Peartree Primary School

Primary school · Hertfordshire

Peartree Primary School, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 3XW

This school became an academy on 1 September 2022. Before that it was a community school, under its earlier school number, URN 117172.

About the school

Type of school
Academy
Academy trust
Ivy Learning Trust
Became an academy
1 September 2022. Before that it was a community school, under its earlier school number, URN 117172.
Ages
5 to 11
Boys or girls
Boys and girls
Website
https://peartreeprimary.org/
Telephone
01707 881033
School number (URN)
148989

Other schools run by Ivy Learning Trust

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

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 Schools update their own entries, so these can be out of date.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 210 places and 187 children on roll.

23 places were unfilled, which is 11% of the school.

In 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 the school had 179 children on roll on average, against 187 in 2024. Some of those years are from its record under an earlier school number.

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 Peartree Primary School

Reception 24, Y1 20, Y2 23, Y3 30, Y4 29, Y5 28, Y6 3024Reception20Y123Y230Y329Y428Y530Y6
Source: Department for Education school census, January 2026.
Year groupChildren
Reception 24
Year 1 20
Year 2 23
Year 3 30
Year 4 29
Year 5 28
Year 6 30

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

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://peartreeprimary.org/. Telephone: 01707 881033.

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, 12 families named Peartree Primary School as their first preference, and the school made 13 offers.

That is 0.92 first preferences per place offered, higher than 29% of schools admitting at Reception in England that year.

More first preferences per place than 29% of comparable schools
Position among schools in England admitting at Reception, 2026 intake.

Little change in first preferences per place. Across the 4 most recent years held, first preferences per place averaged 0.69 in 2023–2024 and 0.71 in 2025–2026.

First preferences for this school fell 24%, from 16 a year in 2022–2023 to 12 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. The school also offered fewer places over these years, 24 a year in 2022–2023 and 20 in 2025–2026, which is why the figure per place can move the other way from the count of families.

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

Fewer families than its recent average put this school first.

In 2026, 12 families put this school first. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 15 a year.

In 2026, 57 families named this school somewhere on their list. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 69 a year.

In 2026, every family who put this school first was offered a place here (12 of 12). In 2021 to 2025 it was every family, every year.

In 2026, 1 of the 13 offers went to a child living outside Hertfordshire. In 2021 to 2025 the average was 0 a year.

Some of the earlier years are from this school's record under its old school number.

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 Peartree Primary School first, against the offers it made, for every intake year held.

First preferences from 10 in 2014 to 12 in 2026; Offers made from 29 in 2014 to 13 in 2026010203040502014201620182020202220242026Offers made13First preferences12
Source: Department for Education, school-level applications and offers. Preferences count families. Offers count places given out on offer day. The vertical axis does not start at zero.

Figures before 2023 are from this school's earlier record, under its old school number (URN 117172), before it became an academy. The government's school register links the two, and they are the same school.

Applications and offers at Reception, 13 intake years
Intake 1st preferences1st choice All preferencesAny choice Offers madeOffers 1st prefs per placePer place
2026 12 57 13 0.92
2025 13 71 26 0.50
2024 15 70 24 0.62
2023 18 70 24 0.75
2022
old school number
15 64 25 0.60
2021
old school number
16 71 27 0.59
2020
old school number
21 87 23 0.91
2019
old school number
24 86 30 0.80
2018
old school number
14 69 43 0.33
2017
old school number
14 68 28 0.50
2016
old school number
10 37 13 0.77
2015
old school number
7 30 10 0.70
2014
old school number
10 38 29 0.34

“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 13 offers, and every one of them went to a family who had named it first.

1 offer went to a family who named it fourth or lower, or who was admitted another way.

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, 30 April 2025

Standards maintained

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, 9 of the 184 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 33 were on SEN support, which is help arranged by the school without a plan. That is 18 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, 64 of the 184 children here were known to be eligible for free school meals. That is 35 in every 100.

More 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 27 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 61% in 2022 to 78% in 2023, a difference of 17 points.

Year 6 had 30 children, so one child is worth about 3.3 percentage points and that difference is about 5 children.

Half of schools in England move by 13 points or more across the same three years.

A percentage of a group this small says more about which children happened to be in it than about the teaching.

Key stage 2 (end of primary)
Year Expected standard in reading, writing & maths Higher standard Average reading score Average maths score
2024/25 75.0% 17.0% 108.0 108.0
2023/24 78.0% 11.0% 109.0 106.0
2022/23 61.0% 7.0% 102.0 101.0

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.

2022 20.0%, 2023 33.9%, 2024 37.1%20.0%202233.9%202337.1%2024
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 yearTeachers (FTE) Still there a year later Moved to another state school Left state schools Left in total
2024/25 10.5 6.6 1.9 2.0 37.1%
2023/24 11.2 7.4 3.2 0.6 33.9%
2022/23 10.0 8.0 1.0 1.0 20.0%

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 7 of the 12 years we hold, 2015 to 2026.

In half of those years the furthest child admitted lived between 0.57 and 1.19 miles away. Across all of them it ran from 0.46 miles in 2019 to 21.54 miles in 2018. The council does not say whether it measured in a straight line or along a route.

In 2025, the newest year we hold, it was 0.64 miles.

In 5 of those years the school was not full, and every child who applied for a place was offered one.

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: 30

Places offered: 15

More children wanted a place than there were places: no

The rule that decided the last place: Not Nearest School

The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 21.48 miles away (34574 m) (every child who applied got a place, so this is not a cut-off)

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: 30

Places offered: 30

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: 0.64 miles away (1025 m)

2024 intake

Places the school planned to fill: 30

Places offered: 26

More children wanted a place than there were places: no

The rule that decided the last place: Not Nearest School

The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 1.0 miles away (1617 m) (every child who applied got a place, so this is not a cut-off)

2023 intake

Places the school planned to fill: 30

Places offered: 26

More children wanted a place than there were places: no

The rule that decided the last place: Not Nearest School

The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.95 miles away (1523 m) (every child who applied got a place, so this is not a cut-off)

2022 intake

Places the school planned to fill: 30

Places offered: 25

More children wanted a place than there were places: no

The rule that decided the last place: Not Nearest School

The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.98 miles away (1574 m) (every child who applied got a place, so this is not a cut-off)

2021 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: Not Nearest School

The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.51 miles away (828 m)

2020 intake

Places the school planned to fill: 30

Places offered: 23

More children wanted a place than there were places: no

The rule that decided the last place: Not Nearest School

The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 1.31 miles away (2104 m) (every child who applied got a place, so this is not a cut-off)

2019 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: 0.46 miles away (735 m)

2018 intake

Places the school planned to fill: 30

Places offered: 45

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: 21.54 miles away (34672 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: Not Nearest School

The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 1.4 miles away (2253 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: Not Nearest School

The child who lived furthest away and still got in lived: 0.84 miles away (1350 m)

2015 intake

Places the school planned to fill: 30

Places offered: 35

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: 0.98 miles away (1580 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

RuleChildren who got in this way
Siblings7
Nearest School3
Not Nearest School3
Education, Health & Care (EHC) Plan2
All the children counted here15

2025 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Nearest School10
Non ranked allocation7
Siblings7
Education, Health & Care (EHC) Plan3
Not Nearest School3
All the children counted here30

2024 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Not Nearest School9
Siblings7
Nearest School6
Non ranked allocation4
All the children counted here26

2023 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Nearest School9
Siblings9
Non ranked allocation4
Not Nearest School3
Education, Health & Care (EHC) Plan1
All the children counted here26

2022 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Siblings9
Non ranked allocation6
Not Nearest School6
Nearest School4
All the children counted here25

2021 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Siblings11
Non ranked allocation8
Nearest School7
Not Nearest School2
Children Looked After Or Previously Looked After1
SEN (Special Educational Needs)1
All the children counted here30

2020 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Siblings11
Nearest School5
Not Nearest School5
Non ranked allocation2
All the children counted here23

2019 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Nearest School15
Siblings11
Not Nearest School4
All the children counted here30

2018 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Non ranked allocation19
Not Nearest School9
Siblings9
Nearest School8
All the children counted here45

2017 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Non Ranked Allocation9
Siblings9
Nearest School6
Not Nearest School6
All the children counted here30

2016 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Non Ranked Allocation17
Siblings10
Not Nearest School2
Nearest School1
All the children counted here30

2015 intake

RuleChildren who got in this way
Non ranked allocation26
Siblings5
Nearest School3
Not Nearest School1
All the children counted here35

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 Peartree Primary School.

Nearby and related

Where these figures come from

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.