Baldock's schools are good, and the county system around them is better. The primary maths results are healthy. There is one state secondary in the area, so choosing a school takes about as long as reading the timetable. Across the county, close to nine in ten graded schools are rated good or better. For a town of this size, families are well served.
The six mainstream state primaries in the area average about 105 in Key Stage 2 maths. That is a solid, unshowy number for a town that never bills itself as a schools destination. St Mary's Infants' School and St Mary's Junior Mixed School share the parish church's name and split the primary years between them, so a child who starts at one is set up for the other. Hartsfield Junior Mixed and Infant School takes children through the whole primary span on one site. Ashwell Primary School serves the village out to the north-east. The rest make up the numbers quietly, which in primary education is the point.
The area has one mainstream state secondary, and its pupil-weighted Attainment 8 score is about 49. The Knights Templar School is the secondary in town, and few schools have a name that makes the uniform policy sound like a vow. With one school counted here, the secondary decision for most Baldock families comes down to whether to accept the local option or pay for a longer school run.
Hertfordshire's Ofsted record runs to 203 settings graded good or better out of 227 with a published grade, close to nine in ten. Of those, 40 are rated outstanding, 21 require improvement and three are inadequate. That is the county's whole stock, from Watford to Royston, so it describes the system a Baldock child is entering, not Baldock's own handful of schools. Another 226 settings across the county have no published grade yet.
Places go out under the council's published admissions rules. Buying a house a short walk from St Mary's or The Knights Templar School puts a family on the map near a school, and the council still decides who gets in. The parents who learn this in April usually explain it to everyone else by June.
Schools are one of Baldock's real strengths. The primaries are dependable, the secondary is close, and the county grading behind them is strong.