The Department for Education wants four Beaumont School buildings demolished and one part three-storey teaching block put up. Registered 4 September.
Four buildings at Beaumont School are to be knocked down and replaced by a single teaching block, under plans the Department for Education lodged with St Albans City and District Council last week.
The application, reference 5/2026/1410, was registered in the week ending 4 September 2026. It covers the school’s site on Austen Way, St Albans AL4 0XB, in the Hill End ward.
What is proposed
The council’s own description of the scheme is precise about what goes and what replaces it. The application seeks:
- demolition of four school buildings, identified as EEFA, EFAD, EFAE and EFAF
- one part two, part three storey teaching block
- one sub-station
- landscaping, including hard and soft social spaces, external covered social spaces and covered parking
The council’s list labels the scheme “(phase 2)”. The applicant is the Department for Education, care of Willmott Dixon Construction Limited. The agent is Barker Parry Town Planning Ltd of Hitchin.
This is the second application in eight months
Phase one is already on the register. Application 5/2025/2345 was registered in the week ending 23 January 2026, from the same applicant and the same agent. It proposed:
- demolition of one school building, EFAB
- one two-storey teaching block and one meter room building
- landscaping including an SEN garden, hard and soft social spaces, external dining spaces and an outdoor gym
- a ground source heat pump and additional parking
Taken together the two applications would remove five of the school’s buildings and put up two new teaching blocks in their place.
Why the government is paying for it
Beaumont School was announced into the School Rebuilding Programme in July 2022, in the set of schools the Department for Education calls Set 3. The department’s published school list records it under reference number 138286, as a secondary school in Hertfordshire whose responsible body is the school itself.
The programme funds major rebuilding and refurbishment at schools chosen on the condition of their buildings. The department’s list was last updated on 1 May 2026.
Beaumont is a large school and a full one. The government’s school register records 1,722 pupils against a capacity of 1,600. It teaches ages 11 to 18, has been an academy since 1 July 2012, and runs as a single-academy trust. The headteacher is Martin Atkinson.
What we could not confirm today
The council’s application search is a JavaScript portal that does not return results to an automated request, so we worked from the council’s published weekly lists rather than the application documents. That leaves three things open:
- whether phase one was approved. It does not appear in the decisions published in the weekly lists we can read.
- when work would start, and what it costs. Neither figure is in the weekly list.
- which parts of the school buildings EEFA, EFAD, EFAE and EFAF are. The codes are the department’s own, and nothing published on the council’s list maps them to a block a parent would recognise.
One thing worth separating out. The school’s own website describes a fundraising programme it calls FAB, for Field, Access and Buildings, whose third phase is a science block of 12 laboratories and six teaching rooms. That is the school’s own project, and nothing published says it is the same building as the one in this application. We are not treating them as the same thing.
What it means for you
If you want to comment, do it through the council’s planning pages. Applications are published for comment once registered, and the reference to quote is 5/2026/1410. Live applications across the district are tracked on our St Albans planning news page.
If you want a councillor to have it called in, the clock is short. The council’s weekly list states that the councillor call-in period expires on 2 October 2026. A call-in is what takes a decision away from officers and puts it in front of the planning committee in public. Requests go to callinpln@stalbans.gov.uk with the application reference in the subject line.
If your child is at the school, this is building work in term time. Two teaching blocks are proposed on a site that already has more pupils than its stated capacity. Neither application published on the weekly list gives a construction programme, so there is no published answer yet on phasing, temporary classrooms or site access from Austen Way.
Sources
- St Albans district council: applications, decisions and appeals weekly lists 2026. The planning, TPO and tree works list for the week ending 4 September 2026 carries application 5/2026/1410, its full description, the applicant and agent, the Hill End ward and the 2 October 2026 call-in expiry.
- The same council series for the week ending 23 January 2026, for phase one, application 5/2025/2345 and its description.
- Department for Education: School rebuilding programme, schools in the programme, for Beaumont School’s entry in Set 3, July 2022, and the note that the data is correct as of 1 May 2026.
- Get Information about Schools: Beaumont School, for the 1,722 pupils, the 1,600 capacity, the age range, the academy conversion date and the headteacher.
- Beaumont School: the FAB project, for the school’s own building programme, quoted here only to distinguish it from the government scheme.
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