How are places at King James Academy Royston allocated?

For the 2026 intake the last place at King James Academy Royston was allocated on: Not Nearest School. The furthest offer went to an address 12.86 miles away, measured other.

Does King James Academy Royston have a catchment area?

We hold no published admission zone for this school. That is not the same as an address being outside one. We cannot say either way.

King James Academy Royston

All-through school · Hertfordshire

Garden Walk, Royston, SG8 7JH

About the school

Type of school: Academy
Academy trust: The Diamond Learning Partnership Trust
Ages: 9 to 18
Boys or girls: Boys and girls
Sixth form: Yes
Website: https://www.kjar.org.uk
Telephone: 01763 242236
School number (URN): 137656

Other schools run by The Diamond Learning Partnership Trust

The Diamond Learning Partnership Trust runs 14 other schools with a page here. These are the 10 nearest.

Roman Way Academy, Royston (0.7 miles away)
Middlefield Primary Academy, St Neots (15.4 miles away)
Winhills Primary Academy, St Neots (15.7 miles away)
Wintringham Primary Academy, St. Neots (15.7 miles away)
The Round House Primary Academy, St Neots (15.7 miles away)
Great Staughton Primary Academy, St Neots (20.6 miles away)
Kimbolton Primary Academy, Huntingdon (23.4 miles away)
Glebelands Primary Academy, Chatteris (27.9 miles away)
Thomas Eaton Primary Academy, March (31.7 miles away)
Burrowmoor Primary Academy, March (34.2 miles away)

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 Schools update their own entries, so these can be out of date.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 1,321 places and 929 children on roll.

392 places were unfilled, which is 30% of the school.

In 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 the school had 839 children on roll on average, against 929 in 2024.

Its places have grown from 740 in 2011 to 1,321 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 King James Academy Royston

Source: Department for Education school census, January 2026.

Year group	Children
Year 5	185
Year 6	171
Year 7	149
Year 8	126
Year 9	111
Year 10	107
Year 11	98

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. Councils handle applications made during the school year, including for schools that set their own admission rules. They hold the up-to-date position, which this page does not.

Who decides who gets a place

This school sets its own admission rules, through its academy trust, rather than Hertfordshire setting them.

Look on the school's own website for its admission arrangements. An admission authority has to agree its rules every year and publish them. The council still takes the application.

Taken from the kind of school this is, as recorded by the Department for Education. We do not hold this school's rules themselves: a summary of an admission rule is not the rule, and only the admission authority's own published arrangements are binding.

How to apply

Children usually start at this school in Year 5. A place is not automatic: families apply to the council where they live.

In Hertfordshire, applications for a middle school place close on Friday 15 January 2027. This is the same timetable as primary schools.

If you live in another council's area, apply through that council.

Hertfordshire: applying for a middle school place.

To ask about visiting the school, or anything else about it, contact the school. Website: https://www.kjar.org.uk. Telephone: 01763 242236.

Links and dates can change. Your council's own website has the final word. Hertfordshire's page checked 29 September 2026.

How many families applied

Children usually start at this school in Year 5.

The government publishes application figures only for the years when most children in England start a new school: Reception and Year 7, and Year 9 at some upper schools. So we have no figures for how many families applied for this school's main intake.

The figures that are published are for the few children who joined in Year 7: in 2026, 3 families putting it first and 6 offers. They do not show how popular the school is, so we do not use them to compare it with other schools or with its own past.

Source: Department for Education school level applications and offers, and the January school census for the size of each year group.

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 graded inspection (previous framework), 23 April 2024

Overall effectiveness: Good
Quality of education: Good
Behaviour and attitudes: Good
Personal development: Good
Leadership and management: Good
Sixth form / post-16: 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 1,041 appeals about a school place.

670 of them were heard by a panel and 113 succeeded, which is about 17 in every 100 heard.

The other 371 did not reach a panel. Most appeals that do not are withdrawn because a place comes up first.

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.

Children with special educational needs

In January 2026, 32 of the 947 children here had an education, health and care plan. That is 3 in every 100. That is close to the middle for schools in England, where the middle figure is 4 in every 100.

A further 115 were on SEN support, which is help arranged by the school without a plan. That is 12 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, 176 of the 947 children here were known to be eligible for free school meals. That is 19 in every 100.

English was not the first language for 7 in every 100 children here.

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 51% in 2024 to 56% in 2023, a difference of 5 points.

Year 6 had 171 children, so one child is worth about 0.6 percentage points and that difference is about 8 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.

Key stage 4: what these numbers are made of

Getting grade 4 or above in English and maths.

Across the 3 years published, this measure ran from 52.7% in 2024 to 61.3% in 2022, a difference of 8.6 points.

The year group had 93 children, so one child is worth about 1.1 percentage points and that difference is about 8 children.

Half of schools in England move by 6 points or more across the same three years.

Key stage 4 (GCSE)
Year	Attainment 8	Progress 8	Grade 4+ English & maths	EBacc grade 4+
2024/25	40.30	-	52.7%	16.1%
2023/24	42.70	0.19 likely between -0.11 and 0.48	57.3%	19.1%
2022/23	44.70	0.31 likely between 0.05 and 0.56	61.3%	6.7%

Progress 8 compares pupils here with pupils nationally who had similar results at the end of primary school; 0 is average. It is an estimate, and DfE publishes a range it is likely to fall within. Where that range spans zero, the school cannot be said to be above or below average.

Key stage 2 (end of primary)
Year	Expected standard in reading, writing & maths	Higher standard	Average reading score	Average maths score
2024/25	51.0%	2.0%	104.0	102.0
2023/24	56.0%	8.0%	104.0	101.0
2022/23	52.0%	7.0%	105.0	102.0

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.

Source: Department for Education, School Workforce Census. The year shown is the census year; leaving is measured by where the teacher was a year later. A small school's figure moves a long way on one or two people.

Census year	Teachers (FTE)	Still there a year later	Moved to another state school	Left state schools	Left in total
2024/25	43.1	37.9	1.0	4.2	12.1%
2023/24	59.5	35.7	4.0	19.8	40.0%
2022/23	49.4	39.6	5.0	4.7	19.6%
2021/22	51.3	37.3	6.8	7.2	27.3%
2020/21	47.5	38.1	7.4	2.0	19.8%
2019/20	55.3	42.1	4.0	9.2	23.9%

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.

2026 intake

Places the school planned to fill: 180

Places offered: 193

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: 12.86 miles away (20692 m)

Hertfordshire does not say whether it measures these across the map or along the route a child would walk, so neither do we.