It is situated to the east of St Albans in Hertfordshire and is within access of the city centre.

A December 2008 Ofsted inspection accorded the school a Grade 2 (good), whilst the sixth form achieved an outstanding rating.

[3] In September 2009, the school introduced a system of six houses with a form in every year, one for each of the letters of the word "L E A R N S".

Students were able to vote for the names of the Houses, resulting up in the following: Luther King, Elgar, Austen, Redgrave, Newton and Seacole.

[6] In the 2020-2021 school year, the combined sixth form reached 1000 current students.