A long-running partnership between three respected St Albans schools has gone one step further, to strengthen educational ties.

Students from Beaumont, Sandringham and Verulam Schools met with their respective head teachers, Elizabeth Hitch, Alan Gray and Paul Ramsey on Monday September 19 to officially launch the BeauSandVer Education Trust.

The educational umbrella trust cements three decades of partnership between the three institutions, which has for over 25 years offered a sixth form consortium, enabling pupils from the three schools to access a broader curriculum.

However, the new trust is not a multi-academy trust and each school remains independent, with governing bodies unaffected.

Also, it will not have any power over employment, recruitment, finance, school policy or ethos.

Paul Ramsey said that with government bringing in various changes to the education system, “we thought it would be a good idea to launch the trust, because we already work closely together, and this formalises that relationship further.”

He said that the schools’ close bonds were evident last week when their sixth formers joined each other to watch a road safety event at the Alban Arena - the pupils also socialise together outside of school.

Paul said the new trust will explore more opportunities to work together, and develop the partnership further. The BeauSandVer Education Trust comprises over 850 16-18 year olds, studying predominantly academic A level courses across 35 subjects.

Results are consistently high with more than 400 pupils going on to undergraduate courses at this country’s best universities each year.

• Families are welcome to join headteachers, students and teachers at a BSV Trust information evening on November 3, from 7pm, at Sandringham and 8pm at Verulam School, to learn more about enrolment in September 2017. Each school will also be sharing news of the trust at their respective ‘Into the Sixth’ evenings in January: Beaumont on Thursday January 12, 2017; Sandringham on Tuesday January 17 and Verulam on Thursday January 19.