The Academy of Central Bedfordshire
The Academy of Central Bedfordshire is a free schools alternative provision in Houghton Regis for boys and girls aged 11 to 16. It has 59 pupils and room for 140. About 61 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far more than at most schools in England.
Kingsland Campus, Parkside Drive, Houghton Regis, LU5 5PX01582 343878acb.beds.sch.ukHeadteacher Paul Green executive headAll details
Ofsted
Ofsted hasn't published an inspection for this school yet.
Getting a place
Admissions policy not published.
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 the school teaches, from the latest school census.
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: emotional and mental health (47), Specific learning difficulty (2), Autistic spectrum disorder (1), Moderate learning difficulty (1), language and communications needs (1).
How the mix of pupils has changed
| Census | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils on roll | 59 | 50 | 74 | 62 | 67 | 62 |
| Pupils from low-income familiesFree school meals | 61% | 70% | 61% | 66% | 57% | 48% |
| Pupils learning EnglishEnglish as an additional language | 3% | 2% | 1% | 2% | 2% | 5% |
| Pupils getting extra supportSEN support | – | 68% | 70% | 69% | 46% | 79% |
| Pupils with an EHC planEducation, health and care plans | – | 28% | 30% | 26% | 22% | 19% |
What pupils do next
After GCSEs
Where the 26 pupils who left in 2022/23 were a year later.
Earlier years
| Destination | 2022/23 leavers | 2021/22 leavers | 2020/21 leavers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Still in education, work or training | 27% | 43% | 58% |
| Education | 27% | 22% | 46% |
| Apprenticeship | 0% | 5% | 4% |
| Work | 0% | 16% | 8% |
| Not in education, work or training | 46% | 22% | 23% |
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 schools, nearest first. Hover over a row to see it on the map.
| School | Type | Distance | Pupils | Ofsted | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lime Tree Primary Academy | Academy | 320 m | 360 | Good 2024 | 39 | Compare |
| The Chiltern School | Council | 350 m | 369 | Good 2023 | – | Compare |
| Houstone School | Free school | 370 m | 765 | No overall grade 2025 | 63 | Compare |
| Thornhill Primary School | Council | 400 m | 516 | No overall grade 2025 | 74 | Compare |
| St Vincent's Catholic Primary School | Academy | 810 m | 213 | Good 2022 | 73 | Compare |
| Tithe Farm Primary School | Council | 0.7 miles | 432 | No overall grade 2024 | 8 | Compare |
| Thomas Whitehead Church of England Academy | Academy | 0.8 miles | 206 | No overall grade 2025 | 11 | Compare |
| Chalton Lower School | Council | 0.9 miles | 65 | Good 2023 | 58 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is The Academy of Central Bedfordshire a good school?
We don't have enough published data to score The Academy of Central Bedfordshire yet.
How many pupils does The Academy of Central Bedfordshire have?
59 pupils aged 11 to 16 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 140 places, so it is 42% full.
These answers come straight from the figures on this page and update when new data comes out.
Contact and details
- Address
- Kingsland Campus, Parkside Drive, Houghton Regis, LU5 5PX
- Telephone
- 01582 343878
- Website
- www.acb.beds.sch.uk
- Executive Head
- Headteacher Paul Green
- Type of school
- Free schools alternative provision (Free schools alternative provision, free schools)
- Phase
- Pupil referral unit / alternative provision, ages 11-16
- Gender
- Mixed
- Religious character
- None
- Single-academy trust
- The Academy of Central Bedfordshire (1 schools)
- Local authority
- Central Bedfordshire
- Ward
- Houghton Regis East
- Constituency
- Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 2 September 2013 (new provision)
- URN
- 139411 · LAESTAB 8231101 · UKPRN 10040841
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.
- Pupil characteristics: DfE school census, January 2026.
- Staff: DfE school workforce census, November 2025.
- 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.