URGENT HELP PLEASE: Challenging council re removal of 'bulge' class

[RestingFebruaryFace]

Sorry for lengthy message, I don't want to drip feed.

Our local secondary catchment area has shrunk this year by over 40% from over 800m to just over 500m. This has left a huge amount of families without any of their choices, and they have instead been allocated either a single sex school or a faith school which is an hour's walk away.

There are a number of reasons behind this - this is the last high birth year and there were a huge number of sibling places allocated this year, meaning very few places left based on catchment. In addition, the school sold off land and two huge housing developments have been built adjacent to the school meaning lots of families have moved in to the area, squeezing others out.

This has left a number of families who have missed out completely devastated not to be getting their local school, which is a real 'community' school. Congestion in our town is already horrific so kids travelling to the faith school will only exacerbate this (there are no public transport options that work).

Apart from the general disappointment, families are angry because for the last 2 years the school added a 'bulge' class to go up from 7 form entry to 8 form entry. The expectation was they would do the same again this year, given the high birth rate and the effect of the new housing developments, but it has become clear only on allocation day that this did not happen. The school have issued a statement saying they wanted to add an 8th form again and for this to become permanent, and they even offered to contribute to the cost but the Council turned them down. This seems to be on the basis that there are places available elsewhere in the town (the faith school and the single sex school), and maybe this is a cheaper option for the Council than adding the bulge class, though I don't pretend to know much about the funding.

Parents are trying urgently to challenge the Council on this, and given the wealth of experience on here I was hoping someone may have some insight.

eg, are there any possible grounds for challenging the decision - should the council have consulted parents about not having a bulge class, or at least made this clear at the application stage so parents could plan accordingly? I'm not hopeful but we need to send something as soon as possible and I'm not sure we'll have time to research the legal detail for the initial complaint.

Thank you if you are able to assist at all.

Feel free to RTFT, almost all your points have already been addressed.

Was the traffic like it is now when you rode to school…?

I am not denying there is a level of snobbery, and I have no time for people who fame the system by renting flats temporarily by the school.

But most people would grab a place at Samuel Ryder with both hands so I’ve no idea why you think people are turning their backs on it. I know people who are trying to move their kids from the local junior schools to SR juniors in order to guarantee a place at the secondary.

In Fleetville we are in a black hole which is not in catchment for SR due to them prioritising London Colney (I don’t disagree with that particularly).

And the suggestion we could just rock up at Nicholas Breakspear is laughable - they have extremely strict faith criteria and a very long waiting list of people (most of whom also meet those faith criteria).

If you live in the black hole (in fact more of a triangle) you will get no local school at all if you are a girl and only Verulam if you are a boy.

I've been surprised for a long time that there hasn't been more uproar about the black hole, which has been steadily growing. The county council has got away without addressing the issue for years.

My eldest child went to Nicholas Breakspear as well. He is of no faith and got in just fine, he also cycled to school everyday from near the station. He’d ride to the Alban Way and cycle along that. This is within the last couple of years so, not that strict.
I’m not saying people are turning their backs on SR at all, it is on that side of town. There isn’t the clamour to go and buy houses in the Whitecroft estate or around Cell Barnes to get a place though.
My younger children are in the same boat, we have a pretty good idea of the schools we will pick. They will all include a walk or bike ride of at least a mile. I’m not interested in an extra 30 places at Beaumont, it’s irrelevant to us. I’m not interested in inflating house prices in a small area of town.
I don’t want one school to suck up extra funding and resources at the expense of other schools, which is what will happen.

There is no “black hole” in St Albans. It’s about parents wanting access to Beaumont and Sandringham as they are seen as the “best” and they have paid a heavy premium in house prices thinking they’ll get in. For perspective, here’s the walking distances between Beaumont and the other St Albans schools:

Nicholas Breakspear - 0.9 miles
Verulam - 1.2 miles
Samuel Ryder - 1.8 miles
Loreto - 1.9 miles
STAGS - 2.6 miles
Batchwood - 2.8 miles
Townsend - 3.1 miles
Marlborough - 3.1 miles

Admittedly some of these aren’t the nicest of walks and traffic is a disaster, but these are normal travel distances to secondary schools (and you are lucky to have so many schools so close, all of which are good).

Every child in St Albans was offered a place at a St Albans school this year - it just wasn’t at Beaumont (until the bulge class was reinstated).

I do agree that where possible children should have access to their closest school, but it’s not like they have been placed at schools ten miles away.

Does Nicholas Breakspear need to be a catholic school any more? Is it funded by the church in some way? Same with Townsend being a church school (not catholic I think). Does anyone know what % of children do apply wanting a faith school vs not? It feels like if they were no longer faith schools more parents would actively choose them from the local areas

Will be interesting to see how the 1st run of continuing interest next week affects the furthest distances admitted - local word seems to be that adding the 30 spaces back in has only increased Beaumont's to 650m

Yes, Nicholas Breakspear has funding from The Diocese of Westminster, it’s part of their Academy trust. St. Albans has 3 Catholic Primary schools, you see people walking to St. Albans and St. Stephen’s from near the hospital. (I know walking who’d have thought it’s possible)I think you only need to look at the distance people travel to Loreto to see there is a demand for Faith schools. I’m not against them, but I’m not for them either. They exist and if they provide a good education and it’s a good environment for children, that’s surely what matters.

Just being curious and looking at Townsend, it's a Voluntary Aided school, which presumably (not absolutely, but I wasnt that curious to check) means that the land and buildings belong to the Church of England, which will also be responsible for a proportion of the capital spending on the school.

It's not like the LA can just go, Oh, btw, we're taking the faith bits out of the admissions policy next year, because that is not within its remit.

I completely accept there are arguments over what constitutes a “local” school and how far it’s reasonable to commute.

What I should have said (and think I did say higher up) is that the “black hole” is such that you have no access to a co-ed non-faith school (which doesn’t seem like a massive ask tbh). You get allocated all girls, all boys or a church school.

Re Nicholas Breakspear the school doesn’t publish it’s admissions stats so it’s hard to get a definitive picture @Alex3101 . But from all I hear it has changed since your son applied (a good while ago I assume if he left a couple of years ago).

• it has long been on the up with some amazing “value added” results and has for a few years been over subscribed.
• this led to the school consulting on tightening its faith criteria so it’s no longer enough just to be baptised Catholic, you have to show regular church attendance for a period of years. However I’m not sure this stricter criteria was in place for this year’s applications.
• this growing popularity will have been given a big boost by its recent Outstanding Ofsted
• The perception (rightly or possibly wrongly!) is that you have to be Catholic to get in, unless EHCP, looked after child etc.
• What I do know is that a parent who lives near NB but tried for and failed to get Beaumont called NB to enquire about continuing interest. Her husband is Catholic but her child isn’t baptised. She was told they had 100 children already on their continuing interest list, most of whom met the Baptism admission criteria, so it was highly unlikely she’d be offered a places
• In any event many parents don’t want a faith school however good it may otherwise be (which is the point I keep making - it really isn’t all snobbery that means people don’t want Townsend!)

@arttown yes it will be interesting to see how far catchment goes next week but the informed speculation is it may be no more than about 600m, so another 90m on current 511m catchment. On parent lives 30cm out and another 550m away and was told they are 16th on the list…

Forgive typos, for some reason the “edit” function isn’t always available.

The other thing that hasn't been addressed is what proportion of places at Beaumont are going to children with special needs - as their parents can choose any school and are, I think, above siblings in terms of criteria.

It’s a relatively high number this year, 16, but still a small fraction of the whole. It’s the siblings that are off the scale! All stats are on Herts website.

Wow those figures. Also 10 staff kids in one year. That’s quite unusual surely.

if the religious schools are over subscribed then yes the girls who don’t get into Beaumont and Samuel Ryder have a 3 mile journey over to stags which is not easy or quick at peak travel times. Cycling lanes are not great through the centre of town

4 miles is short where we are, country comp with a 10mile catchment radius. No one walks though, there are buses.

Those figures are fascinating to see. Beaumont is admitting the equivalent of half a class of children (7.6%) with EHCs whereas just 4 3% of all schoolchildren have EHCs.

That figure includes those at special and private schools, and pupil referral units.

So the percentage of pupils in the general school population with EHCs will be even lower than 4.3%.

Beaumont is taking a disproportionate number (in line with it's admissions policies), which of course has a knock on effect on the places available to children living near by.

Beaumont is taking a disproportionate number (in line with it's admissions policies), which of course has a knock on effect on the places available to children living near by

They have very little choice in the matter. EHCP admittances are nothing to do with their admissions policy. An EHCP can name a school of the parent's choice and the school can only refuse if it can prove that either

• The attendance of the child or young person would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education for others; or
• The attendance of the child or young person would be incompatible with the efficient use of resources.

it looks from that as if Beaumont had already offered 2 over PAN on offer day - from those stats it looks as if one might have been a sibling from a multiple birth who got the last place in another category (or had an EHCP) plus another which is quite likely to be an EHCP that appeared late in the process.

2.4% of secondary aged pupils had EHCPs in 2023. That means the school is taking 3 times the average rate of EHCPs. But that's not surprising. The one bonus of having an EHCP is that you can (largely) choose the school that your child will attend. It stands to reason that they would choose a very 'good' school.

The level of staff children is interesting. But it's the siblings that have made it impossible for most first borns or only children to get in.

It is the bulge years that have created the very large numbers of siblings. Statistically most parents have a two to three year gap between siblings. It will be exactly the same next year.

Places for children of staff are a perk to attract and retain good teachers.

It has a great SEN department and unlike a lot of other schools in the U.K., is almost entirely wheelchair friendly. The SEN numbers therefore don’t surprise me either.

Yes I think some people get TA or admin jobs there (not necessarily having any direct background experience) just to get their kids in. Invariably mums!
But I think you do have to work there for 2 years to qualify for a child of staff place, unless it’s a role they were struggling to fill.

The siblings from the bulge classes will definitely up the numbers for the next few years but in fact it’s actually a triple whammy with siblings. In addition:

• you get families moving into catchment to get their first child in then moving out again knowing their younger kids can get in on sibling rule. I know 3 families who have done this, though they did all spend at least a couple of years in catchment (but 2 retained their original homes and moved back to them so it was never their plan to stay long term). It’s not against the admissions rules for the school but a lot of people do consider it to be gaming the system. In addition there are rumoured to be some flats near the school which have a solid 18 month turnover as people rent, get their eldest in and then move out asap… This has been the case for a while but will presumably be exacerbated with the shrinking catchment and there being no other non-faith co-ed options.
• The effect of the new housing development is also going to boost sibling and catchment/distance numbers. Many (most?) of the families moving there will have done so because they have kids coming up to secondary age. Oaklands Grange is only just being completed now so the full impact of that will likely be felt for the next 3-4 years I guess. It should then tail off because the number of new families moving in will be much lower than when the development was built and was filling up. It’s crazy that about 1/3 of Oaklands Grange was out of catchment this year despite being adjacent to the school. Though that will improve with the addition of the further 29 places on continuing interest next week.

It’s all a bit nuts really!

So Herts should be notifying parents starting today where they have been successful through the first round of continued interest.

Fingers crossed to those parents waiting for good news (its an awful wait!).

I'd be curious to hear as parents start to get contacted by the council. We're also in Herts (thankfully not Beaumont!) and also hoping for good news this week - but have no idea whether they start contacting parents one a time, send 'bulk' emails, whether its at the start of the week, end of the week, anytime throughout etc.

Its an excruciating wait - we're only Monday lunchtime and I must've checked my emails every 5 mins so far today!

It’s such a tough wait!
I’m not aware of anyone having heard anything yet and there are hints it won’t be until the end of the week:

• when the extra class for Beaumont was confirmed around a fortnight ago we were told the places would be allocated “towards the end of” this week as part of the CI run.
• a dad who went through CI last year was offered a place for his elder child on the Friday of the CI week, albeit as that is Good Friday the hope is it will be no later than Thursday. But if it’s an automated computer process who knows.

So maybe better to assume it won’t be for another few days. Best of luck!

Apparently CI allocations will be sent out by email on Thurs am.

Beaumont: furthest distance allocated 657m after first run of Continuing Interest