Dovery Academy
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Dovery Academy is a sponsored academy in Leighton Buzzard for boys and girls aged 3 to 9. It has 191 pupils, 41 more than it has places for. About 6 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in England. We give it 100 out of 100. That puts it well above schools like it, ahead of 98% of the 50 schools most like it. Ofsted's last grade was inspected 2025, no overall grade.
Heath Road, Dovery Academy, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 3AG01525 377233doveryacademy.orgMrs Sarah Cavender headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 13 May 2025, back when it gave schools one overall grade. Read the report on Ofsted's website.
Not judged Between September 2024 and November 2025, Ofsted graded each area but stopped giving one overall word.
Results
No published results yet for this school.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
About 11 places were empty, so most families who apply get in, though a popular year group can still fill up.
Each council publishes its own figures on how many families applied and how far away the last child to get a place lived. We are adding councils one at a time. If you have a link to Central Bedfordshire council's admissions booklet, send it to us.
Who goes here
Who a school teaches matters. That is why our score compares it with schools that take in a similar mix of children, not with every school in the country.
Infant classes (Reception to Year 2) average 30.0 pupils (England 25.5); junior classes (Years 3 to 6) average 31.0 (England 27.3).
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: emotional and mental health (11), language and communications needs (8), Specific learning difficulty (4).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 191 | 167 | 165 | 165 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 5% | 4% | 1% | 2% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 6% | 7% | 3% | 1% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 14% | 11% | 12% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 3% | 1% | 1% |
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 95.8% of the time. Across similar schools in England it was 94.8%.
Attendance year by year
| Measure | 2024/25 | 2023/24 | 2022/23 | 2021/22† | 2020/21† | 2018/19† | England |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions missedOverall absence | 4.2% | 4.3% | 5.5% | 6.0% | 3.3% | 5.0% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 2.8% | 3.0% | 4.1% | 5.5% | 2.8% | 3.6% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 1.4% | 1.3% | 1.4% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 1.4% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 5.4% | 7.4% | 14.8% | 11.7% | 6.0% | 12.3% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 6.0 | 0.6 | 2.4 | – | – | – | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | – |
† These attendance figures are for Dovery Down Lower School, the school this one replaced in September 2022. Same building and the same children. It got a new registration number, usually because it joined an academy trust.
Staff and money
From the government's count of school staff in November 2025 and the school's published accounts.
Money
From the academy accounts return, year to August 2025. The per-pupil figures are compared with other primary schools in England that report their accounts the same way.
Reserves are the money left over at the end of the year, kept back for emergencies and big projects. Being in the red year after year is a warning sign. Very large reserves can mean money sitting in the bank instead of being spent on today's pupils. Academy figures are rounded to the nearest £1,000 and include a share of any money the trust holds centrally.
The area around the school
Crime figures come from police.uk. The police record each crime at the nearest of a fixed set of map points rather than the exact spot, so “within 500 m” is only rough. House prices are from HM Land Registry sales nearby over the last two years.
Nearby schools
The closest primary schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heathwood Lower School | Council | 350 m | 195 | Good 2023 | 81 | Compare |
| The Rushmere Park Academy | Academy | 0.7 miles | 207 | Report card 2026 | 9 | Compare |
| Gilbert Inglefield Academy | Academy | 0.7 miles | – | Report card 2026 | – | Compare |
| St Leonards CE Academy | Academy | 1.0 miles | 117 | Good 2024 | – | Compare |
| The Mary Bassett Lower School | Council | 1.0 miles | 378 | Good 2024 | 28 | Compare |
| Leighton Middle School | Council | 1.2 miles | 597 | Good 2024 | 83 | Compare |
| Beaudesert Lower School | Council | 1.2 miles | 278 | Good 2024 | 54 | Compare |
| Clipstone Brook Lower School | Council | 1.2 miles | 306 | Good 2019 | 69 | Compare |
Compared with schools like it
Our score compares Dovery Academy with the 47 schools in England whose pupils are most like its own. We match on family income, how many children are learning English, special needs, the neighbourhood, the size of the school and how it admits pupils. Those 47 schools are dotted all over the country, so we don't list them. What matters is where this school sits among them.
No school with a similar mix of pupils within 25 km scores clearly higher.
How the score was worked out
The score is out of 100. A 100 means that once everything below is added up, this school comes out ahead of 100% of primary schools in England. Results bounce around from year to year, especially in small schools, so we also show a likely range: 99 to 100. Every part is judged against schools with a similar mix of pupils. For small schools we pull each part towards the group average, so one unusual year can't swing the score too far.
| What we looked at | How much it counts | Against schools like it | Effect on the score | Based on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results over three years | 0% | no data | – | |
| Ofsted inspection | 20% | well above | +1.01 | Ofsted grade, 1.3 years old |
| Progress pupils make | 0% | no data | – | |
| Direction of travel over five years | 10% | well above | +0.46 | results and attendance rising year on year |
| Attendance and behaviour | 10% | above | +0.22 | 2024/25; 112 pupils |
| Results, allowing for the mix of pupils | 0% | no data | – | |
| What parents say | 0% | no data | – |
Worked out on 13 September 2026 (method v1). Read how the score works, including every weight and the checks we run. Think a number is wrong? Tell us.
Questions parents ask
Is Dovery Academy a good school?
Yes, going by the figures. Dovery Academy scores 100 out of 100. That is well above schools that take in a similar mix of pupils, and ahead of 98% of the 50 schools most like it in England. The score could fairly be anywhere from 99 to 100, so a few points either way between schools doesn't mean much. Its results have been getting better over the last five years.
What is Dovery Academy's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Dovery Academy not judged at its last full inspection on 13 May 2025.
How many pupils does Dovery Academy have?
191 pupils aged 3 to 9 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 150 places, so it is 127% full.
Is Dovery Academy oversubscribed?
Probably not. 11 places were empty in 2024/25 (7% of the total), so most families who apply get a place.
What is attendance like at Dovery Academy?
Pupils were in school 95.8% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 5% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Dovery Academy?
The average class had 30.3 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 25.4. 25% of classes had more than 30 pupils.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Heath Road, Dovery Academy, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 3AG
- Telephone
- 01525 377233
- Website
- www.doveryacademy.org
- Headteacher
- Mrs Sarah Cavender
- Type of school
- Sponsored academy (Academy sponsor led, academies)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 3-9, with nursery
- Gender
- Mixed
- Multi-academy trust
- Knowledge Schools Trust (9 schools)
- Local authority
- Central Bedfordshire
- Ward
- Leighton-Linslade North
- Constituency
- Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 September 2022 (new provision)
- URN
- 149324 · LAESTAB 8232013 · UKPRN 10091138
- Formerly
- Dovery Down Lower School
Where these figures come from
- School details: Department for Education, Get Information About Schools, refreshed daily (this page rebuilt 13 September 2026).
- Inspections: Ofsted management information, monthly; latest publication in our data 27 August 2026.
- Attendance: DfE pupil absence in schools in England, 2024/25 full year.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Staff: DfE school workforce census, November 2025.
- Class sizes: DfE schools, pupils and their characteristics, January 2026.
- Pupil premium: DfE allocations and conditions of grant, 2026 to 2027.
- Money: DfE financial benchmarking and insights tool, academy accounts return 2024/25.
- Neighbourhood: police.uk street-level crime, HM Land Registry price paid data, NaPTAN bus stops, English Indices of Deprivation 2025.
- All under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full list and update calendar.