Schools in Ripley
Ripley's schools are administered by Derbyshire County Council, serving this former mining market town in the Amber Valley district. Derbyshire uses straight-line distance as the oversubscription tiebreaker for community schools after sibling priority. The area's school provision includes a mix of community schools and academies, with Ripley Academy the main secondary option drawing from a catchment that extends to Codnor, Heanor and the rural Erewash valley villages.
Faith provision in the Ripley area is substantial, and families without active church connections should identify their nearest community school early. Several of the town's primaries are housed in older Victorian buildings that have been repurposed as academy trusts, meaning their admissions criteria may differ from Derbyshire's standard model. Families should check each academy's individual policy before submitting a coordinated application.
Derbyshire publishes annual admissions statistics including furthest distance offered at each school. Ripley's position between Derby and Nottingham means some families consider cross-county or independent options; state places are allocated solely by Derbyshire's coordinated round for home-authority schools. Use catchment.school's postcode tool to compare distances offered in recent cycles.
School demand in Ripley
Across the 9 schools in Ripley with published capacity data, the average fill rate is 94%. 2 of them are currently at or above their published admission number, and at those schools catchment distance is likely to decide places at the next intake.
3 schools in Ripley have a religious character, so faith criteria sit alongside catchment distance in their admissions policies.
5 of the schools in Ripley are academies that set their own admissions criteria independently of Derbyshire, so check each school's policy directly rather than assuming the council default applies.
3 of the schools in Ripley have a current Ofsted rating, of which 2 are rated Good or Outstanding. Demand and catchment distance tend to be tightest at the highest-rated schools.
Primary schools in Ripley: 1 oversubscribed (8)
Ripley Infant School
Primary · Community school
Ripley · DE5 3RY
Lons Infant School
Primary · Community school
Ripley · DE5 3SE
Ripley St John's Church of England Primary School and Nursery
Primary · Voluntary controlled school
Ripley · DE5 3BD
Denby Free CofE VA Primary School
Primary · Voluntary aided school
Ripley · DE5 8PH
Codnor Community Primary School Church of England Controlled
Primary · Voluntary controlled school
Ripley · DE5 9QD
Street Lane Primary School
Primary · Academy converter
Ripley · DE5 8NE
Waingroves Primary School
Primary · Academy converter
Ripley · DE5 9TD
Ripley Junior School
Primary · Academy converter
Ripley · DE5 3PN
Secondary Schools in Ripley (2)
Other Schools in Ripley (1)
Catchment area boundaries for schools in Ripley are set by Derbyshire and updated each year. The "last distance offered", how far the furthest successful applicant lived, changes annually based on the number of applications received.