St Helen's Church of England Primary School

About St Helen's Church of England Primary School

St Helen’s Church of England Primary School in St Albans holds a Good rating from Ofsted, a grade it maintained following an ungraded inspection in June 2024. That inspection confirmed the school continues to meet the standard set in its previous graded inspection in 2015, when it was rated Good overall. The most telling academic metric for this primary school is the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined at Key Stage 2. In the 2023/24 results, 68% of pupils achieved this benchmark, which sits four percentage points above the local authority average of 64% for Hertfordshire. This places the school in the middle of the pack locally — it ranks 29th out of 40 primary schools in St Albans on this measure, and 144th out of 401 similar schools across the wider county. Nationally, it falls around the 37th percentile, meaning roughly a third of primary schools outperform it on this combined measure.

Digging into the individual subjects, the school’s strongest showing is in reading, where pupils achieved an average scaled score of 108 and 44% reached the higher standard. In writing, 34% hit the higher benchmark, while in maths the higher rate was 26%, with an average score of 105. The proportion meeting the expected standard in each subject individually was strong: 82% in reading, 80% in writing and 80% in maths. However, the early years provision was flagged as requiring improvement in the 2024 inspection, a notable drop from the Outstanding rating it received in that area back in 2010. The leadership and management, as well as the overall effectiveness, remain Good. The school is a Church of England primary for mixed genders aged 4 to 11, with 187 pupils on roll against a capacity of 210, and a below-average proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals at 8%.

The school is clearly popular with local families. For 2025/26 admissions, it received 43 applications for 22 places, with all 22 first-preference applicants being offered a spot — an oversubscription ratio of nearly 2:1. Facilities include a forest school, sensory room, chapel, ICT suite and art studios, and the school runs clubs such as choir, coding, drama and chess. Sports on offer include football, netball, athletics, cricket, rounders and dance. SEND provision covers specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, speech and language needs, social and emotional mental health support, physical disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder. This is a solid, well-regarded local primary that delivers above-average outcomes in the basics, particularly reading, and suits families who value a Church of England ethos and a school that is oversubscribed but still accessible to first-preference applicants within the local area.

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