Secondary schools in St Albans

[Tibbytibbytibby]

At the moment I feel like I may as well just toss a coin! Looking for a secondary school in St Albans for my dyslexic boy, extremely sporty, mid range achiever, I'm in the catchment area for Marlborough, Verulam, Sam Ryder. Good approachable SENCO is important, as is good communication and working in partnership with the school so that he can succeed and fulfil his potential. He is popular and gets on well but suffers from low self-esteem, as he wrongly sees himself as less clever than his peer group, so that needs to be addressed.
I'm so worried about making the wrong choice that it is literally giving me sleepless nights!

personally i would go for samuel ryder, afaik it has very good pastoral/SEN support and communication x

Following as We are doing the rounds of open days for ds at the moment, who is in year 5. Did you go to the Samuel Ryder open evening last night? My husband and son went, both came back really impressed. Going to Verulam tomorrow and Beaumont next week.

If it helps the sleepless nights, you may have less to deliberate over than you think.

It’s worth checking the previous years’ allocation data on the Herts Council website - most St Albans schools admit very few for whom they aren’t the child’s nearest school. Consequently, it’s likely you only have an illusion of choice - the default position in practice is that DC will be allocated their nearest school. Some don’t even get that, hence the outcry on allocation day last year when lots weren’t given a school at all. (That was hopefully a blip caused by oddities in the application process for the new secondary in Harpenden.)

The single sex schools (STAGS and Verulam) are slightly different; they’re allocated on a lottery system if it’s not your nearest school.

Ignore this if your DS’s SEN means that his application will determined on the basis that his needs can only be met by one particular school!

That's a very good point Dragontrainer. Thank you! I remember the outcry last year over school allocations, so stressful for both children and parents.
My son has an IEP which outlines targets and the support he receives for his dyslexia, but doesn't have an EHCP, so we wouldn't qualify to select a school based on SEN need.