Mandeville Primary School

Mandeville Primary School is a larger-than-average primary school in St Albans, part of The Spiral Partnership Trust, and it also runs a nursery. The school performs well overall: inclusion and personal development and wellbeing are strong, while achievement, attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching, early years, and leadership and governance meet the expected standard. Safeguarding standards are met, and leaders have created an open, positive culture where pupils feel safe, valued and included. Pupils benefit from warm relationships, clear behaviour expectations, a well-planned personal development programme, and strong early years provision, especially in reading and phonics. Leaders support staff well, parents are overwhelmingly positive, and pupils have a wide range of enrichment opportunities. The main areas for improvement are ensuring the curriculum is taught consistently and deeply across all subjects, and continuing to improve attendance, particularly persistent absence among disadvantaged pupils.

Strengths

• Deeply rooted culture of inclusion where all pupils feel recognised and valued
• Swift, effective identification and removal of barriers to learning
• Strong personal development and wellbeing programme
• Pupils learn healthy relationships and how to look after their mental and physical wellbeing
• Calm, positive behaviour culture with clear and fair expectations
• Strong early years provision with reading and phonics at its heart
• Secure foundations in reading, writing and number across the school
• Leaders use additional funding carefully to support disadvantaged pupils
• Thoughtful professional development and strong staff wellbeing
• Parents are overwhelmingly positive and describe the school as one big family
• Wide range of enrichment, leadership and community opportunities for pupils
• Safeguarding standards are met and pupils feel safe

Areas for Improvement

• Inconsistencies in curriculum delivery mean some subjects are not taught as well as they could be
• Leaders need to ensure the attendance strategy continues to reduce persistent absence, especially among disadvantaged pupils
• Some disadvantaged pupils and other groups are still absent too often

Admissions: local authority offers data from the Department for Education. A school is oversubscribed when at least 5% of the families who put it first were not offered a place, and undersubscribed when everyone who put it first got in but 10% or more of its places were unfilled in the Department's school capacity survey (the latest survey is used for entry years it does not cover). Places: Department for Education, School capacity, from local authorities' annual survey as at 1 May. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024–25); the survey was not run in 2020. Places include sixth form places. Forecasts are the local authority's own for the school's planning area, an area it uses to plan places that is not the school's catchment area. The forecast starts from a head count in 2025; the dashed line is the Department's estimate of places in that area, including those the authority has firm plans for. Planned places are cumulative, and only those with firm plans are counted.

In 2024–25 pupils at Mandeville Primary School attended 93.4% of sessions (the national figure for primary schools was 94.8%). 19.1% of pupils were persistently absent, missing at least one session in ten (nationally 13.0%).

Sessions missed

Pupils persistently absent

Source: Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Persistent absence means missing 10% or more of sessions; severe absence means 50% or more. No figures were published for 2019/20.

In 2024–25, 1.6% of pupils at Mandeville Primary School were suspended at least once (nationally 1.1%). No pupils were permanently excluded.

Pupils suspended at least once

Source: Department for Education, Suspensions and permanent exclusions in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). A pupil can be suspended more than once, so suspensions per 100 pupils can be higher than the share of pupils suspended. Very small numbers are hidden by the DfE. Exclusion figures dropped in 2020 and 2021 because of school closures.

In 2025–26 Mandeville Primary School had 19.8 pupils for each teacher (the national figure for primary schools was 20.7). Of its teachers in 2024–25, 18.7% were no longer at the school a year later (nationally 15.7%).

Pupils per teacher

Teachers who left the school within a year

Source: Department for Education, School workforce in England. Each year is the one the school year ends in (2025 is 2024/25). Pupils per teacher counts full-time-equivalent pupils and teachers. Turnover is the share of a year's teachers (full-time equivalent) who were not at the school the following year, whether they moved to another school or left state-funded teaching. Turnover and sickness figures run one year behind the ratios. Sick leave is the share of teachers who took at least one day in the year, so it swings widely at small schools, where a few teachers can make it 0% or 100%. The national figures are for all state schools of the same type.

In 2025–26, 22.6% of pupils at Mandeville Primary School were on SEN support (nationally 15.4%) and 5.0% had an education, health and care (EHC) plan (nationally 4.1%).

Pupils by main type of need

Source: Department for Education, Special educational needs in England (the 2025–26 school census). SEN support is extra help in school without an EHC plan. National figures are for all state-funded primary schools. Counts are as published, with small numbers not hidden.

In 2024–25 Mandeville Primary School received £7,878 and spent £7,667 for each of its 366 pupils. It ended the year with reserves of £299,000 (£817 per pupil).

Across all 6 schools of Spiral Partnership Trust, income was £7,761 and spending £7,553 per pupil.

Income per pupil

Spending per pupil

Source: Department for Education, Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. Each year is the one the financial year ends in (2024 is 2023–24). Academy figures include a share of the trust's central services, shared out by pupil numbers, and are rounded to the nearest £1,000. Premises costs were defined differently from 2024, so compare them across that gap with care.

• Primary Schools
• Secondary Schools

All schools in St Albans · Hertfordshire local authority: places and applications

Mandeville Primary School is part of Spiral Partnership Trust, which runs 7 schools. The nearest others:

• Fleetville Junior School St Albans
• Fleetville Infant and Nursery School St Albans
• Mount Pleasant Lane Primary School St Albans
• Colney Heath Primary School St Albans
• Springmead Primary School Welwyn Garden City
• Forres Primary Academy Hoddesdon

What is Mandeville Primary School's Ofsted rating?

The latest Ofsted rating for Mandeville Primary School is Expected standard, from an inspection in June 2026.

When was Mandeville Primary School last inspected by Ofsted?

Mandeville Primary School was last inspected in June 2026.

How many pupils does Mandeville Primary School have?

Mandeville Primary School has 340 pupils on roll.

What age range does Mandeville Primary School cover?

Mandeville Primary School for pupils aged 3 to 11.

What are Mandeville Primary School's SATs (KS2) results?

In 2025, 75% of Year 6 pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.

Where is Mandeville Primary School?

Mandeville Primary School is at Mandeville Drive, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 2LE.