Thinking of moving to Harpenden

[PDC]

Hi, first time post, thinking of moving to Harpenden for secondary schools.. I went to school in Hertfordshire (Rickmansworth) currently living in South London and looking into which secondary schools are recommended in the area? Are catchment areas very small and strict? Has the new Katherine Warrington School taken some of the pressure off? How is the new school? What is the possibility of getting into St. George's, is it strictly religious? Also have a younger child going into year 3 primary. Thanks

They’re all excellent tbh. If you are swayed by ofsted then Roundwood Park and SJL were both recently deemed outstanding. KWS recently inspected but the report not yet out-very impressive facilities though, but I think this year is first GCSE year.

St George’s-for y7, you need 2 years of churchgoing at the point you apply in y6. It doesn’t get beyond that and the catchment is small (but has grown as the birth rate starts to drop).

can’t tell how old your eldest child is, but sept 24 is the last of the bulge years coming through from primary. The schools all went over PAN this year to make sure local children did get places, I doubt they’ll need to in future years as the birth rate drops from here.

good luck! But there’s not a bad choice.:.

I hope you have plenty of money then. House prices are off the scale.

It is lovely though.

Should say also Herts publish admission statistics so you can see distances and criteria for the schools, though your only choice this year was your nearest one given the numbers…

Roundwood and SJL are just as good as St George's, so you can't go wrong with secondary schools. As PP have said, check out the recent Ofsteds, and the latest Sunday Times Parent Power for Roundwood. KWS is less established, but it's a great looking school with fab facilities.
All the primary schools are great too. Harpenden's a good place for young families.

Thanks everyone. DS is going in to secondary in Sept 2025 - is that part of the bulge year? Is St. George's strict on the church going? Is it likely that we will get a place at one of the schools? Or do children get sent to schools outside of Harpenden? It's quite difficult to navigate the catchments...

For St George's, it used to be that you had to have a letter from the minister/priest at a church to confirm your child had attended there. The catchment areas are not fixed as it depends on siblings/how many people apply in any given year. The year we applied I think catchment was just over a mile (my own DC go to SJL)

KWS first cohort of pupils are doing GCSEs this year, so that may give more info to go on.

There are also state single sex schools in St Albans that you can apply for from Harpenden.

St George's do require evidence of church attendance for the previous two years. There's also an obligation to attend chapel regularly whilst a student there. If you're not religious, then the other schools are also great. The sixth forms are part of a consortium anyway so when they get there, they may have lessons at the other schools, depending on subject choice.

Thanks, sounds like there is a good selection of secondary schools and space now with KW hopefully DS will get into one of them, if we can move in time! And are primary schools similar? Any recommendations?

You're spoilt for choice with primary schools. The only one which can sometimes divide opinions is Harpenden Academy because it's a free school and might not be for everyone. Some people love it though, and it's part of SJL Trust so I think it's automatic catchment to SJL for secondary. At least that's what they announced a few years ago, so assuming that's still the case. I don't know much about it though.

I have experience of Roundwood Primary and secondary. Amazing schools. Also Wood End is North Harpenden so if you locate round there you can't go wrong. My DC has some sixth form classes at St George's so I'm familiar with that too. Plus all the kids in town know each other from sports teams and friends of friends etc.

Moving at Year 3 might be lucky for you as some people take their kids out at that stage if they go private (it happens!).

Thanks! My youngest will be going into Year 3 and eldest Year 6 which might perhaps be trickier...very helpful, thank you.

WoodEnd is a fantastic primary school. Again if Ofsted floats your boat then it recently got outstanding. It does have great outdoor space. Secondary wise RPS is the school I have personal experience of but all are great. I don’t know KWS but heard good things. It’s a lovely place to live but frankly you will get very little choice of school. You just need to live around a metre from your preferred one….

I am not in Herts, but just to say that by now, all schools should (as in, to comply with the Admissions Code) have their 2025/2026 admissions policy available, so no need to guess what oversubscription criteria a secondary school may be going to apply to applicants for a place in September 2025.
e.g. the admissions policy for one of the schools mentioned, Harpenden Academy, is here:
https://harpenden.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/document/Determined-Admissions-Arrangements-for-Harpenden-Academy-2025-26.pdf?t=1712901934?ts=1712901934

Thank you

Out of curiosity, are there many kids in Harpenden secondaries who have come from St Albans? Just trying to establish whether it’s a complete waste of time even trying.

I doubt it…bearing in mind they built a new secondary in Harpenden (KWS) because there weren’t enough places and children were being allocated St Alban secondaries from parts of the town (Townsend etc)….

Given the fall in birth rates, you might be ok for y3, but it’s probably a bit soon for your oldest. They had to allocate extra spaces for sept 24 because it was a bulge year and you had no ‘choice’ of school beyond nearest school (and St George’s if you were close enough and met the religious criteria). Numbers will start to fall from now but I doubt fast enough for next September…

Thanks for your comments, our son is only entering Year 5 in Sept, so will be looking at Year 7 entry for 2026. Our nearest school is Marlborough, then Verulam. The new Head seems to have great ambitions so will watch and wait, but Harpenden is the unlikely dream!

If you’re in the catchment for Marlborough you won’t get into a school in harpenden.

It happened a couple of years ago…one can only hope.
Marlborough takes kids from miles & miles away, so it’s catchment is enormous. It just happens to be our nearest school, and I’m looking at all
other options possible.

It’s incredibly unlikely that a child got into harpenden school from St Albans based on distance. They literally opened another school because of the shortage of school places.

It’s written in the St G’s website, so it happened somehow (I admit that it must have been an incredible stroke of luck with the planets aligning for the family),

I see St George's pupils arriving and leaving by train so presume some must come from Luton or St Albans, but I thought either they moved after they secured a place or got in via one of the other criteria.