School planning

Avanti Meadows Primary School opened in September 2021 and is accepting applications in all year groups.

Parents and carers can:

• apply for Reception places through the primary admissions process
• apply for Years 1–6 with an in year application. 

Avanti Brook Primary School opened in September 2023 initially offering 30 Reception places.

Parents and carers can apply for Reception places through the primary admissions process.

The new Secondary School within the development, Avanti Grange, opened in September 2022. The School is currently offering 180 places at year of admission. Parents and carers can apply for Year 7 places through the secondary admissions process.

Buntingford First School is a new school which opened in the south of Buntingford in September 2023, initially offering 30 Reception places alongside a nursery class and also offering places in Year 1 to Year 4 to meet any in-year local demand.  The school was built as a pilot to achieve the first fully net zero carbon school in the county, in line with county council’s carbon neutral ambitions. 

Parents and carers can:

• apply for Reception places through the primary admissions process
• apply for Years 1–6 with an in year application. 

In July 2018, the government launched a joint special and Alternative Provision free schools wave, and asked local authorities to set out their case for why a new school would benefit their area.  Hertfordshire County Council has identified the need for additional special school places to meet a gap in local provision and submitted a bid for a new special free school.

The Government has announced that Hertfordshire County Council was one of 39 successful local authority bids and we are inviting applications from proposer groups as the next stage in the process to establish a Special Free School (Academy) through a competition.  Further details of that process can be found on the DfE website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-free-school-applications

Find out more by looking at the Hertfordshire Special Free School Bid March 2019 (PDF 184KB) Opening in a new window

Potential sponsors

An event was held on 22nd May for sponsors interested in finding out more about the new school and the process. Details from the event and information requested by delegates can be downloaded:

• Presentation slides (PPT 3.8MB)
• Q&As (PDF 210KB)
• Sub Group 1 Report Summary (PDF 352KB)
• Information about the 22nd May Event (PDF 82KB)
• Revenue Funding (PDF 284KB)Opening in a new window

Information about a further New Special School Event (PDF 85KB) held on 28th June can also be downloaded.

Under section 6A of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 (the ‘free school presumption’) where a Local Authority identifies the need to establish a new school it must, in the first instance, seek proposals to establish an academy.

Hertfordshire County Council has identified the need to open a new 60 place primary special school in Potters Bar, for children with communication and autism needs. The county council anticipate that the school will open at 60% capacity in September 2023, offering 36 places across year groups 2, 3, 4 and 5, before increasing to 100% capacity from September 2024, offering 60 places across all primary year groups (Reception to Year 6).  

From 7 March – 1 April 2022, Hertfordshire County Council consulted with interested parties in advance of the competition process, to seek feedback on the proposal to provide the new school for primary aged children with communication and autism needs to help finalise the competition specification document.

For more information, please view the consultation letter (PDF 224KB) opening new window

The county council is now seeking proposals from Department for Education (DfE) approved academy sponsors to open the new school.