Secondary
Castle Newnham School
Polhill Avenue, Bedford, MK41 9DT
Key facts
- Phase
- Secondary
- Type
- Academy converter
- Ages
- 11 to 16
- Intake
- Mixed
- Pupils
- 744 of 750 places
- Local authority
- Bedford
- Trust
- BEDFORDSHIRE SCHOOLS TRUST LIMITED
Ofsted
Last inspected April 2024
Good
An ungraded inspection, which checks whether a school remains at its previous grade rather than re-grading it. Inspected under the previous framework, which used its own four-point scale. Ofsted now publishes a report card grading several areas separately, so these grades are not directly comparable with a recent inspection’s.
Read the full Ofsted report (opens in a new tab)GCSE results
34%
42.7
11th of 19 by our score, among the secondary schools in Bedford we can score - see them all. Local and same-phase on purpose: a national table mostly measures who attends.
All published measures2024/2025
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Attainment 8 | 42.7 |
| EBacc average point score | 4.16 |
| Entered the EBacc | 88% |
| Grade 4 or above in English and maths | 62% |
| Grade 5 or above in English and maths | 34% |
From the Department for Education. Measures are published per year and suppressed where a cohort is too small, so some schools show fewer. There are no results for 2019/20 or 2020/21, when exams and assessments were cancelled.
Polhill Avenue, Bedford, MK41 9DT
Admissions
How to apply (opens in a new tab)
You apply through your council, not the school - even for academies and free schools. Applications close on 31 October, the year before starting.
Bedford admissions (opens in a new tab)
The council publishes the oversubscription criteria and last year’s offer distances, which is the closest thing to knowing your chances.
If you are refused a place (opens in a new tab)
You can appeal, and you can join a waiting list at the same time. Accept whatever offer you get first - declining it can leave you with no place at all.
This school’s own admissions (opens in a new tab)
Schools that set their own criteria - faith schools, grammars, academies - publish them on their own site.
Contact
- Headteacher
- Donna Neely-Hayes
- Address
- Polhill Avenue, Bedford, MK41 9DT
- Telephone
- 01234303403