Chesham - catchment grammar schools

[cosmofoxuk]

Hi

I am fairly new to the area and whole 11+ but am completing my online admission choices and am putting Dr Challoner's High School as 1st choice then Chesham High as 2nd.

I live in Chesham (opposite Chesham Park) but am just a bit concerned as I spoke to someone at the council today who said that it is possible that even if daughter passes 11+ we could get neither - is this likely?

[Guest55]

Highly unlikely!! Chesham High has not be filled at the start of Year 7 for many years. For some reason I have never understood the mixed Grammars are less popular.

[cosmofox]

How about Challoner's tho is that hard to get into from where we are?

[Guest55]

It varies - look in the Secondary Admissions booklet it has the allocation distance for last year -

http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/bcc/content/i ... =987793428

[Sally-Anne]

I am fairly new to the area and whole 11+ but am completing my online admission choices and am putting Dr Challoner's High School as 1st choice then Chesham High as 2nd.

I live in Chesham (opposite Chesham Park) but am just a bit concerned as I spoke to someone at the council today who said that it is possible that even if daughter passes 11+ we could get neither - is this likely?

Hi CosmoFox

Whoever you spoke to at the council has misinformed you.

You live barely a mile from CHS, and they have routinely offered places to many children out of county for years gone by so, living a stone's throw away, you will be assured of a place. If not, I will eat my hat - not an appetising prospect!

The same almost certainly applies for DCHGS, who have been able to offer places to all catchment applicants for the last 2 years, and you are in catchment. You are more distant from the school, so there can be no guarantees that the allocation distance won't change, although I doubt there will be a radical shift in the next year.

Your choices look very sound on all past experience - DCHGS then CHS.

Sally-Anne

[Guest]

Thank you, you guys have definately reassured me. Now we just need to choose our upper options which we are finding really hard.

We are going to put The Misbourne as 1st choice followed by the Hemel Hempstead school (out of area but I'm very worried about our local schools 38% GCSE passrate).

What is the difference between "within catchment" and "In area"?

[Guest55]

Chesham Park had a recent [September] OfSTED that shows it is improving fast:

www.ofsted.gov.uk then reports, Secondary, South East, Buckinghamshire


What about The Amersham School?

[Guest]

Yes I saw that, and the head seems to be working really hard to make improvements all round but I'm afraid I feel that those changes may not be fast enough for us as my daughter isn't really geared to their current strengths.

I strongly feel there is a school that suits every child's needs but for my eldest daughter I don't think that's the one.

[Guest]

We are going to put Amersham as our 3rd choice of upper schools. I apologise for my naivety here but if those 2 schools are getting 38% and 50% respectively what are the other 62% and 50% going on to do after GCSE stage?

[Sally-Anne]

Hi Guest (CosmoFox? - could you register on the forum for a meaningful discussion!)

"In catchment" and "in area" are the same thing. "In area" is Bucks CC wording for catchment.

Your choices for an Upper School could be Misbourne, Amersham and Chesham Park. On "past performance", and on personal hearsay from parents, I would rank them in roughly that order.

Amersham does have a new Head though, and I have heard some very positive reports in the last year or so.

I would certainly rate either Misbourne or Amersham against any school in Hemel that I know of.

Sally-Anne