Fleetville infants and junior school current experience

[Twoblackandwhitecats]

Hi there everyone, we're just in the process of moving to Fleetville area and I just would love to hear any current experiences of Fleetville infants in terms of the feel of the school, any concerns or things your child may have struggled with to be aware of? Trying to get a feel for this and a few other schools to prepare for entry and the other threads I've found are mostly pre pandemic and I know things cab change so much in 5 years at a school! Huge thanks in advance!

We've been pretty happy with Juniors, they’ve made an effort with differentiation, giving our kids stretch activities. On of our DC’s teachers has been absolutely outstanding, and the others on the whole have been good (there have been one or two less popular ones over recent years, but they’ve left). It feels like there is a lot going on and lots of extras organised eg school pets, author visits (Cressida Cowell came last year!), concerts, competitions etc. Head Teacher is pretty involved and present at things.

We love living in Fleetville but beware you are in a black hole for secondary schools, and with new housing developments planned on the East of the city it may actually get worse even with declining birth rate.

Thank you so much @BarqsHasBite that's so helpful to hear. We weren't aware of the black hole for secondary schools though, that's not great! Would you go as far as not recommending moving there or just anticipate kids potentially having to travel further to a school that's not first choice or similar? Thanks again

It’s tricky! I would say it depends on part on how old your eldest is and when they’d be moving up to secondary. There are two very popular/high achieving secondaries in St A, Beaumont, which people from Fleetville have historically attended, and Sandringham which is up in Marshalswick.

Over the last 8 or so years two large housing developments have been built on land adjacent to Beaumont, meaning people in Fleetville have been squeezed out of catchment. Last year there was a real crunch as Beaumont initially dropped what had been a temporary bulge class and catchment shrank from c.900 m to c.550 m, as lots of people from the new developments filled the places. There was a big hoo ha and the school in the end permanently re-added the bulge class.

But there is still something of a black hole meaning the only schools you can hope for are Verulam (all boys, an ok reputation but not massively popular with St A families), possibly STAGS (all girls, good reputation but quite a trek from Fleetville) or Townsend (CofE, not a great reputation and an even bigger trek). Marlborough is a possibility but again a schlep across town.

That said, a number of people managed to get Samuel Ryder on continuing interest which has a reasonable reputation but again it’s quite uncertain whether you’ll get a place unless you live that side of Fleetville.

Things may be ok for the next 3-5 years (ie most people will get Samuel Ryder if they don’t get Beaumont).

However, to add to the uncertainty there are plans for absolutely enormous new housing developments near Beaumont and near STAGS, and currently no provision for any new secondaries! So in 5+ years we could have another big crunch point! 😬 And the added difficulty with the new developments is that school rush traffic is already awful so with lots of extra houses I fear St A could become unnavigable by car 😞

I definitely don’t want to put you off Fleetville though as we do really love it here. But what a number of people have done is move from here (eg Burnham, Brampton, Woodstock, Glenferrie) further East to be nearer Beaumont and be sure of being in catchment. To be safe you’d want to treat the southern end of Beaumont Avenue as the boundary of the catchment for Beaumont and be East of that.

There is still a very active WhatsApp group a year later discussing the issue of secondary places this side of town!

An alternative would be to focus on Marshalswick and Sandringham but if you need the train station it’s not really walkable, unlike Fleetville.

This is the latest version of a catchment map which someone has drawn up - the black hole is roughly the area north of the purple Samuel Ryder line and then west of the Beaumont circle and south of the Sandringham circle. However, it’s not that simple as

• the Samuel Ryder catchment on continuing interest isn’t shown but it’s gone out to about 1800m meaning many people in the black hole could get a place there.
• STAGS places are done on a lottery meaning you e no guarantee of a place even if you live in the catchment circle shown here.

Sorry, that’s an overwhelming amount of information to have given you! But it’s quite hard to explain any of it without going into quite a lot of detail.

I should have said, many of the people who move East to get into Beaumont then move back to FV once their eldest is in, because it’s a more convenient and often nicer place to live (IMHO anyway!).

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

I wouldn’t worry too much about what has been said here.

Other secondary options include Parmiters with is state semi selective and there is a bus from Clarence Park and QE Boys Barnet state fully selective, no catchment which has a coach from the Quadrant.

I think the gap will go away as school rolls drop. It was mainly caused by an influx from 2 new housing estates built to be in catchment. I imagine they will move at a much slower rate than they arrived.

I think we’ll have to agree to disagree @Slawbans!

If only it were as easy as just hopping on a bus to get to Parmiter’s and QE.

Parmiter’s offers 50 places based on performance in the SW Herts consortium test, I think you have to be in about the top 12% of candidates to get a place. There are also 25 places offered on musical ability, and are at least as competitive. I believe that if you live in the AL4 postcode in St A you’re not eligible to apply at all, which rules out the eastern half of Fleetville.

QE is one of the most competitive selective state schools in the country - over 3300 candidates apply for 180 places, and I know of families who have applied from Yorkshire and India (!) who have then moved when their sons have secured a place.

To give you an idea I think from Fleetville there have been 3-4 children offered a place at Parmiter’s in the last 3 years (out of 12-15 applicants?) and none AFAIK for QE.

So in essence: it would not be wise to count on getting a place at either school.

The black hole - were it not for the huge new new housing developments planned I’d agree that catchments should increase. However, with a planning application now submitted for 1000 (!) new homes next to STAGS, plus plans brought forward for almost 500 new homes by Beaumont, 100 new homes by Nicholas Breakspear, two new primary schools, no concrete plans for any new secondaries and existing secondaries unable to expand further, it’s pretty hard to see how we won’t have another scrum for secondary places in 5+ years time. These new developments will dwarf the existing ones by Beaumont that were responsible for causing the recent crunch, and will more than cancel out the falling birth rate.

Thought I would resurrect this old-ish thread! I find it astonishing that so many children would essentially be without a school place, once these new developments take place. What is the council planning to do? Ship them all to the Katherine Warrington in Harpenden? My child has an EHCP so we don't need to be as concerned with catchment as most, but I just find this utterly baffling. Apparently Verulam is about to go co-ed - could this be a factor in that?

“What is the council planning to do?”
Continue to stick its head in the sand, as far as we can tell!
And now St Albans District Council is due to be abolished in 2028 meaning even less of a democratic voice (while schools are more of a County Council issue, local councillors do generally understand the city better and are able to lobby on our behalves).

There has long been talk of Verulam going co-ed but AFAIK this is just parental wishful thinking. It’s been firmly rejected in the past, plus it would leave the city with two all girls state schools and no all boys schools, so I can’t see it getting approval.

Katherine Warrington is now oversubscribed- while the catchment is quite big it doesn’t stretch as far as Fleetville. So that’s not an option either.

In all honesty, I don’t know what will happen. I don’t think there is any scope for asking Beaumont, Samuel Ryder or Sandringham to put on bulge classes as they are at full capacity having permanently added extra classes and can’t expand any further.

Verulam and Loreto may be the only options, and too bad if you don’t want single sex (or religious).