Castle Green's schools are very good, and families who check them out usually come away surprised. Nearly every graded school across the borough is good or better. The primaries do comfortably better than the expected standard in maths. Three state secondaries serve the area. People who judge a place by its reputation tend to get this one wrong.
The 11 mainstream state primaries around Castle Green average a key stage 2 maths score of about 107, the national test taken at the end of primary school. On that scale, 100 marks the expected standard. Parsloes Primary School is named after one of the medieval manors that was bought up in the 1920s to build the Becontree estate, so the history lesson starts with the school's own name. Thomas Arnold Primary School, Godwin Primary School and the rest of the area's primaries share that same average.
At secondary level, the three mainstream state secondaries in the area average an Attainment 8 score of about 52, weighted by pupil numbers. Attainment 8 is a pupil's average result across eight GCSE subjects. Jo Richardson Community School, The Sydney Russell School and Goresbrook School make up the area's list. Places at all three are given out under Barking and Dagenham Council's published admissions rules, so living near the gates of one doesn't promise a place there. The useful check is how far from each school the last place offered went in recent years, which the council publishes. Families who pick a house for a school without looking at that tend to find out the following spring.
Barking and Dagenham, the whole borough, has 21 schools holding a published Ofsted grade, and 20 of them are good or outstanding, almost all of them. Seven are outstanding, one requires improvement and none is inadequate. Another 35 settings across the borough haven't yet received a grade, and that says nothing about how good or bad they are. Out of 21 graded schools, a single one requiring improvement is about as close to a clean sheet as an inspection record gets.
Castle Green's schools are its strongest selling point, a long way ahead of what most buyers expect from a council-built estate. For a family weighing up a move here, the schools are the reason to say yes.