Hertfordshire secondaries - St Albans/Harpenden

[butterf1y]

So confused - dc in year 6 and all the schools we've looked around seem good. Anyone have any experience of Sandringham, Sir John Lawes, Roundwood or St Georges?

Not directly but you must realise that they are all very oversubscribed so in reality you are most likely to get into whichever is closest to you. So it's sort of pointless stressing over which one you prefer!

They are all good schools but as PP said, which one you get into will depend on where you live. I have worked in one of them and am pretty familiar with 2 of the others. SJL is buzzing, lots of good stuff going on there and I spoke to someone last week who's DS is at RWP and is ecstatically happy with the place. Really, not much to pick between them in terms of outcome so go with catchment and "feel".

I only know the Harpenden schools and they are all pretty good.
St George's is usually chosen if you can play the religious card, friends say it reminds them of a private school and has a certain snob value attached to it. Other friends believe it has a more caring ethos because of its religious founding but what do they compare that to givien their dcs have not attended another secondary. A few parents suggest that St George's are not keen to accept dcs with special needs - they were told by St George's that their dcs would be better served elsewhere, but dcs with minor learning difficulties are well looked after.
The reality is that you are choosing between 3 outstanding schools, there is so little difference between them so I let my dcs feel involved and in control of their own education by allowing them to choose the school they wanted to go to and they felt positive about the decision they made and to me that was important in helping them settle in a positive way.