The schools around Coleford are a strong point. Nearly nine in ten graded schools in the county come out good or better. The secondary is a short drive away. A primary is about a quarter of an hour's walk from most homes. Parents here have less to worry about than the house prices might lead them to expect.
Gloucestershire has 156 schools and settings with a published Ofsted grade, and 136 of them are rated good or outstanding, which is nearly nine in ten. Nine are outstanding, 19 require improvement and one is inadequate. Another 95 settings across the county hold no published grade yet and are left out of those counts. All of these numbers cover Gloucestershire as a whole, so they describe the county's schools in general and can't say anything about the specific classroom a child would end up in.
The secondary option is Five Acres High School, in the Five Acres end of Berry Hill, north of the town. On the Department for Transport's modelled times from 2019, the nearest secondary is about 11 minutes by car, 20 by public transport and a 33-minute walk. Gloucestershire County Council allocates places under its published admissions rules, so living close to Five Acres is no promise of a place there, however short the drive looks. With one secondary serving a spread of villages, every family's application ends up at the same set of gates.
Primary schools are scattered across the villages, much as the town is. St John's C of E Academy carries the parish's name, and Berry Hill Primary School, Coalway Primary School and Clearwell Church of England Primary School cover the settlements around Coleford, with more in Ellwood and English Bicknor. The same 2019 modelled times put the nearest primary about 13 minutes' walk away, or eight minutes by car. Heart of the Forest Community Special School serves children with special educational needs. For a town this size, that is a lot of school gates within a short drive, and each of them belongs to a different village.
The admissions criteria are worth one practical check. Several of the primaries are Church of England schools, and church schools can set their own oversubscription rules. Read the published criteria for the specific school on the council's admissions pages, because two primaries a mile apart can rank applicants in quite different ways.
Schools are one of Coleford's real strengths. The county's grades are good, the secondary is close, and the real competition is between the villages, where it's fought out on the application forms.