Primary schools St Albans

[Mumof3andworkingFT]

Hi there,
We are new to the area - what are the good primary schools in St Albans please? I am told Harpenden seems to have "better" primary schools these days, but I am interested in Primary state schools in St Albans and potentially private secondary schools for later on so we are thinking of buying in St Albans so when it comes to secondary the kids can aim for Stahs and Stabs.
I need to visit the local primary schools but would welcome recommendations on the good primary schools which with a bit of tutoring in year 5 can help our kids get into the local private secondaries.
Many thanks!

My DC are at Maple Primary (across the road from Stahs) - DD is in Y6 and a lot of DD's classmates are going on to Stahs and other private schools. It is a good school, very well-equipped with a very invested parent body, and my two have been very happy there. It's catchment is tiny though, and IMO the current head is not as good as the previous one, who left a couple of years ago. She's fine, but doesn't have the passion he had for the school. Most of the teachers are fab.

Most of the primary schools in St Albans are very good. They've often got small catchments though so you need to choose where you move to carefully.

None of them will prepare your child for entrance exams, though as the PP says, with tutoring it's possible. Skyswood, Wheatfields, Oakwood are also all good schools with motivated parents.

Tbh I started to talk about other primary schools, then realised my information is 7 years out of date, so just stuck with the one I know!

My general impression is that you'd actually struggle to find a bad school here.

@MadameSzyszkoBohusz thank you. How much tutoring is required to go from a good primary (e.g. MAPLE) to a private secondary please? What has your experience and to those of parents you know been? 1 year of tutoring in year 5 to get into the likes of Stahs, Habs girls and NLCS?

Are you looking for in-year entry? You might find you have limited choice so it's a case of seeing what the council have available. It's a bit chicken and egg though as I don't think you can apply for a place until you have an address.

Though I think you can see which schools currently have places on the website

@Setyoufree No, we would be looking to buy a house depending on schools. Will be going in for a Reception place applying this winter.

Ah that makes it easier then!

I wouldn't know as we didn't do it. I do know when I looked into when DD was in Y4 that a highly-regarded tutor I spoke to told me it was "quite unusual" for a child at Maple to not have started the tutoring process already.

But I don't know how true that is.

@MadameSzyszkoBohusz Thank you for sharing your experience.

I would welcome thoughts from other parents with DCs in St Albans state primary schools. Many thanks in advance!

Locrating is a good website for information on schools. Like a PP though I mainly hear good things about all the schools.

Thanks to falling birth rates, catchments are nowhere near as tight as they used to be. I had a look at the primary school allocations tables for Harpenden and even someone of the most highly-regarded haven’t filled all their places for next year.

Thanks for the recommendation. Very interesting to hear about falling birth rates.

Hi - my daughter went to a St Albans state primary and is now at STAHS - she had no tutoring for the entrance exam and was awarded an academic scholarship (which pays 10% of fees). If your child is bright they don’t need to be tutored for entrance exams. Hope you find a school you like.

@Gardeningmum16 huge thanks for your feedback. That's really good to know. 👍

Hi I’m also interested though not RE private schools. Moving to the area and love a house near the hospital, but seems like my daughter would only stand a chance of getting into Aboyne and Garden Fields primaries (she will start sept 2024). Maple perhaps. It seems that side of the City Centre is lacking decent schools and no secondaries.
There’s smaller house right near Bernard’s Heath but we’d have to move once my daughter gets much older as it’s so small.

I would be cautious about Oakwood. They have haemorrhaged very experienced and well-loved staff in the past year. Parents are very concerned about all the changes. Last OFSTED was nearly 10 years ago.

Several St Albans primary schools haven’t been inspected for years due to having an O/S rating and things change. Research the hell out of it if you are moving for reception entry.

@MrsLaloSalamanca oh my goodness, thank you for the insight. So which primary schools are actually decent in St Albans please? Somehow research seems to indicate that the Harpenden schools now outperform those in St Albans!?.

I know it’s not in the most fashionable part of town but Garden Fields is the one where every teacher I know wants to work. I don’t work in education myself but have lots of friends who do. Cunningham Hill and Fleetville are very popular with parents. Samuel Ryder suffers from its previous incarnation as Francis Bacon secondary, but it’s a great all-through school with a fantastic headteacher and SLT, it’s well resourced and has ties to Apple, all secondary pupils have iPads. Not sure about primary but the facilities are great.

@MrsLaloSalamanca sounds like you have an axe to grind? I know lots of happy parents at Oakwood - positive change and good teachers.

@MrsFlumpy nope, no axe and no skin in the game. Just passing on what parent friends tell me. Sounds like you might have more than a passing interest though. Interesting times at your workplace perhaps?

I'm a parent :-)