St Albans - which are the 'best' comprehensives?

[wadadlis]

Usual story, considering fleeing inner city London due to dire choice of comprehensives for DS.
St Albans would be convenient due to train links for DH's work and I could also get to work relatively easily by car.
So we need to think about buying in appropriate catchment area(s?) but don't know where to start!
Help please!

By popular acclaim and results Sandringham and Beaumont are the best comps. For both you have to live pretty close.

There is no set 'catchment area' but there is a website where you can put in your postcode and it works out the distance and whether you would have got in from there in each of the past five years. I can't remember the name of it but you can probably Google.

Verulam (boys) and Stags (girls) are both popular and somewhat easier to get into as they have different entrance rules.

Marlborough is ok, and Samuel Ryder academy has just come out of special measures and a rebrand etc...not sure how it is doing now but it takes a lot to turn around a reputation.

Townsend is CofE but offers some community places. Friendly and caring I've been told.

Nicholas Breaspear (mixed) and Lereto (girls) are both seriously Catholic. Lereto is very popular. Both bus in Catholic kids from all over the district.

That's your lot I think. Open days in September, applications in fairly soon after that.

I would say that Verulam and Stags have a better reputation than Sandringham. But Sandringham is certainly well thought of. I have friends and family with pupils at Verulam and Townsend. The latter is in the middle of a large housing estate and has its problems. However, 'Birds of a feather flock together' as they say, and the more able/motivated children certainly seem to flourish there.

Thank you both, that's a really helpful starting point for us
Much appreciated.

Hiya, anyone have any thoughts re. Primary?

Secondary schools that parents are prepared to move house for are as follows:

• St Albans girls (STAGS) - girls, obv. Do not confuse with similarly-named and nearby private St Albans High School for Girls
• Beaumont - mixed
• Sandringham - mixed
• Verulam - boys (has been through a bad patch but now really taking off)

Sec schools parents prepared to go to, erm, rediscover their faith for are:

• Loreto (girls) - Catholic

No catchment - for mixed schools done purely by distance. All these schools are greatly oversubscribed and now increasingly (partly because of newbies moving into the area for schools ) you are really only likely go get in your nearest. For single sex schools admissions are more complicated - again, if in St Albans you're only likely to get in if it's your nearest school, plus places are allocated to surrounding villages.

Having said all that I've heard that admissions are changing yet again in 2013

Have a look at the schools' own websites and Herts CC website. The distance calculator Himalaya mentioned is schoolguru I think - but treat with caution as the rules have changed considerably over the past few years and will continue to do so.

Primaries - virtually all are fab but the small city centre ones are greatly oversubscibed - you can live virtually next door to some of them but not get in during a high sibling year!

What are the changes to admissions for 13 likely to be as that is when dd is due to start reception.

Not sure Gloria - both mine at secondary now so a bit out of touch. Just saw a reference about consultations to admission changes on weekly school newsletter - the Herts CC school admissions website should have details I hope

There was some talk of allocating a proportion of places by lottery I think.

We are halfway between Verulam and Beaumont, both well thought of although we noticed some behaviour issues a few years back with the Verulam boys things have improved hugely over the last two years and it's on the up. My friends son is at Beaumont and did some of his GCSEs two years early, she said several of the pupils did.

Francis Bacon is probably the school with the poorest reputation, but I think it's due to close and reopen as an academy soon.

All these things are relative anyway, in truth the schools are of a much better standard than many other places, and people can get a bit spoilt for choice.

Oh and if you find a home that looks ridiculously expensive for what it is, it's almost certainly a schools issue!