Beaumon School (St Albans) catchment 2024

[canterville]

I just read on the Telegraph today about the frustration of St Albans parents who lost out on secondary school places at Beaumont School as the catchment dropped from 870m last year to 500m this year.

I'm in North London with primary aged children and have been thinking of moving further out for secondary schools as I'm neither religious (a requirement for most high achieving North West London state secondaries) nor willing to pay for private.

The article also mentions that the catchment will shrink further as there are currently two large housing developments on both sides of the school site.

I'm really not sure if I should continue looking at St Albans or elsewhere.

There’s already a very long thread about this school.

There are other very good schools (STAGS, Sandringham) in St Albans. Beaumont have this week reinstated 30 places that had been dropped. I believe it was a very high sibling year too.

I did a search but didn't find any recent threads?

The house prices in St Albans are now so high that these school performances, despite being good but not amazing, are not convincing me to spend so much to move there.

It’s the one about challenging the removal of the bulge class.

Here you go:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5020630-urgent-help-please-challenging-council-re-removal-of-bulge-class

I love living here but yes house prices are silly (and the traffic can be awful).

The whole Beaumont debacle has shown that we are lacking sufficient secondary places to the east of Town, and if you do want to aim for Beaumont/Sandringham/Samuel Ryder then you need to do careful research on previous admissions and aim to buy pretty close to the school of your choice (for which you’ll pay a hefty premium).

I’d say spend a day here looking at areas around the schools and at house prices (and the lovely town centre/Verulamium park) and see what you think.

You could also look at Harpenden - houses no cheaper but excellent secondaries and enough places as far as I’m aware.

St Albans has lots of great secondary schools although Beaumont and Sandringham seem to be the most popular. There were enough spaces for all children at schools in St Albans this year, it’s just the additional places were made at schools that aren’t Beaumont. Parents were up in arms that they weren’t at the “naice” school and their children would have to travel a mile or two instead. I think it’s fair to say that if Beaumont was a “requires improvement” school then parents wouldn’t quite so fixated on the children needing to be in a local community school.

Anyway, I digress.

Admissions distances for St Albans schools have always been tricky. You need to do your homework carefully if you have a specific school in mind.

You could alternatively look at Harpenden or Berkhamsted. Similar vibe, demographic, commute into London, just smaller.

Berkhamsted has just the one secondary school (Ashlyns) and it’s great. You live in the town, you get a place. Many children also go to the Bucks grammars from there - Chesham Grammar, Aylesbury Grammar and Aylesbury High. There’s no guarantee of an out of county grammar place but my children got one in 2000 and one this year.

I do like St Albans but the traffic is an arse, house prices ridiculous, and the bun fight for schools just bonkers.

thank you so much
the thread didn't mention the school name hence I couldn't find it in the search
I'll be exploring other areas as suggested