05 Mar 2024
St Albans county councillors have furiously condemned HCC after it drastically reduced the boundaries for next year’s intake of Year 7 pupils at Beaumont School.
On instruction from County Hall, 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.
County representatives Cllrs Chris White and Anthony Rowlands issued a joint statement in response to the change.
“Hertfordshire County Council’s unexplained decision to allocate 210 rather than 240 places at Beaumont School has caused outrage and dismay among local parents.
“As the two county councillors for the Beaumont catchment area, we are appalled that at no point has the Education Department made any attempt to inform us as local representatives of their decision. They were well aware that this decision would cause a furore.
“The leader of HCC, Cllr Richard Roberts, and the executive member for education, Cllr Caroline Clapper, have a lot of questions to answer. We still await the promised statement of their intentions.
“The school wishes to admit 240 pupils. We expect the council to enable them to do so and to pledge to do so without further delay.”
But HCC has said pupils who have not got into Beaumont are provided with school places elsewhere in the district, and there will be no change to this year’s policy.
Cllr Caroline Clapper said: “We understand the disappointment of parents who applied for places at Beaumont School for next year but were not successful. In our planning for school places across St Albans, we have ensured that every child in St Albans has been offered a place at a school within walking distance, and that there are enough secondary school places across St Albans, at a ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ school, for all the students who need one.
“Although temporary additional places were offered at Beaumont in previous years, through agreement with the school, it was not considered possible to make further places available to meet demand across St Albans this year, with expansions agreed at other local schools. The permanent admission number, 210, has been promoted on both ours and the school’s website since September 2023.
“We continue to keep in regular contact with the school about their plans and any decisions required by the Department for Education, who ultimately make decisions on permanent expansion for academies.”
