Mitcheldean's schools are good, and both the primary and the secondary are within walking distance. Across the county, nearly nine in ten graded schools are good or better. The primary is named after the town. The secondary is about a quarter of an hour away on foot. Most journeys in Mitcheldean start with car keys, but the school run doesn't have to.
Gloucestershire has 156 schools and settings with a published Ofsted grade, and 136 of them are rated good or outstanding, so close to nine in every ten. Nine are outstanding. Nineteen require improvement and one is inadequate. Another 95 have no published grade yet, and they are left out of those counts. These are county-wide figures, so the 87% describes Gloucestershire as a whole. It doesn't tell you how any one Mitcheldean school is doing. For that, read the inspection report for the school your child would actually go to.
Mitcheldean Endowed Primary School is the obvious first choice. It carries the town's name, and the Department for Transport's 2019 modelling puts the nearest primary about 14 minutes' walk from the typical home, or eight by car. Hope Brook CofE Primary School, Drybrook Primary School and Ruardean Church of England Primary School are also nearby, so there are alternatives a short drive away if the first choice is full. Having a school close by does not mean your child gets a place there. Gloucestershire County Council allocates places under its published admissions rules, and they decide where your child goes, not how close you live. Read the rules for each school you would put down before you agree a price, because the order of the criteria matters as much as the distance. Faith criteria at the two Church of England schools are one example of why the order matters.
Dene Magna School is the secondary nearby, and on the same 2019 modelling the nearest secondary is about 14 minutes' walk away, or seven minutes by car. In this part of the Forest of Dean, children usually find their journey gets longer once they turn eleven. Here, for most of the town, the walk to secondary is about the same as the walk to primary. For a parent with a car on the drive, being spared the morning drop-off is easy to underestimate.
The schools are one of Mitcheldean's strongest points. The county's grades are high, and both the primary and the secondary can be reached on foot.