Belswains Primary School
Primary school · Hertfordshire
Barnfield, Hemel Hempstead, HP3 9QJ
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First preferences per place, 2026
1.00
How many families named it first, for each place it gave out. Higher than 54% of schools admitting at Reception in England that year.
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Offers made, 2026
60
Places given out on offer day. Not the number of places the school had, which is not published per year group.
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Latest Ofsted
School remains Good
Ofsted ungraded inspection, March 2023.
About the school
- Type of school
- Community school, run by the council
- Ages
- 3 to 11
- Boys or girls
- Boys and girls
- Nursery classes
- Yes
- Website
- https://www.belswains.herts.sch.uk/
- Telephone
- 01442 264324
- School number (URN)
- 117365
From Get Information about Schools, retrieved 2 September 2026. Schools update their own entries, so these can be out of date.
How big the school is
In 2024 this school had 402 places and 388 children on roll.
14 places were unfilled, which is 3% of the school.
In 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 the school had 314 children on roll on average, against 388 in 2024.
Its places have grown from 210 in 2009 to 402 in 2024.
Places are the whole school added up, every year group together. That is not the number of places a school offers to new children in one year.
Source: Department for Education school capacity collection.
Children in each year group
As counted on one day in January 2026, the most recent school census. These are children, not places.
Children in each year group at Belswains Primary School
| Year group | Children |
|---|---|
| Nursery 2 | 16 |
| Reception | 57 |
| Year 1 | 60 |
| Year 2 | 59 |
| Year 3 | 60 |
| Year 4 | 59 |
| Year 5 | 61 |
| Year 6 | 59 |
This is not a list of spare places. Places per year group are not published, and the count is from January. Children join and leave all year, so a year group that looked two under in January can be full by March.
If you are moving into the area and need a place during the school year, ask Hertfordshire, which handles admissions for this school. They hold the up-to-date position, which this page does not.
Who decides who gets a place
Hertfordshire sets the admission rules for this school, as it does for all its community and voluntary controlled schools.
Look for Hertfordshire's admission arrangements. An admission authority has to agree its rules every year and publish them.
Taken from the kind of school this is, as recorded by the Department for Education.
The rules used to decide who gets a place
Hertfordshire is the admission authority for this school, so it sets the rules and applies them in this order when there are more children than places.
Two things come before any of a school's own rules, at every school in England. A child whose education, health and care plan names the school must be admitted. After that, the law requires the highest priority to go to children in care and children who were previously in care.
The order is what decides. A child who meets a rule higher up this list is offered a place ahead of a child who meets only a rule below it, however strongly they meet the lower one. The rules are worked down in turn until the places run out.
- Rule 1 – children looked after
- Rule 2 – medical or social needs
- Rule 3 – linked infant and junior schools
- Rule 4 – siblings
- Rule 5 – child's nearest school
- Rule 6 – children living closest to school (distance)
Only the arrangements the admission authority publishes decide anything. This is the priority order, quoted from the council's own page, and it is not the arrangements themselves: the definitions each rule depends on are set out there in full. Read Hertfordshire's own admission rules.
This is the list Hertfordshire published when we last checked, on 16 September 2026. Admission authorities have to agree their rules afresh every year and publish them by 15 March, so check the council's own page before relying on them.
How to apply
Applications for a place starting in September 2027 close on 15 January 2027, the date the School Admissions Code sets for every council in England.
Councils send every offer for primary school places on the same day, 16 April 2027 or the next working day.
You apply through the council where you live, even for a school in another area. You do not apply to the school. Find your council's primary school application on GOV.UK.
If you live in Hertfordshire, the council's own page explains how to apply there. Hertfordshire school admissions.
To ask about visiting the school, or anything else about it, contact the school. Website: https://www.belswains.herts.sch.uk/. Telephone: 01442 264324.
Links and dates can change. Your council's own website has the final word. The dates are set nationally by the School Admissions Code 2021. GOV.UK link checked 23 September 2026. Hertfordshire's page checked 23 September 2026. Contact details from Get Information about Schools.
How many families applied
Preferences expressed and offers made at Reception, as published by the Department for Education. These describe demand, not whether a particular child would be offered a place.
In the 2026 intake, 60 families named Belswains Primary School as their first preference, and the school made 60 offers.
That is 1.00 first preferences per place offered, higher than 54% of schools admitting at Reception in England that year.
Little change in first preferences per place. Across the 5 most recent years held, first preferences per place averaged 0.92 in 2022–2023 and 0.84 in 2025–2026.
First preferences for this school changed little, from 55 a year in 2022–2023 to 50 in 2025–2026. Across all 370 schools in Hertfordshire admitting at Reception, first preferences changed little over the same years, from 13,258 to 12,774.
Counts of families, not places.
Across Hertfordshire as a whole, 89.1% of families applying for a primary place for September 2026 were offered their first choice, and 97.8% were offered one of the three schools they named. That is a figure for the council, not for this school. How the 2026 round went in Hertfordshire.
Compared with its own past
More families than its recent average put this school first.
In 2026, 60 families put this school first. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 54 a year.
In 2026, 165 families named this school somewhere on their list. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 166 a year.
In 2026, 87 in every 100 families who put this school first were offered a place here (52 of 60). In 2021 to 2025 it was 90 in every 100.
In 2026, 0 of the 60 offers went to children living outside Hertfordshire. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 0 a year.
Each figure is compared only with the same figure at this school. "About the same" means within 10 in every 100 of the average.
First preferences and offers at Reception
Families naming Belswains Primary School first, against the offers it made, for every intake year held.
| Intake | 1st preferences1st choice | All preferencesAny choice | Offers madeOffers | 1st prefs per placePer place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 60 | 165 | 60 | 1.00 |
| 2025 | 39 | 143 | 58 | 0.67 |
| 2024 | 62 | 193 | 60 | 1.03 |
| 2023 | 58 | 152 | 60 | 0.97 |
| 2022 | 52 | 161 | 60 | 0.87 |
| 2021 | 57 | 180 | 60 | 0.95 |
| 2020 | 45 | 172 | 60 | 0.75 |
| 2019 | 47 | 195 | 60 | 0.78 |
| 2018 | 37 | 136 | 30 | 1.23 |
| 2017 | 18 | 117 | 30 | 0.60 |
| 2016 | 37 | 144 | 30 | 1.23 |
| 2015 | 42 | 131 | 30 | 1.40 |
| 2014 | 36 | 133 | 30 | 1.20 |
“Offers made” is the number of offers on offer day, not the number of places the school has.
Source: Department for Education: school-level applications and offers, checked 14 September 2026. All sources.
Where families put this school on their list
In 2026 this school made 60 offers: 52 to families who had named it first and 8 to families who named it second.
A school is not allowed to treat a family differently because of where it sat on their list. The School Admissions Code says an admission authority must not give extra priority to children whose parents rank preferred schools in a particular order.
The order is used at the end, by the council, and not by the school. Where more than one school could take a child, the council offers the one the family put highest.
Leaving the other boxes empty does not change how this school considers an application. If none of the schools a family names can offer a place, the council has to offer one at a school that has room, and that school may be further away.
Source: Department for Education school level applications and offers, and the School Admissions Code 2021, paragraphs 1.9 and 2.11.
Ofsted
Ofsted changed its inspection framework: the current one publishes several graded areas and no single overall grade, while the previous one published an overall effectiveness grade. Each inspection below states which framework produced it.
Ofsted ungraded inspection, 29 March 2023
School remains Good
Ofsted's report for this school
Source: Ofsted: state-funded school inspections management information, checked 14 September 2026. All sources.
If you are refused a place
In 2026, families in Hertfordshire lodged 319 appeals about a primary school place.
155 of them were heard by a panel and 21 succeeded, which is about 14 in every 100 heard.
The other 164 did not reach a panel. Most appeals that do not are withdrawn because a place comes up first.
Reception is an infant class, and the law caps an infant class at 30 children. A panel hearing an appeal about an infant class can only agree in three situations: the place was refused by mistake, the admission rules were not applied properly, or the decision was one no reasonable council would have made. It cannot simply decide that the child should have the place.
Of the 92 infant class appeals heard in Hertfordshire in 2026, 5 succeeded.
This is a record of decisions already made. A panel hears one case at a time and decides it on what that family sets out, so these figures do not indicate what would happen in any particular appeal.
These count appeals about every school in Hertfordshire, not this school. Nobody publishes appeal figures school by school.
Source: Department for Education, admission appeals in England, reporting year 2026.
Waiting lists
Being refused a place does not end the application. Every admission authority has to keep a waiting list until at least 31 December of the school year the child would have started, and some keep them for longer.
A waiting list is not a queue. The rules say a child cannot be given priority for having joined it earlier, or for having applied earlier. The list is put back in order against the school's own admission rules every time a child is added, so a place can move further away as well as nearer.
Councils differ on whether a refused child goes onto the list automatically. The council that sent the refusal is the only place that can say which it does.
From the School Admissions Code 2021, paragraph 2.15.
Children with special educational needs
In January 2026, 20 of the 431 children here had an education, health and care plan. That is 5 in every 100. Across schools in England the middle figure is 4 in every 100.
A further 36 were on SEN support, which is help arranged by the school without a plan. That is 8 in every 100, against a middle figure of 15 in every 100 across England.
A school named in a child's education, health and care plan has to admit that child. That duty holds even when the school is full, and it sits outside the rules that decide who gets a place when there are more children than places. Which school is named is decided with the council while the plan is being written, not through the normal application.
Source: Department for Education, special educational needs in England, January 2026 census.
Who goes to this school
In January 2026, 60 of the 431 children here were known to be eligible for free school meals. That is 14 in every 100.
Fewer children are eligible here than at half of primary schools in England, where the middle figure is 20 in every 100.
English was not the first language for 15 in every 100 children here. Across primary schools the middle figure is 10 in every 100.
This describes the children who go to this school. It is not a measure of the school. Most children go to a school near home, so it is mostly a fact about the streets around it.
This matters when reading results. Across the 15,153 schools we hold 2024 key stage 2 results for, the fifth with the fewest eligible children averaged 70% reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths. The fifth with the most averaged 48%.
Those are averages of many schools all over the country. This school's own results are further down this page exactly as published.
Source: Department for Education school census, January 2026. Free school meal eligibility is counted for every pupil on roll.
Exam results
Published by the Department for Education for the whole year group. Figures for smaller cohorts are withheld by DfE to protect pupil privacy and appear here as a dash, not a zero.
Key stage 2: what these numbers are made of
Reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.
Across the 3 years published, this measure ran from 62% in 2024 to 73% in 2023, a difference of 11 points.
Year 6 had 59 children, so one child is worth about 1.7 percentage points and that difference is about 6 children.
Half of schools in England move by 13 points or more across the same three years, so movement on this scale is ordinary rather than a sign of anything.
| Year | Expected standard in reading, writing & maths | Higher standard | Average reading score | Average maths score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 62.0% | 10.0% | 105.0 | 105.0 |
| 2023/24 | 73.0% | 0.0% | 106.0 | 105.0 |
| 2022/23 | 63.0% | 13.0% | 106.0 | 105.0 |
Teachers staying and leaving
These come from the School Workforce Census, which follows each teacher into the next year. The numbers count full-time jobs, so a teacher who works half the week counts as half. They are not a count of people.
The share of teachers who left, each year
Counted as full-time jobs rather than people, and counting a move to another state school as leaving this one.
| Census year | Teachers (FTE) | Still there a year later | Moved to another state school | Left state schools | Left in total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 17.4 | 15.4 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 11.5% |
| 2023/24 | 16.6 | 14.8 | 1.8 | 0.0 | 10.8% |
| 2022/23 | 16.6 | 14.6 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 12.0% |
| 2021/22 | 15.2 | 11.4 | 2.8 | 1.0 | 25.0% |
| 2020/21 | 13.7 | 11.5 | 2.2 | 0.0 | 16.1% |
| 2019/20 | 12.3 | 10.9 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 11.4% |
This is turnover among teachers. It says nothing about the headteacher or the senior leadership team: DfE publishes leadership retention separately and we do not hold it by school.
Catchment area
Nobody publishes a catchment area map for this school that we can read. That does not mean an address is outside its area. It means we hold no map, so we cannot tell you either way.
How places were allocated
Hertfordshire publishes these figures on national offer day, the day families are told which school their child has been given. It is the only place that says how the school chose between the children who applied.
How far away children were admitted from
This school was full in 12 of the 12 years we hold, 2015 to 2026.
In half of those years the furthest child admitted lived between 0.49 and 0.68 miles away. Across all of them it ran from 0.1 miles in 2015 to 2.41 miles in 2025. The council does not say whether it measured in a straight line or along a route.
In 2026, the newest year we hold, it was 0.52 miles.
One year's distance is not a boundary. It is what happened that year, and it depends on how many families applied.
2026 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 60
Places offered: 60
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.52 miles away (842 m)
Hertfordshire does not say whether it measures these across the map or along the route a child would walk, so neither do we.
2025 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 60
Places offered: 60
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Not Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 2.41 miles away (3873 m)
2024 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 60
Places offered: 60
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.68 miles away (1099 m)
2023 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 60
Places offered: 60
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.68 miles away (1099 m)
2022 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 60
Places offered: 60
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.67 miles away (1078 m)
2021 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 60
Places offered: 60
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.68 miles away (1099 m)
2020 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 30
Places offered: 60
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.63 miles away (1010 m)
2019 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 30
Places offered: 60
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Not Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.68 miles away (1101 m)
2018 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 30
Places offered: 30
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.39 miles away (625 m)
2017 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 30
Places offered: 30
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.6 miles away (962 m)
2016 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 30
Places offered: 30
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.28 miles away (445 m)
2015 intake
Places the school planned to fill: 30
Places offered: 30
More children wanted a place than there were places: yes
The rule that decided the last place: Nearest School
The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.1 miles away (168 m)
How the places were shared out
Schools that get more applications than they have places have to choose. Each school has a list of rules, and it works down the list until the places run out. Hertfordshire publishes how many children got in under each rule. These are Hertfordshire's own names for its own rules, so they do not mean the same thing at a school in another area.
2026 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Nearest School | 27 |
| Siblings | 21 |
| Not Nearest School | 12 |
| All the children counted here | 60 |
2025 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Nearest School | 27 |
| Not Nearest School | 16 |
| Siblings | 15 |
| Education, Health & Care (EHC) Plan | 2 |
| All the children counted here | 60 |
2024 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Siblings | 29 |
| Nearest School | 27 |
| Not Nearest School | 4 |
| All the children counted here | 60 |
2023 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Nearest School | 31 |
| Siblings | 23 |
| Not Nearest School | 6 |
| All the children counted here | 60 |
2022 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Nearest School | 33 |
| Siblings | 20 |
| Not Nearest School | 7 |
| All the children counted here | 60 |
2021 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Nearest School | 31 |
| Siblings | 24 |
| Not Nearest School | 5 |
| All the children counted here | 60 |
2020 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Nearest School | 40 |
| Siblings | 13 |
| Not Nearest School | 7 |
| All the children counted here | 60 |
2019 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Nearest School | 29 |
| Siblings | 20 |
| Not Nearest School | 9 |
| Children Looked After Or Previously Looked After | 1 |
| Medical/Social | 1 |
| All the children counted here | 60 |
2018 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Siblings | 19 |
| Nearest School | 10 |
| Children Looked After Or Previously Looked After | 1 |
| All the children counted here | 30 |
2017 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Nearest School | 18 |
| Not Nearest School | 9 |
| Siblings | 3 |
| All the children counted here | 30 |
2016 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Siblings | 16 |
| Nearest School | 13 |
| Children Looked After Or Previously Looked After | 1 |
| All the children counted here | 30 |
2015 intake
| Rule | Children who got in this way |
|---|---|
| Siblings | 25 |
| Nearest School | 5 |
| All the children counted here | 30 |
A rule that let nobody in that year is not listed. Some children are given a place at a school they did not ask for, because they have to go somewhere, and no rule applies to them.
Where it is, and schools nearby
The 6 nearest primary schools we hold figures for, by straight-line distance from Belswains Primary School.
- Chambersbury Primary School: 0.7 km (0.4 miles) east, Hemel Hempstead
- Nash Mills Church of England Primary School: 0.7 km (0.4 miles) south, Hemel Hempstead
- The Reddings Primary School: 0.8 km (0.5 miles) north, Hemel Hempstead
- Lime Walk Primary School: 0.8 km (0.5 miles) north, Hemel Hempstead
- Hobbs Hill Wood Primary School: 1.0 km (0.6 miles) north-east, Hemel Hempstead
- Tudor Primary School: 1.1 km (0.7 miles) north-west, Hemel Hempstead
Nearby and related
- Other schools near Belswains Primary School
- All schools in Hertfordshire
- Schools in the HP3 postcode district
- What data we hold
- This page as JSON: the same figures, for software that would rather not read a web page
Where these figures come from
- Department for Education: Get Information about Schools. School identity, type, phase, address, contact details and how it is run
Retrieved 2 September 2026 - GOV.UK: apply for a school place. Where to find your council's primary school application. Link checked 23 September 2026
- Ofsted: state-funded school inspections management information. Inspection outcomes, published monthly
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Department for Education: school-level applications and offers. Preferences and offers, 2014 to 2026 intakes
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Department for Education: school pupils and their characteristics. Children in each year group, January 2026 census
- Department for Education: school capacity. Places and pupils on roll, 2009 to 2024
- Hertfordshire: offer-day statistics. 2026-primary.pdf
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Hertfordshire: admission rule breakdown. How places were shared out, 2015 to 2026 intakes
Retrieved 14 September 2026 - Department for Education: key stage 2 attainment. Reading, writing and maths outcomes, by school
Retrieved 4 September 2026 - Department for Education: school workforce in England. Teacher turnover, by school, from the School Workforce Census
Retrieved 4 September 2026
Using this information
This is information only, not advice. It may have mistakes in it, or be out of date. Check with the school and the council before you decide anything. We collect these figures from official publications and check them, but mistakes can get through. If you find one, tell us.
Figures current as of 14 September 2026.
This page was updated on 5 November 2026. "Retrieved" is the date of our copy of each source, not the year its figures describe. How we compare schools.