Icknield Walk First School
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Icknield Walk First School is a council school in Royston for boys and girls aged 3 to 9. It has 335 pupils and room for 360. About 11 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in England. We give it 80 out of 100. That puts it above schools like it, ahead of 63% of the 50 schools most like it. Ofsted's last grade was inspected 2025, no overall grade.
Poplar Drive, Royston, SG8 7EZ01763 243392icknieldwalk.herts.sch.ukMrs Jane Sherwood headteacherAll details
What Ofsted found
Ofsted's last full inspection was on 25 March 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.
Fewer than one place in twenty is empty, so in most years more families apply than there are places. Living close by, or already having a child here, makes a real difference. Pupil numbers have stayed about the same since 2021/22.
In 2026 every child who applied got a place, so how far away you live didn't matter. That could change if the school gets more popular.
We measure in a straight line from the middle of your postcode to the school. The council measures its own way, and the cut-off changes every year. Use this as a rough guide, and read the council's admissions booklet before you apply.
How places were given out for September 2026. Every child who applied got a place (59 offers for 60 places).
| Entry | Places | Applied at all | Got a place | How far the last child lived | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Primary | 60 | 141 | 59 | – all offered | LA |
| 2025 Primary | 60 | 160 | 60 | 0.9 miles | LA |
| 2024 Primary | 60 | 164 | 60 | 640 m | LA |
The distances are the council's own, usually measured in a straight line from home to the school gate. If the distance is getting shorter each year, the school is getting harder to get into. See which councils we have this data for.
What a home within 0.6 miles of the school costs
Every home sold within that distance of the school (the typical cut-off over the last three years), of any type, from HM Land Registry records. If homes here cost more than the district average, that is the price people pay to live close enough to get in.
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 29.3 (England 27.3).
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: emotional and mental health (27), language and communications needs (13), SEN support but no specialist assessment of type of need (7), Autistic spectrum disorder (5), Specific learning difficulty (3), Physical disability (2).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 335 | 345 | 337 | 344 | 345 | 345 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 11% | 8% | 9% | 8% | 9% | 8% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 9% | 8% | 8% | 8% | 6% | 5% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 15% | 19% | 17% | 15% | 9% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 3% | 2% | 1% | 2% | 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% | 6.2% | 5.4% | 5.5% | 4.3% | 3.8% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 3.4% | 5.1% | 4.5% | 4.7% | 3.8% | 3.2% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 0.9% | 1.0% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.4% | 0.5% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 8.1% | 12.6% | 9.5% | 11.4% | 8.7% | 6.3% | 12.8% |
| SuspensionsSuspension rate | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | – | – |
| Permanent exclusionsPermanent exclusions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – |
Staff and money
From the government's count of school staff in November 2025 and the school's published accounts.
Money
From the council school accounts, year to March 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| King James Academy Royston | Academy | 380 m | 947 | Good 2024 | 48 | Compare |
| St Mary Roman Catholic Primary School | Academy | 540 m | 227 | No overall grade 2025 | 88 | Compare |
| Studlands Rise First School | Council | 610 m | 170 | No overall grade 2024 | 87 | Compare |
| Tannery Drift School | Council | 0.7 miles | 320 | No overall grade 2025 | 90 | Compare |
| Roman Way Academy | Academy | 0.8 miles | 219 | Good 2023 | 30 | Compare |
| Melbourn Primary School | Council | 2.6 miles | 357 | Report card 2026 | 43 | Compare |
| Bassingbourn Primary School | Council | 2.7 miles | 326 | No overall grade 2024 | 7 | Compare |
| Barley (VA) Church of England First School | Church of England | 2.8 miles | 25 | Good 2023 | 16 | Compare |
Compared with schools like it
Our score compares Icknield Walk First School with the 49 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 49 schools are dotted all over the country, so we don't list them. What matters is where this school sits among them.
How the score was worked out
The score is out of 100. A 80 means that once everything below is added up, this school comes out ahead of 80% of primary schools in England. Results bounce around from year to year, especially in small schools, so we also show a likely range: 56 to 91. That range is wide enough that the school could sit in the next band, so take the band as a rough guide rather than a verdict. 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% | above | +0.20 | Ofsted grade, 1.5 years old |
| Progress pupils make | 0% | no data | – | |
| Direction of travel over five years | 10% | in line | +0.02 | results and attendance falling year on year |
| Attendance and behaviour | 10% | above | +0.17 | 2024/25; 247 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 Icknield Walk First School a good school?
Yes, going by the figures. Icknield Walk First School scores 80 out of 100. That is above schools that take in a similar mix of pupils, and ahead of 63% of the 50 schools most like it in England. The score could fairly be anywhere from 56 to 91, so a few points either way between schools doesn't mean much.
What is Icknield Walk First School's Ofsted rating?
Ofsted rated Icknield Walk First School not judged at its last full inspection on 25 March 2025.
How many pupils does Icknield Walk First School have?
335 pupils aged 3 to 9 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 360 places, so it is 93% full.
Is Icknield Walk First School oversubscribed?
Often. Fewer than one place in twenty was empty in 2024/25, so popular year groups fill up.
What is attendance like at Icknield Walk First School?
Pupils were in school 95.8% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 8% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Icknield Walk First School?
The average class had 28.7 pupils in January 2026. Across England it was 25.4. No class 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
- Poplar Drive, Royston, SG8 7EZ
- Telephone
- 01763 243392
- Website
- www.icknieldwalk.herts.sch.uk
- Headteacher
- Mrs Jane Sherwood
- Type of school
- Council school (Community school, local authority maintained schools)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 3-9, with nursery
- Gender
- Mixed
- Local authority
- Hertfordshire
- Ward
- Royston Meridian
- Constituency
- North East Hertfordshire
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- URN
- 117278 · LAESTAB 9192331 · UKPRN 10080117
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, consistent financial reporting 2024/25.
- Admissions outcomes: Hertfordshire council's published allocation statistics (source), entry years 2024, 2025, 2026.
- House prices: HM Land Registry price paid data, December 2023 to December 2025, placed by postcode.
- 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.