Watford Grammar Girls or Dame Alice Owen

[Finchley mum]

Given DAO is the hardest school to get into in the area and takes the best students (in my experience) on its academic places, I think it would be very unfair to compare it to a normal comprehensive. It is a no-brainer that it would be the preferable school if you have younger kids as well. So I would compare DAO to the likes of QE, Latymer, HBS and others because frankly, that is the reality of it.

[HenryVIII]

I am a bit puzzled where you need to live to have the dilemma of choosing between these two fine schools The only location that seemed plausible was somewhere like Shenley (disclaimer, I only glanced at DAO's website for priority area & have a passing acquaintance with the WGs inner catchment).

[Daogroupie]

There is a band around Borehamwood and Shenley and Elstree where you can get into both but it is not very big. There is also a band in St Albans where you can get into great St Albans schools and DAO. It is shame that the catchment area does not favour places which have no access to really good schools. The number of students from Herts has been going down in recent years as Barnet , Enfield and Islington prepare very well and some of the more local students take DAO a bit for granted and have no real idea of the fierce competition involved for the places. The fact that so few have posted their scores compared to QE and Watford consortium says it all. DG

[Cutting42]

Given DAO is the hardest school to get into in the area and takes the best students (in my experience) on its academic places, I think it would be very unfair to compare it to a normal comprehensive. It is a no-brainer that it would be the preferable school if you have younger kids as well. So I would compare DAO to the likes of QE, Latymer, HBS and others because frankly, that is the reality of it.

Can't speak to hardest to get into as I am not sure how you measure it. Possibly by number of applicants vs number of places but that is not a measure of the school, just how many people want to attend and all of those applicants are being multiply counted as they apply to many other schools.

By results DAO is squarely in the mix with the other PS as previously shown which are all defined as comprehensive by the government rightly or wrongly. In fact there are 2 comps ahead of DAO.

1 Thomas Telford C M 96.49 58
2 Watford Grammar for Boys PS B 96 57.95
3 Coloma Convent Girls' C G 94.81 46.03
4 Dame Alice Owen's PS M 94.58 65.5
5 Hockerill Anglo-European Coll C M 94.12 57.2
6 Biddulph High C M 94.05 16.01
7 West Bridgford C M 92.54 37.65
8 Parmiter's PS M 92.51 51.18
9 Hasmonean High C M 92.47 64.36
10 Watford Grammar for Girls C G 92.31 69.87

The DAO GCSE score would place DAO around 123rd place in the Grammar list that HBS and QE top so I think it is slightly wishful thinking that they are comparable.

End of the day it is one of the top comps in the country along with many other schools in the area. It is a good job we have the fully selectives as well otherwise it would be even harder to get into the PS schools than it already is.

[tense]

Doesn't DAO select about 50% (ish) more students on academic ability than Watford Girls? I think it's something like 65 places compared to 45.

Both top schools. Most people would have a preference for co-ed or not. After that, ease of independent travel would swing it for me.

[Daogroupie]

It is 65 plus 10 music. DG

[Finchley mum]

I ought to add that I have no children at DAO and no strong preference for semi-selective (my DD goes to Habs). Its just that all the children from my kid's school in various years who go there have all turned down the likes of QE, HBS and top private schools. Don't think its all about the sibling policy either - music and sports appear to be the draw. So if you compare the top 150 of DAO and say QE, I do not think there would be much in it. It therefore seems unfair to a true comprehensive to compare them when the other top comps in the country are not able to select at all.

Apologies for going off post!

[davidsdad02]

All siblings are entitled to a place, not just siblings of those selected. Siblings of staff members, music places, distance places, looked after and statemented students. Even siblings of students no longer at the school are entitled to a place. The government considers DAO to be a comprehensive and there are letters displayed at the school reflecting that fact. DG

Oh please! Who cares what the government says about this? DAO select. A lot of their success is because of that, obviously. QE's results are also obviously because of the selection. Why would this be controversial, exactly?

[pabrighton0]

On broader criterion of getting 6th form students into top 30 Universities: both are in top 4 Comps in the country.
(This data is slightly old...2008-10... but averaged over 3 years so pretty reliable sample)
1) Lady Margaret School: 72.9%
2) Watford Grammar (Girls): 72.8%
3) Watford Grammar (Boys): 69.2%
4) DAO: 68.4%

Interesting.
Does anyone know what is the simpler way to find out how many of the 6th formers have attended the respective secondary schools, how many were accepted from elsewhere and how many leave for each school? And also breakdowns of level of previous achievement of sixth formers.
I believe that for most schools, the sixth form is almost as the same previous form but as mentioned elsewhere, DAO takes new students at sixth form stage...

[Daogroupie]

Latymer, HBS, DAO and all our local indys take students into the sixth form. The only one that does not is QE. They go the opposite way. They get rid of students and do not replace them. I think the number is currently about one third. DG