Schools near Dunstable
32 open schools in Dunstable, Central Bedfordshire · Ofsted ratings, catchment areas and admission criteria · see all Central Bedfordshire schools · grammar schools in Dunstable
Dunstable has 32 state schools: 22 primary, 5 secondary, part of Central Bedfordshire's wider catchment. 31 have a published Ofsted rating, and 19 of those are rated Good or Outstanding.
Undersubscribed schools rated Good or Outstanding
These schools didn't fill on first preference in the latest admissions year, despite an Ofsted rating of Good or Outstanding — worth a look if you're chasing the same handful of famous names everyone else applies to.
How places are allocated in Central Bedfordshire
Primary schools: Catchment area is explicit in the standard criteria order (after staff children, before pure distance) — though one school (St Andrew's, Biggleswade) is dropping its catchment from 2026, showing this can vary by individual school. (source)
Most schools use the local authority's default scheme rather than a school-specific catchment map — see each school's page for its own designated/catchment area where one is published.
Dunstable straddles a council boundary: the scheme above is Central Bedfordshire's, and Buckinghamshire also has schools here, applying under its own.
Key dates
| Entry year | Event | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Sept 2028 | Application deadline | 2027-10-31 |
| Sept 2028 | Primary application deadline | 2028-01-15 |
| Sept 2028 | Offer day | 2028-03-01 |
| Sept 2028 | Primary offer day | 2028-04-17 |
| Sept 2027 | Application deadline | 2026-10-31 |
| Sept 2027 | Primary application deadline | 2027-01-15 |
| Sept 2027 | Offer day | 2027-03-01 |
| Sept 2027 | Primary offer day | 2027-04-16 |
| Sept 2026 | Application deadline | 2025-10-31 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Primary application deadline | 2026-01-15 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Offer day | 2026-03-02 (passed) |
| Sept 2026 | Primary offer day | 2026-04-16 (passed) |
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