Hi everyone,
This is my first post on Mumsnet and I’m hoping to crowdsource some wisdom please regarding schools in Harpenden.
My husband and I are looking to move into the Southdown area, into Barnfield Road.
We don’t have children yet but are planning (🤞🏻) to soon. We’ve done some research on the likelihood of getting into local primary and secondary schools.
On the primary schools, it looks like we’d be close to Grove Road Infants and Primary (within 500m), and it would be our nearest school, so we’re guessing our child would get into it.
On the secondary schools, we’re a bit unsure. We’d be about 1500m from Sir John Lawes, which would be our closest school, and 1750m from Katherine Warrington. For both schools we would appear to be closer than the children living the furthest distance away who were admitted in 2023/24, which suggests we might get into one of them.
However, we’ve read online the competition for places is high, the schools are oversubscribed, and some children living in Southdown have failed to get places in secondary schools in Harpenden and have instead been allocated places in St Albans, Hitchin etc. We understand there are also plans to build a big housing estate next to SJL and Katherine Warrington which may decrease our chances.
We’re wondering if anyone on Mumsnet who lived in Southdown and can share their experiences of getting into schools locally and any advice. Is it reasonable for us to expect to get into Grove Road School? What are our chances of getting into SJL or Katherine Warrington? Would we be better to look for a house closer to a secondary school, given the level of competition?
Any help would be gratefully received 🙏🏻 Thank you very much in advance!