11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi all

I have looked at the stats and am apalled that 1182 places went to out of county applicants.

Whatever your circumstances are, I'm sure you would agree that this is very unfair, especially as these children often have the advantage of a private education.

I have posted on Richard harrington's Facebook wall and I suggest everyone does the same, or writes to their local mp.

Even if your child was successful getting their first choice, surely this issue needs to be addressed. To add, my daughter has a place at her second choice which I'm thrilled about but means traveling, which seems unnecessary when we have good schools within walking distance.

Thanks

Steph

By law anyone can apply, so it won't help complaining to the school. You could write to your MP. In Bucks they do operate a catchment system which helps guard against what you are complaining about so maybe that should be your suggestion if you want to write to your MP

Yes that's what I did. Probably won't do any good but seems really unfair that so many children are missing out on going to a good local school

Totally agree with you and have been trying to bring some element of distance/catchment criteria to our local grammars admissions. Councillors/MPs only listen at election times and then become deaf. Good luck to you.

Most schools in SW Herts are their own admissions authorities and therefore there is noting that the LEA can do. But always remember that 'good'* schools are usually good because they select pupils from a wide area.

* assuming that in this context 'good' means academically successful.

I do agree this is unfair, particularly since I am in Watford, where I think a higher number of children are getting a non-ranked place; however in the interests of fairness, the stats also say that 427 Hertfordshire got places in other authorities.....

I can see why you would be upset about this. However, I live on the borders of Barnet and Herts and 8 out of my top ten nearest schools are in Barnet. The other two are a local comp and a very strong faith school. My ds is in fact going to a good school in herts but some of his school in the last few years have gone to very good schools in Barnet.

My ds school is not private so not all are from the private sector getting into these schools.

I can understand your frustration but most grammar school in herts have a catchment area. We live in Harrow and the only school which we could apply and have a realistic chance of getting was St Clement Dane as it did not have any catchment for academic (even though it selects 80% on distance) all other school have a postcode allocation.

Rahhhh wrote:Hi all
I have looked at the stats and am apalled that 1182 places went to out of county applicants.
Steph

Hi, I just wanted to get this in perspective as I had no idea how significant 1182 is

anyway for those interested this is the original document

http://www.hertsdirect.org/docs/pdf/adm ... nstats1314

there were a total of 15487 applicants (12177 from hert and 3310 out of county).
out of that 12841 got a ranked school
and out of that 1182 were out of county

so roughly 1 in 10 of herts students are out of county.

however as has been pointed out that is still not that meaningful as the nearest school to a student may be in an adjacent borough. what would be more interesting is how many pupils out of a standard catchment areas got places.

that aside we Live in Harrow and our DD goes to HBS, which miles away and to me its the pupils not the teachers that make it a good school.. although having a good head helps.