Situated midway between the learning seats of Oxford and Cambridge, the provision of a first class education system has been central to Milton Keynes’ development:

• Milton Keynes has one of the largest new schools building programmes in the UK with an average of 1.5 new schools being built in the city each year.  (As the city expands we’re determined that businesses located here should always have a well-educated workforce on tap).  The city also has an enviable track record of retaining the very best teaching staff. In 2005, 98% of newly qualified teachers remained in the city.

Education in Milton Keynes is characterised by:

• Primary schools of all types and sizes, from urban to rural
• A very high proportion of secondary schools with beacon or specialist college status
• Well-resourced schools making use of IT
• An LEA working in partnership with schools to raise standards further
• High quality teaching and support staff
• Dedicated school governors

Pre-school

Milton Keynes is predominantly a young city with 38% of the city’s population aged under 35 compared with 40% nationally. To cater for the growing number of young families, you’ll find lots of caring and stimulating pre-school provision. Several primary schools provide nursery education for 3 year olds and this provision is expanding within school settings and private and voluntary nurseries too.

Primary & Secondary schools

Milton Keynes has a variety of schools:

• 86 primary schools varying from those in rural settings, catering for small numbers of children, to the larger schools to be found in the more developed areas of the new city.
• Virtually all the residential grid squares in the new city have at least one primary school.

There are 15 secondary schools in Milton Keynes (4 independent, 4 grant maintained and 7 LEA administered), over half of them with specialist college or beacon status.

• 16 primary and secondary schools are involved in an ‘Excellence Cluster’ which brings in additional resources from central government and supports several improvement programmes, including one aimed at gifted and talented pupils.

Further education

Approximately 17,000 people in Milton Keynes and North Bucks already have a Higher Education qualification which equates to 14% of the population. Almost 60% of these have either a degree or postgraduate qualification. In order to ensure a stream of bright minds is always flowing into local businesses there are three Universities located within Milton Keynes and North Bucks:

• University Centre Milton Keynes - founded in 2008
• The University of Buckingham
• The Open University

A fourth, Cranfield, lies just 7 miles from Milton Keynes. In addition,
Milton Keynes College is a thriving educational centre in the city.