11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi all,
New to the forum.
Can anyone please help me with the above two school?
Does anyone have first hand experience on any of these of any other upper school in Buckinghamshire?
Would really appreciate the feed back .

I've moved this to the Bucks section for you - Moderator

Which are you in catchment for? Both are good ...

We are Under a mile from Amersham school and 3 miles from Chalfont community colege. Which one in your opinion has better reputation?
Also I needed to ask you regarding the appeals. Shall I ask in a separate post?

givemehope, DD finished at Amersham School this year, both my DC have friends who went to Chalfont and left in the past 2-3 years. Was there something specific you wanted to know?

If you just want a general opinion, I think both are good, all my DCs' friends have done well and enjoyed their time at either school. One difference is that Chalfont is considerably bigger – about twice the size in fact at around 1,700 pupils compared to about 850 – if that is a factor for you.

FWIW in your position I would opt for the nearer one, I don't think one is significantly better than the other and being able to walk to and from school is a big advantage. But that's only my personal opinion.

thanks Rob Clark,

We have been fully focussed on trying for GS but unfortunately DS did not quite qualify so Amersham School becomes one of the main option

We have not been able to find a huge amount of resources on the forum about the school and regular posters keep referring to the good uppers in Bucks and we were hoping that Amersham or Chalfont CC would be considered in that category.

Are the facilities Amersham school good?

-Labs
-IT
-Sport

Are there any major issues with discipline and pupil behaviour..reading posts from pre-2014 there seems to have been some negativity towards Amersham School which whilst its a while ago gives us a little cause for concern

Did you get a feeling that most children were happy there

Amersham School is rated Good by Ofsted, I believe, and I would consider it a good school from personal experience.

The HT has really tried to clamp down on disciplinary issues of the past and we certainly didn't see any problems. DD has a serious ongoing medical condition which was, for the most part, dealt with both efficiently and sympathetically. She was certainly happy there and has a nice group of supportive friends.

As regards your facilities question:
Labs – yes, excellent. DD did triple science for GCSE, chemistry and biology for A level and has just started a biomedical science degree. She loves lab work and I'm sure we would have known if she thought facilities/resources were lacking

IT – sorry, can't help with that one, not DD's thing

Sport – yes, they have a very impressive new sports hall (which bears comparison with the one at DCGS), there are opportunities to try out a wide range of sports and activities. Plenty of school teams in Y7-11 in a variety of sports if your DS is into competitive sport

If I had younger children, I wouldn't hesitate to send them to Amersham School. HTH

Hi Rob Clark

thanks for taking the time to post that

Really good information and glad to hear DD has done so well