Any advice on schools in St. Albans?

[jennifersofia]

We are considering possibly moving there. Do you have any recommendations or advice re: primary and secondary? Is it really impossible to get places? (We have two that would need places, Y3 and Y5). TIA

You may want to look at the Mumsnet local thread on St Albans (if you haven't already)as there are lots of thread about schools on there.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/local_st_albans

A really useful website is www.schoolguru.co.uk/ which gives info on primary and secondary schools across the city.

It is certainly not impossible to get a school place although it depends whereabouts you are looking at moving to. The city centre schools are very overstretched and you will need a lot of luck to get a place in one of them. The worse years for this are Year 2 and below as there are a big bulge in numbers, so yours are a good age! You will have more of a chance of places on the outskirts of the city.

IMHO the North side of the city has better secondary schools. They are, of course, oversubscribed every year so the closer you live to them the better!

I can thoroughly recommend the city as a place to live!

If you have questions about specific areas or schools, feel free to ask

If you've got a child in Y5 I'd be looking to move near a good secondary tbh, and worry about primary later if that makes sense.

You will need to apply for secondary this time next year - the school open evenings are happening NOW so if you're quick you may be able to see round a few. You can book for daytime tours too.

For secondaries you're looking north St A - STAGS (if girl), Sandringham, Beaumont, Verulam (boy). STAGS, Sandringham and Beaumont are all vastly oversubscribed and you need to live quite near them to get in. As reflected in £££ house price and Estate Agen "Close xschool" blurb.

Most primaries in St A all v good.

Welcome!

friends of mine lived in st albans but were able to get a coach to Parmiters in Garston which is ment to be a good school too.

Thanks v. much JLo2, I will bear that in mind. I think I need to work out if we could afford a house in the north of the city...

ALthough I don't live in St Albans, my son goes to Beaumont. Its an excellent school who have coped brilliantly with his disabilities.

Glad to hear it's going well at Beaumont SparklyGothKat Still a little disppointed we didn't get in, but DS is loving it at Sandringham so I shouldn't complain

That was our second choice JLo2, was very impressed with the school when we looked at Sandringham, but we knew that we had about 2% chance of getting in there, and Beaumont was just what we wanted really. We have had 2 meetings already with the Special needs team to discuss DS1 and they have ordered everything he needs to help him, they even ordered the equiment his primary school were supposed to order last year without a moan.

Education dept finally admitted they made a mistake and are providing transport now so I don't have a 10 mile round trip twice a day anymore yah!!!