Alban Church of England Academy

Traditionally, year six pupils, having completed their SATS, were granted a school trip to the theme park Legoland. However, following minor complaints claiming the school was putting too much pressure on parents to pay for trips, the trip was cancelled for 2014's year 6s. In the following days, and largely orchestrated by year 8 pupils, a protest began in which angry pupils refused to go back to lessons after lunch. Remaining sat outside, cries of "we want trips!" turned into "we want chips!" much to the bemusement of the lunchtime staff. The protest was broken up by infuriated geography teacher Mike Nicholson, but went down in Alban history as an example of the class of 2016's solidarity and general epicness. The protest was described by then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg as "the greatest strike action since Scargill."

In January of 2016, the school attracted attention from news media after warning that pupils without a packed lunch or £2.10 payment, would not be given a hot meal, but bread and butter only. This was if the pupil's guardian couldn't be reached, and if the pupil had no other provision in place. The decision came after the school reported having to reimburse catering company Caterlink for 100 unpaid meals in a single month. The policy was not implemented after backlash from parents led to then head teacher Sue Lourensz apologising for 'any offence' caused.[3]