Where one lives

[faitaccompli]

WD is a Hertfordshire postcode and therefore I would imagine although being close in miles, is out of catchment as Dr Challoners is a Bucks school.

[dreams]

Sorry just seen your message - if you look at the catchment map we are out of catchment but somebody 6 miles away can be in catchment. I live in a no mans land for schools unless you score top marks for academic music or you want westfield which I admit is working very hard to show it can treat its academic students really well but its still not want I want for my DD. Also I am in WD3 and we are not in the inner catchment for WGG however much I wish I was.


As you probably all have read in WGGS prospectus.

The Rest of the Admission Area comprises postcode sectors (outer)
WD3 1, 4 to 9
WD4 8 and 9
WD5 0
WD6 3
WD7 7 and 8
HA3 6
HA5 1 to 5
HA6 1 to 3
HA7 3 and 4

Yes, I understand. Thank you for explanations:) I was constantly blaming myself for moving to the "wrong post code". As I understand now there is no one unless you live 0.1 miles away from the school's gate:) I wish your DD all the best and good luck.

[Helpful]

I do not think any of us really know what is going on until it has all gone wrong. Now I am an expert.

[dreams]

I do not think any of us really know what is going on until it has all gone wrong. Now I am an expert.

Yes, I have the same feelings, but...

[herty]

Best of luck, dreams. We had to move as our first choice was WGGS but we were then renting out of catchment. We took a gamble when moving to rent nearer the school but not in its doorstep which would have guaranteed us a place, as i couldn't face living in central Watford, however good the school. Luckily my dd got a place but i have no idea whether if we'd rented in the outer area she would have got a place; unless your budget is large though, there's not a lot of suitable rental properties that come up, though, so even if you'd tried to rent nearer, you might not have managed to find a place.

Is it worth your moving to Bucks as you have a good score there and applying for a place under continuing interest as would you go to the top of waiting lists if you lived nearer?

[year to go]

Hi
We live in pinner and my dd has just got a academic/ music place( we're not told yet which).We did lots of work on Vr speed but we did this ourselves using Athey, Ips, bond, Susan daughtrey books. Maths was not difficult but required a solid knowledge of basics.
Living in Pinner you can also apply for one of the few academic/ music out of area places at Clement Danes and rickmansworth and parmiters too. so worth a look at these as it is the same exam.
Good luck - it is such a relief to be one year on now!

[Pops]

Many thanks to you lot out there for posting your comments.

So, better get practicing....

So, would I be better of if I had another daughter at school already? Whats with having siblings already in the same school(for a friend of mine)?

[Daogroupie]

If you have a sibling in any of the Watford schools you will get a place at the school without having to sit the exam. Clement Danes has 20 music and 20 academic places with no catchment area so you can apply from anywhere. I would not refer to those places as the few out of area places, 40 places is over half of the total academic and music places at DAO. We applied for both categories and considered ourselves to be very fortunate to be able to apply. DG

[Hera]

If you have a sibling in any of the Watford schools you will get a place at the school without having to sit the exam. . DG

I am not sure if this is true for the Watford Grammars for cross siblings even if this rule is reintroduced. In their proposed criteria it says you do not need to take the exam if you are looked after, a child of a member of staff or a same sex sibling. They advise cross siblings to take it and looking at the sticky there have been some years where there has been a distance limit for cross siblings. I imagine it is true for all of the mixed consortium schools?

[WP]

In their proposed criteria it says you do not need to take the exam if you are looked after, a child of a member of staff or a same gender sibling. They advise cross siblings to take it and looking at the sticky there have been some years where there has been a distance limit for cross siblings. I imagine it is true for all of the mixed consortium schools?

True for the Watford Grammars, but this situation hasn't arisen at the mixed schools for several years (several of them formerly had a higher proportion of academic selection). However I believe the mixed schools prioritize siblings over selective places, e.g. in 2007 and 2008 Parmiter's had large numbers of siblings, and didn't allocate all the music places.