Markyate's schools are good, and so are most of the schools around it. The village has its own primary a short walk from most homes. The county's inspectors rate nearly nine in ten schools good or better. Secondary school is the catch, because it means leaving the village every morning.
There are two mainstream state primaries in the area, and their pupils average about 106 in key stage two maths. Markyate Village School and Nursery is the one in the village, and the Department for Transport's 2019 modelling puts the typical walk to a primary at about ten minutes. Flamstead Village School serves the neighbouring village over the hill. Two primaries is a small enough field that a single good or bad year group shows up in the average, so a score like that is a decent sign and a thin sample at the same time.
Hertfordshire's schools are where the strong numbers come from. Across the county, Ofsted has graded 203 of 227 inspected settings good or outstanding, close to nine in ten, and 40 of those are outstanding. Another 21 require improvement and three are inadequate. Settings with no published grade yet are left out of those counts, and nothing about them should be read into it. A buyer moving into Hertfordshire for the schools is backing the right county, though the county figure covers everywhere from Watford to the Bedfordshire border.
Living next to a school does not get a child a place in it. Hertfordshire County Council allocates places under its published admissions rules, and with only two village primaries to choose between, one large year of applicants can change who gets in. The council publishes how far away the last child offered a place at each school lived, and for Markyate Village School that is the figure to look up early, since it shows how far the village's reach actually extends.
Secondary school is a different trip. On the same 2019 modelling, the nearest secondary is about 14 minutes by car, 36 by public transport and roughly 74 minutes on foot. Townsend Church of England School and St Albans Girls' School are among the secondaries named for the area, and both mean a daily journey out. Children who walked to primary in ten minutes find out at eleven that "local" now means a bus timetable, and in a village with roughly one bus an hour at peak time that is a parent's problem as much as a child's.
Beechwood Park School is also nearby, and its buildings and walled garden are listed, so some of Markyate's schooling happens in grounds the council would not let anyone alter much. Families looking at the private route will find it close by. Families relying on the state route will find a good primary on the doorstep and a commute after it.
The schools are one of Markyate's real strengths: a well-regarded county, a primary within walking distance, and the only weak point is how far the teenagers have to travel.