Highworth's schools are solid, and they're close together. An infant school, a junior school and the secondary all sit within a few streets of each other. The primaries test well in maths. Across the borough, most graded schools are good or better. Finding a decent school here isn't the hard part. Getting the place is.
At primary level, two state primaries in the area sit the end-of-primary tests, and their average maths score is about 104. Southfield Junior School borders the secondary, Eastrop Infant School is nearby, and Westrop Primary & Nursery School covers the west side of town. The Department for Transport's 2019 modelling puts the average walk to a primary at about 15 minutes. For a small town that's a real walk, and parents who drive it anyway will need a better excuse than the distance.
For secondary, there is one state secondary in the area, Highworth Warneford School on Shrivenham Road, with a pupil-weighted Attainment 8 score of 46. Attainment 8 is the government's measure of results across eight exam subjects. The modelled walk to a secondary averages about 20 minutes, so most teenagers here can get themselves to school without a lift, whatever they tell their parents at quarter to nine. With only one secondary in town, there's no local league table to agonise over. The next-nearest choice means a bus or a car.
Ofsted's picture covers the whole Swindon local authority, not Highworth alone. Of the 46 settings with a published overall grade, 38 are good or better, which is a little over four in five. Three are outstanding, 7 require improvement and 1 is inadequate. Settings that haven't yet received a published grade aren't counted either way, and nothing should be read into their absence from the figures. The authority's record gives a buyer reasonable confidence, though it won't tell you about the gate you'll be standing at every morning.
Living near a named school doesn't guarantee a place there. Admissions follow the published rules for each school each year, and those rules can shift. Parents who buy the house first and read the admissions policy second sometimes get a lesson in how an allocation system works. Check the current arrangements with the school and the council before the offer goes in, not after the keys change hands.
Schools are one of Highworth's real strengths. The primaries test well, the secondary is on the doorstep, and the borough's grades back up the choice for anyone who does the admissions homework.