The schools around South Cerney are good, and the primaries are better than that. Nearly nine in ten graded schools across the county are rated good or better. The local primaries score above the standard the tests are built around. Secondary means a drive into Cirencester. Of the school-related problems a family could have, this is a mild one.
The seven state primaries in the area averaged a scaled score of about 105 in the end-of-primary maths tests, which puts them comfortably above the standard those tests are set at. Ann Edwards Church of England Primary School is one of them, and Siddington Church of England Primary School and Chesterton Primary School are also within reach. The Department for Transport's 2019 model puts the nearest primary about a 23-minute walk or nine minutes by car from the average South Cerney home. Children here are getting through their sums, and the hard part is the 8.40am drop-off.
Ofsted has graded 136 of the 156 graded schools and settings across Gloucestershire as good or outstanding, which is close to nine in ten. Nine of those are outstanding. Nineteen require improvement, and one is rated inadequate. Those counts cover the whole county and include settings nowhere near the village. They tell you about the system your child would join, not the school at the end of your road. That one inadequate setting is unlikely to be on your shortlist, but it's in the total.
For secondary, families mostly look to Cirencester. Cirencester Kingshill School and Cirencester Deer Park School are the nearest state options, and Cirencester College takes students at sixteen. The 2019 model puts the nearest secondary about 13 minutes away by car, 28 by public transport, and nearly 50 minutes on foot. Places at all of these schools are allocated under Gloucestershire County Council's published admissions rules, so living near one doesn't guarantee a place. Look up last year's allocation round for your preferred school on the county council's admissions pages to see who got in and from how far, since that tells you more than the distance on a map. The school bus matters here in a way it doesn't in towns that have their own secondary.
Royal Agricultural University is also nearby, so the area has an institution for every stage from reception class to degree. Most parents won't need to think that far ahead.
The schools are one of South Cerney's real strengths, with primaries that do well and a county system that mostly works. The trade-off is that secondary school comes with a daily drive.