Dacorum schools: the map parents actually need

School admissions in Dacorum are administered by Hertfordshire County Council, not the borough. That will remain true until the 2028 unitary, and the form will still feel like it was designed by a committee that has never stood in a playground rain.

Hemel’s state secondaries include The Hemel Hempstead School, Longdean, Astley Cooper and John F Kennedy Catholic School. Kings Langley School serves the village and the south of Hemel. Ashlyns School is the Berkhamsted state option; Tring School serves the west. Sitting alongside them are independents: Berkhamsted School, Westbrook Hay, Egerton Rothesay: which shape the local housing market as much as any Ofsted grade.

Primary schools are more numerous and more local. The useful question is not ‘which is best’ as a league-table slogan. It is which schools are within a realistic walk, which have a faith criterion, and which will still have space if Hemel Garden Communities lands a thousand extra children before the new primaries open.

Our New To Dacorum area guides include the local school list, catchments as they currently stand, and links to official admissions: because a newspaper should not pretend to replace the county’s form.