overall deprivation (IMD)
- 7/10less deprived than most of England
English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG), decile of the small area the school stands in: 1 is the most deprived tenth of England, 10 the least. IDACI counts only children in low-income families, which is the measure closest to the intake a school is likely to draw on.
| Census 2021 | This area | England |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with a degree or higher | 30.6% | 33.9% |
| Adults with no qualifications | 15.7% | 18.1% |
| In managerial or professional work | 33.8% | 33.2% |
| Households deprived in two or more ways | 15.8% | 18.1% |
| Residents in very good health | 48.6% | 48.5% |
| Homes owned by the occupier | 57.7% | 62.3% |
| Social housing | 9.2% | 17.1% |
| Privately rented | 33% | 20.5% |
| Detached houses | 20.4% | 22.9% |
| Flats | 37% | 22.2% |
| Homes with four or more bedrooms | 20% | 21.1% |
| Households with no car or van | 19.9% | 23.5% |
Census 2021 (ONS) for statistical area E01017623 (a lower layer super output area), the neighbourhood of roughly 1,417 adults that the school stands in. These figures describe the area, not the pupils. Children travel in from further away, and for selective, faith and some other schools usually much further. Open Government Licence v3.0.
What homes cost nearby
- Median sale price
- £340,000490 sales within 1 km, January 2024 to July 2026
- Typical range
- £216,000–£425,000the middle half of sales
- England median
- £300,000all sales over the same period
Homes around this school are dearer than most school neighbourhoods in England, comparing the median within 1 km across every state school.
Inside the Reception cutoff distance (0.97 km, 2026 entry): 489 sales, median £340,000. The homes that would have got a child in that year, at the straight-line distance the school last filled to.
Every residential sale registered with HM Land Registry within 1 km of the school (straight line) since January 2024, market sales of houses and flats only. A sale is dated by completion and registered weeks later, so the most recent months are incomplete. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Postcodes located with OS Code-Point Open: contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026; contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026; contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Roads around the school
- Child pedestrian casualties
- 0an urban school averages 2.0
- Collisions at school-run times
- 4an urban school averages 5.8
- All reported collisions
- 19an urban school averages 30.6
- Of those, serious or fatal
- 1an urban school averages 6.1
Every collision reported to the police within 500 m of the school in 2021–2025, from the Department for Transport's road casualty statistics (STATS19). "Child pedestrians" counts casualties aged under 16 on foot; "school-run times" means weekdays 07:30–09:00 and 15:00–16:30 outside August. A high count usually says the school sits on or near a busy road, not that the school is unsafe: counts rise with traffic and with how built-up an area is, which is why the comparison is with other urban schools. Distances are straight-line from the school's recorded position. Open Government Licence v3.0.