Harpenden Parents Group
Objectives of the Organisation
To provide a single, collective voice, on behalf of Harpenden parents, for the purpose of engaging with HCC and policy makers regarding all issues affecting schooling in Harpenden.

To ensure local Community Schooling is at the heart of decisions made on allocation of school places across Harpenden.

To become established as a key and necessary point of contact for Herts CC and Herts policy makers on matters affecting local schooling.

To represent all interested parents in nursery, primary and secondary school planning and admissions issues.

Nursery, Primary & Secondary schools in Harpenden are becoming significantly oversubscribed, potentially denying access to the children of Harpenden.

Almost 30% of eldest children applying for Primary places in 2011 did not get one of their 3 ranked schools on allocation day. The situation worsened in 2012 when 61 children were not offered a place on allocation day. There has been a 48% increase in the percentage of children in Hertfordshire who did not receive a ranked allocation compared to 2011. The increase is simply due to there being more applicants resulting in a clear decline in the number of children receiving ranked allocations.

The pressure on School places will continue in 2013 & 2014 based upon information on birth rates. We expect a continuation of the downward trend of parental choice - and this is expected to get worse over the next 3 years and beyond.

Harpenden Parents Group (HPG) is an organised group of concerned parents who want to safeguard the education of their children. By uniting as one co-ordinated body, we have been able to exert greater influence with Hertfordshire County Council on the future of Harpenden schooling. If you want to safeguard the future of your child's education,
join our group now under

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/harpendenparentsgroup/,
or visit us on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/HarpendenParentsGroup.
What does HPG want to achieve?

To work positively with HCC and our political representatives to aid communications and to develop sustainable good quality schooling in Harpenden to meet immediate and long-term demand for the children in and around Harpenden.
We want to see short, medium and long-term strategies for the development of schools in Harpenden with aligned and appropriate funding.
To make sure that genuine local residents get fair access to good quality local schooling.

To ensure adequate support & funding for schools that need to improve standards.

Primary school allocation in Harpenden
There is intense pressure on available places in all Harpenden primary schools. This is simply due to there being more applicants resulting in a clear decline in the number of children receiving ranked allocations. This situation will also continue in 2014 based upon information on birth rates. We expect a continuation of the downward trend of parental choice - and this is expected to get worse over the next 3 years and beyond.

Secondary school allocation in Harpenden
The pressure on School places will continue in 2013 & 2014 based upon information on birth rates, and our focus now also has to extend to the difficulties in finding a place for children in and around Harpenden in a local secondary school. We therefore support Herts County Council’s intention to open a new secondary school in the Harpenden area in 2017, however, we remain concerned about the lack of secondary place provision for Harpenden children in the years 2014 to 2016.

Currently there are lots of questions in relation to this decision, and also concerning where to build the new school. We therefore felt it might be a good idea to put a factsheet together which will hopefully answer some of the questions people in and around Harpenden may have. The factsheet can be found here

We expect a continuation of the downward trend of parental choice for good schooling in our county, and this is expected to get worse over the next 3 years and beyond.
Contact Details

To contact our group email  info@harpendenparentsgroup.co.uk