02 Mar 2024
Parents who moved into the catchment area for Beaumont School have been shocked to find the boundaries drastically reduced for next year’s intake of secondary school pupils.
On instruction from Herts county council, the hugely popular ‘Outstanding’ school has reduced its intake from eight back down to seven forms following a couple of years taking the larger cohort, meaning the catchment has shrunk by 336m, a situation compounded by the building of two new housing estates on former school land.
This has left pupils who would have normally expected to attend the school in Year 7 being allocated places at single-sex and faith schools far from their homes.
The St Albans Times has been in touch with several of those affected.
One Fleetville mother, who asked not to be named, said Beaumont had actually accepted 119 siblings this year, compared to 88 in 2023.
“Only very few children from Fleetville School have got into Beaumont if they weren’t a sibling of a current Beaumont pupil or had needs. This is absolutely shocking given it is our local secondary school. Instead, Fleetville children have been offered places in Townsend and St Albans Girls School, both the other side of town. So instead of being able to choose a local mixed sex school, children are being allocated either a faith school or a single sex school, both too far away to reasonably expect a child to walk to and from on a daily basis.
“Parents are obviously concerned not only about the types of school children have been allocated but also about the practicality of getting children to the other side of town with work commitments and younger children to take and collect from Fleetville Schools. Not to mention the splitting up of what is a very strong local community.”
One dad, who lives in Beaumont Avenue, expected his 11-year-old daughter to automatically be accepted at Beaumont because they had been 50m inside the catchment, but the changes mean his daughter has instead been offered a place at the single-sex St Albans Girls School 2km away, and will have to rely on public or private transport to get there.
He said: “We moved to the house specifically to get into Beaumont School and all indicators were good until yesterday. I have heard that they have been told to cut their intake from eight forms to seven this year, which may explain the step-change in the catchment area. This beggars belief given demand for places at the school.
“Our daughter is devastated as her friendship group will be destroyed and more worryingly for us, she will have the additional anxiety about travelling to and from school. Ultimately she will be less rounded as an individual in a single sex school, and it is our view that this will have a detrimental effect on her future.”
Viney Dhiri’s 11-year-old son is at Oakwood Primary, right next door to Beaumont, and also expected a place, only to be allocated one at Verulam. The family live just 544m from Beaumont.
He said: “Verulam is single sex, something that we vehemently don’t want for our boy, I think it is absurd that people who fundamentally disagree with single sex education systems aren’t represented equally as those that fight for it. I’d really like to know about the relationship between obligations of new developments and the capacity of our area to cope.
“What about the impact on traffic and carbon emissions with kids being driven to school in cars instead of walking?”
Another mum, who asked not to be named, said: “I think it’s fair to say a lot of parents and children, including myself and my son, were absolutely devastated not to be placed in our nearest allocated secondary school – Beaumont. Living on Sandpit Lane appears to be a black hole where we cannot get into any of our nearest schools!
“The fact that Beaumont has been cut back down from eight to seven forms, knowing that this is a very heavy sibling year (all of the places at Oakwood went to siblings only) is absolutely outrageous!! Other children didn’t stand a chance of getting in.
“It is crazy that Herts county council has removed 30 places given that St Albans is a heavily over-subscribed area, especially with two new estates being built next to Beaumont and no adequate provision to cater for this demand.
“My understanding is that they didn’t want to increase to an eight form entry as it would have to become a permanent thing, but I’m afraid they have to do it to ensure all children in the local area have a chance of getting a place. Instead of being able to choose a local mixed sex school, children are either being allocated a faith school or single sex school, which is absolutely unacceptable!
“The school we have been allocated (and didn’t have on our list) means my son is going to be separated from his cohort of friends at Oakwood and the community that has been built over the years is now split in lots of different directions. As a teacher myself, I do not believe in segregating boys and girls so I am not sending my son to an all boys school (particularly as we are from a boy heavy family).
“Sandringham has also seen their catchment cut by 300m and they had a 400 per cent increase in siblings, so parents are obviously playing the system and this needs to be investigated. Herts school services advise putting down your nearest schools when applying, but clearly this is not helpful as the distances have been dramatically cut this year so it gave false hope to children and parents alike.”
The St Albans Times will be speaking to council leader Chris White, and Herts county council for comment at the start of the week.
A statement has been released by Beaumont this weekend: “Admissions to Beaumont School are handled by Hertfordshire County Council rather than by the school itself, so we would not normally make any public comment about them.
“However in the light of the very tight boundaries for admission to Year 7 in September 2024 and the coverage of the issue in the local media we felt it was important to issue a statement setting the record straight.
“There is a misconception that the school has made a decision to reduce its intake. This is not the case. Beaumont’s permanent Published Admissions Number (PAN) has been 210 (seven form intake) for several years now. In 2022 we were approached by Hertfordshire County Council and asked to increase to 240 (eight form entry) for one year to accommodate a demographic bulge in the local area.
“We are committed to meeting the needs of our local community and agreed to do so. In Autumn Term 2023, they approached us again and askwd us to do the same for one more year. Once again we agreed. The permanent PAN, however, remained at 210.
“As a school we are very willing to increase our PAN to 240 on a permanent basis and we have made this very clear to Hertfordshire County Council, including offering a substantial contribution from our own funds to the building work which will be taking place over the next few years at the school under the auspices of the Department for Education’s School Rebuilding Programme. The intention of our contribution would have been to future-proof the school by ensuring the new facilities would be large enough for eight forms rather than seven.
“However the county council did not accept our offer and decided not to allocate additional places to Beaumont, but to other schools.
“We would like to make it clear that we have excellent working relationships with all other schools in St Albans and this will have no bearing on that, but we cannot stand by when it is reported that Beaumont decided to reduce numbers when this is simply not the case. We were very willing to take more and the decision to remain at 210 was not ours.
“Beaumont is passionately committed to being a school for its local community and we share the dismay felt by others about how many young people in our immediate vicinity, including from our neighbouring feeder schools, will be unable to get places with us this year. We offer our sympathies to local parents who have missed out on a place and would like to see this addressed so we can cater for more students.
“We are contacting Hertfordshire County Council, our county councillors and the MP for St Albans, Daisy Cooper, to raise awareness of the issue.”
The St Albans Times is happy to set the record straight about responsibility for the allocation of places following initial confusion over where the decision was made.
Any other parents affected who would like to speak to us should email editor@stalbanstimes.co.uk
