Redbourn's schools are good, and the hard part starts at the age of eleven. There is one state primary in the village. Nearly nine in ten graded settings across the county are good or outstanding. Getting to secondary school means a bus or a lift. Primary school takes care of itself here, but secondary takes some organising.
Around Redbourn there is one mainstream state primary with published results, and its average score in the Key Stage 2 maths test is 107. Redbourn Primary School is the one that carries the village's name, and on the Department for Transport's 2019 modelling the nearest primary is about a 13-minute walk for the typical household, or about seven minutes by car. Flamstead Village School and Markyate Village School are in the next villages along. Most Redbourn children can walk to primary school, which few families in the wider county can say.
Ofsted has graded 203 of the 227 settings it has inspected across Hertfordshire good or outstanding, which is nearly nine in ten, and 40 of them are outstanding. At the other end, 21 require improvement and three are inadequate. That is a county total, and Redbourn has one primary of its own, so the figure tells you how good the surrounding area is far more than it tells you about any one classroom in the village.
Secondary means leaving the village. The same 2019 modelling puts the nearest secondary at about 27 minutes by public transport, 14 by car or about 50 minutes on foot. Townsend Church of England School and St Albans Girls' School are both outside Redbourn, and places at them are allocated under Hertfordshire County Council's published admissions rules, so living within reach of a school does not guarantee a place there. Each secondary publishes its own admissions criteria, and reading them for the school you want is a better use of an evening than a second viewing. Looking outside the village for schooling is an old habit here. Sir Richard Reade, Lord Chancellor of Ireland and lord of the manor in the 16th century, left his educational legacy to a college outside the village.
The schools are one of Redbourn's real strengths, starting with a primary within walking distance, though families need a plan for getting their children to secondary school.