Watling Lower School
Watling Lower School is a converter academy in Dunstable for boys and girls aged 2 to 9. It has 190 pupils, 40 more than it has places for. About 8 in every 100 pupils come from a low-income family, far fewer than at most schools in England.
Bull Pond Lane, Dunstable, LU6 3BJ01582 662232watlinglower.org.ukMr Robert Cook headteacherAll details
Ofsted
Ofsted hasn't published an inspection for this school yet. That is normal for a school that opened in 2025: new schools usually get their first inspection within three years.
Results
No published results yet for this school.
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.
Infant classes (Reception to Year 2) average 29.0 pupils (England 25.5); junior classes (Years 3 to 6) average 30.0 (England 27.3).
The most common needs among pupils getting extra support: language and communications needs (14), SEN support but no specialist assessment of type of need (10), Moderate learning difficulty (6), emotional and mental health (5), Autistic spectrum disorder (4), Physical disability (3).
Attendance and behaviour
In 2024/25 pupils were in school 94.9% 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 | 5.1% | 8.0% | 8.5% | 7.3% | 3.7% | 4.0% | 5.2% |
| Missed with permissionAuthorised absence | 3.7% | 5.9% | 6.8% | 6.0% | 3.0% | 2.9% | – |
| Missed without permissionUnauthorised absence | 1.4% | 2.1% | 1.7% | 1.4% | 0.7% | 1.1% | – |
| Pupils missing a lot of schoolPersistent absence | 11.2% | 23.8% | 27.8% | 24.8% | 9.1% | 11.7% | 12.8% |
† These attendance figures are for Watling Lower School, the school this one replaced in June 2025. 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ardley Hill Academy | Academy | 440 m | 422 | Good 2024 | 33 | Compare |
| Priory Academy | Academy | 560 m | 830 | Good 2023 | 46 | Compare |
| Dunstable Icknield Lower School | Academy | 650 m | 295 | Requires improvement 2023 | 1 | Compare |
| Lark Rise Academy | Academy | 740 m | 351 | No overall grade 2025 | 97 | Compare |
| Ashton St Peter's VA C of E School | Church of England | 970 m | 205 | Report card 2026 | 33 | Compare |
| St. Augustine's Academy | Academy | 0.7 miles | 177 | Good 2024 | 8 | Compare |
| Beecroft Academy | Academy | 1.0 miles | 413 | Good 2024 | 13 | Compare |
| St Mary's Catholic Primary School | Academy | 1.0 miles | 229 | Good 2022 | 56 | Compare |
Questions parents ask
Is Watling Lower School a good school?
We don't have enough published data to score Watling Lower School yet.
How many pupils does Watling Lower School have?
190 pupils aged 2 to 9 were on the roll in January 2026. It has 150 places, so it is 127% full.
What is attendance like at Watling Lower School?
Pupils were in school 94.9% of the time in 2024/25. Similar schools in England managed 94.8%. 11% of pupils missed at least a tenth of the year.
How big are the classes at Watling Lower School?
The average class had 29.5 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
- Bull Pond Lane, Dunstable, LU6 3BJ
- Telephone
- 01582 662232
- Website
- www.watlinglower.org.uk
- Headteacher
- Mr Robert Cook
- Type of school
- Converter academy (Academy converter, academies)
- Phase
- Primary school, ages 2-9, with nursery
- Gender
- Mixed
- Multi-academy trust
- Scholars' Education Trust (13 schools)
- Local authority
- Central Bedfordshire
- Ward
- Dunstable West
- Constituency
- Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 1 June 2025 (academy converter)
- URN
- 151796 · LAESTAB 8232152 · UKPRN 10097829
- Formerly
- Watling 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.