Watford Boys Results Please

[LED]

Hi

Would really appreciate some BIG TIME advice

We had set our sights on Watford Boys and even though my son was sitting the 11+ we found a house 296 meters away from Watford Boys - sold our old house and moved heaven and earth to buy this house.

We spoke to the school as previous catchments were 330m ish so they said that we should be fine.

Our son achieved 251 on the 11+ and also due to the distance we were quite certain we would get in.

Heart attack to find he didnt get in due to everything we had done to make this happen.

So we are 296 meters away and score is 251.

the website shows for this year it was 224 meters and 25 on score

I really need to know what chance we have of getting in through waiting lists / appeal.

If we are on the waiting list will that be due to distance or score or both. If its on distance then its unlikely anyone would give up their place - if its on the score then we are 4 points away.

Really would appreciate advice on what we can / should do and what we can expect.

thanks in advance

Given you are only 296m, could you challenge the use of the school's single address point to measure your distance?
E.g. there are houses that back on to the school grounds or are just metres from some area of the school, but measuring from the single address point, they are over the 224m.

[noonynunu]

LED, I agree. Should the distance not be measured from the school boundaries, assuming it is not already? How can you allocate distances places using just a single point of reference given that the school itself actually takes up a large amount of that distance?

By measuring from all boundaries it would then include children living at the back and sides of the school, not just the front. Take Shepherds Road for instance, there is actually an entrance gate for the school (which all the students coming from the Station use) on that Road yet the houses at the top of the road do not even fall into the cut off distance if it is measured from a single point of reference. It would take children living in those houses literally 3 or 4 minutes to walk to school, at most. Believe me this is a fairly short road.

[tofindout]

Appreciate if someone can provide answers to the following waiting list questions:

1. Post 17 March, can we log onto the HCC website to check our waiting list position if we applied online?
2. If we get an offer from the waiting list, do we receive letter or email from HCC if we apply online?
3. Do we have to accept or reject the offer from the HCC website? Or is there an option?
4. Do we also receive a letter from the school? Do we have to return a form to the school to confirm our acceptance? If so, within what time frame do we have to return the form?

[kenyancowgirl]

Given you are only 296m, could you challenge the use of the school's single address point to measure your distance?
E.g. there are houses that back on to the school grounds or are just metres from some area of the school, but measuring from the single address point, they are over the 224m.

...I think you may well have to challenge all the County Councils in England, if you want to raise an appeal on these grounds. It is something that, I believe, they all use, to ensure some sort of parity. Otherwise you could have people appealing because they live on a road running by a sports field owned by the school, even though that field may be a few miles away from the main school buildings, for example.... Distances, as uses by Councils for school admissions run down to millimetres so having one central agreed point is standard.

[Nuber]

Well after much thought and deliberation we've come to the conclusion that Watford won't be the right move for my son.

We managed to get a place for him with a score of 259 as we were placed number 1in the waiting list

Thanks for everyone's moral support and advice.

Nuber