Primary schools in St Albans

[SonyaH]

We are about to move to St Albans and have a 3 and 1 year olds .Any advise on how difficult is to get in any of the primary schools in the centre of town or at least the names of the ones to avoid.

You need School Guru Herts whcih explains the complicated admissions system. You can plug in your new postcode and it will tell you likelihood of getting into individual schools. I have heard that town centre primaries are hugely over-subscribed (fortunately have recently moved out of St Albans!). Whereabouts is your new house?

We are going to rent first a house on Verulam road.

Looking at the map it seems very close to the Aboyne lodge 0,3 miles

SonyaH - I think Herts distances are now measured in a straight line (for 2011 entry) so that schools guru thing might not work unless it's been updated.

0,3 miles sounds safe enough, but as always it will depend how many other children apply with SEN or siblings at the school which will place them ahead of you in the queue for places.

LEA Herts issues a run off report on their admissions stats by each school (on their website) its shows the maximum distance from school offered last year for a non sibling place at each school. Herts LEA website is exceptionally good.

Hello Sonya
The city centre primaries are now extremely difficult to get even when you live almost on top of them - the problem is that they are all small but in the past few years there have been more and more people moving to St Albans and there are basically not enough school places. I think there have been about 70-90 children without places in the district for the past 2 years. To deal with this, some schools had a larger or double intake, and now of course the younger siblings are applying, often leaving only a handful of places each year for non-siblings. You'll see this reported in the local press archives and there's also some threads about it on Mumsnet local St albans.

Now, a few years ago a house on the Verulam Road would certainly have got you a place at either Aboyne Lodge or the Abbey - now that's not necessarily the case. I know of someone who lives in the same road as AL and who could not get her dc in last year. As Swedes2 has pointed out, things are now complicated by the new straight-line measurement for this years entry so everything will change again.

The thing is that virtually all primaries in St Albans are fab. The only ones I'd be wary of (off the top of my head) are Windermere and Margaret Wix. Mandeville and Camp used to have not too good a reputation but I think that's all changed now.

Sorry to sound pessimistic but I think you need to be aware of the situation and keep your options open.

Thanks a lot for your advice guys .It will probably be nail biting few months.

Good luck! Lovely location to rent a house. You'll be able to stroll into the town centre, stroll to the park, not that far to stroll to the swimming pool. Loads of things going on for children in St Albans too.