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Best primary schools in St Albans
Best primary schools in Harpenden
Best primary schools in Radlett
Best primary schools in Rickmansworth
St Albans is a big city with a population of nearly 150,000 and no shortage of excellent primary schools. Among them is Oakwood Primary School, a large school known for dynamic leadership and stretching of pupils, including the most able. Ditto for the smaller Fleetville Infant School and Fleetville Junior School. Skyswood Primary and Nursery School is even more popular, with over two applicants per place and a tiny catchment, while St Peter’s School has always had a good reputation for turning out hardworking, emotionally resilient children.
While not always oversubscribed, Maple Primary School has lovely grounds and is well-equipped, while Bernard’s Heath Infant and Nursery School and Bernard’s Heath Junior School have a refreshing focus on lifelong skills and positive mental health from the off.
Good schools with faith related admissions criteria are St Bernadette Catholic Primary School and St Alban and St Stephen Catholic School.
Best state secondary schools in St Albans
Best private schools in St Albans
Crabtree Infant School and Crabtree Junior School are local favourites. But when there are Mumsnet discussion threads on which roads are risky to move to in order to get in, it’s a sure sign you have to practically live within touching distance of the school to be sure of a place. Wood End School is also highly regarded, and again catchment is small. High Beeches Primary School and Roundwood Primary School are considered other good all-rounders.
The Grove Infant School and The Grove Junior School are known for sport, and St Nicholas VA Primary School for being little and nurturing. For an excellent Catholic primary school, St Dominic Catholic Primary School is top dog.
Best state secondary schools in Harpenden
Best private schools in Harpenden
Money is flowing in Radlett, with many parents opting for private schools from the off. But there are two notable state primaries - Newberries Primary School, a great all-rounder that doesn’t slouch on the academics, and, in the religious camp, St John’s Infant School, a happy, friendly school where pupils progress on to Fair Field Junior School. Even parents who are all primed to send their offspring to a prep are torn when they get an offer from one of these schools.
Best state secondary schools in Radlett
Best private schools in Radlett
The most popular options are Harvey Road Primary School, Malvern Way Infant and Nursery School (where most progress on to Little Green Junior School) and St Peter’s CofE Primary School. Choice will most likely come down to which is closest. St John Catholic Primary School is a first-rate Catholic school.
Up the road in Chorleywood, there are three primary schools but as all are popular, catchments are small. Chorleywood Primary School is known for its caring, family-friendly vibe, while Christ Church Chorleywood CofE School has the edge on location (views over the common), as well as its Christian ethos, and The Russell School is all about the Sats.
Best state secondary schools in Rickmansworth
Best private schools in Rickmansworth
Best nurseries in Rickmansworth
SEND education options and admissions are covered on the Hertfordshire County Council website.
Colnbrook School in Watford is a special state school for pupils aged 4 to 11 with autism, learning difficulties and speech and language needs. There are also some great all-through special schools in this part of the county including Heathlands School in St Albans, which caters for children aged 3-16 with a hearing impairment. Locals attend as day pupils, but there’s also residential provision for those living further afield. Accommodating boys and girls aged 7-16 with autism, moderate learning difficulty, speech, language and communication difficulties and specific learning difficulty is St Luke’s School in St Albans – their big message is that learning is fun. Meanwhile, The Collett School in Hemel Hempstead is ‘proudly different’ in the way it works with children aged 4-16 with learning disabilities including autism, speech, language and communication needs and modern learning disabilities.
Mainstream primary schools with additional resource provision include Maple Primary School and Sauncey Wood Primary School. The latter has a speech and language base providing additional support for children in years 3-6 who are identified as having speech and language needs - and a brilliant SEND section on their website too.
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Need help? Perhaps you suspect your child has some learning difficulty and you would like advice on what you should do. Or perhaps it is becoming clear that your child's current school is not working for him or her, and you need help to find a mainstream school which has better SEN provision, or to find a special school which will best cater for your child's area of need. Our SEN consultancy team advises on both special schools, and the mainstream schools with good SEN support, from reception through to the specialist colleges for 19+. Special Educational Needs Index
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We examined the value-added from KS2 to GCSE for 2022 to see which state selective grammar schools added the most value to their offspring. A note of caution - the more highly selective a grammar school, the less scope there will be to add value.
Grammar schools are state-funded, academically selective senior schools. The education a child receives at grammar school is paid for by the state unlike at private schools which provide education for a fee. There are currently around 163 located in 36 English local authorities, with around 167,000 pupils between them. Northern Ireland has a further 67 grammar schools, but there are none in Wales or Scotland. A word of caution: there are private schools that have the word 'grammar' in their name but this is purely for historical reasons.
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