About Our School

Alma Primary was founded by a group of parents and educators in Barnet. The group initially met in November 2011 and submitted an application to the DFE the following spring. They were given permission to proceed and project start-up money in July 2012. They formed a project team that appointed a Headteacher in October 2012, who took up post in April 2013. During the 2013 spring term, the team and the Headteacher recruited the school's first cohort of pupils and began to appoint staff. During the 2013 summer term, a project manager, the project team and professionals continued to recruit staff, procure services, organise lunches, uniform, and a curriculum, prepared the temporary site for the first class and began the task of creating the school’s infrastructure. Members of the project team, along with others recruited from outside the group, formed the Governing Body. The school opened with its first Reception class of 30 children in September 2013. Each year the school has added an additional cohort, preparing the curriculum and facilities for the class over the preceding year. In September 2019 the school’s first Year 6 class will start at Alma, marking a culmination of the school’s development.

The school started on a temporary site in West Finchley, where the first two classes were based from September 2013-July 2015. In March 2014, the DfE purchased the site of a former police station in Whetstone, Barnet as a permanent site for the school. During the two-year period (September 2014 – August 2016) the Headteacher and governors worked with developers to create a permanent home for the school in Whetstone. The school moved into the site in late August 2016 where we have continued to develop the site, most recently completing phase 1 of a playground development project, during the the 2018 summer holiday.