MBE Mum lies to gain Music Scholarship in Watford Grammar

[Hera]

676 applicants applied to Watford for year 7 entry in 2018, 459 from Watford area, 214 from the traditional area and 3 from the other areas. They only take 224 places, with that 13 in Watford received a music place and 9 in the rest of the admission area got the music place, a total of 22 received a music place in the school. 34 received a place under the academic test who live in Watford and 22 received a academic place who live in the rest of the admission area.
This is regarded as a music and academic scholarship even if its free. All places are for Watford area and the surrounding area, they do not offer any places to anyone not living in what they call their catchment.

What you say Ushi75 is absolutely correct, as published on the school website. Putting aside the finer semantics of the outer catchment/traditional area which stretch as far as Harrow, Northwood, Hatchend, Stanmore etc and scholarship/specialist places I have put a link below to the school's admissions criteria for you in case you haven't seen it as it lists all the qualifying postcodes.

http://www.watfordboys.org/userfiles/fi ... RMINED.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It is also worth bearing in mind that the school has exceptionally strong SEN and pastoral care support which means that each year they get a number of statemented boys applying who can name their school. In these cases the catchment does not apply.

If a child has gained entry under false pretenses that is wrong, but as I said before only you can report it as only you have the evidence or a reason to suspect a family of wrong doing. There was a child a year or two back in a linked school who gained entry for legitimate reasons. There was lots of idle gossip and naming on public sites. This was a child who had qualified legitimately but not via exam, music or distance, and the circumstances potentially put extra stress on an already vulnerable child. You have done the right thing not to share the details of your concerns publicly, but surely you can see that this means only you are able to report the situation so I cannot see the benefit of this thread. Also the school takes any deviation from the rules whether intentional or accidental very seriously. For example in the last couple of years a family who moved very close to the school after the cut off date was not awarded a place.

[loobylou]

I was just coming on here to remind the op that the first criteria for most of these schools (and I've just confirmed it's the same for Watford) is LACs or ex-LACs. Another criteria on their website is a child "living with a member of staff". Not everyone always knows which children are looked-after or whether a step parent or parent may be on the staff at the school.
I absolutely think that fraudulent behaviour needs to be reported but we need to be careful not to make assumptions.

[piggys]

Other people cannot report anything without evidence. Watford boys have music places not scholarship places. It is a state semi selective school. They do have both an inner and outer catchment area. I do not think you should be whipping up a frenzy about a school's admission procedure you do not understand. If you have evidence that child outside the inner and outer catchment areas has been awarded a place after fraudulently submitting information you and you alone should contact the school and the LA with that evidence.

You obviously haven't read Watford Grammar school's admissions policy. They do offer music and academic scholarships. They however do NOT offer out of catchment placements at all because they are heavily over subscribed. If you don't understand or have read their admission criteria I suggest you refrain from commenting on this forum especially on things you don't know about.

I think it's you, Ushi75, who is having trouble understanding. Scholarships are awarded in private schools, not state schools. A scholarship is a financial package for an Independent school. Watford Grammar is a state school. It's not that difficult to grasp.

Secondly- do you really think that people on this board are going to blindly accept the accusations of someone who has never posted before about "a mum living in Uxbridge who has an MBE" ? when you read your post back can you see how mad it sounds?

You clearly have an agenda to disrupt and cause trouble. Anyone with an ounce of intelligence would take a genuine concern straight to the LEA or governors etc of the school in question - but you've not done that. It's pretty clear that you have a vested interest in this which you ought to take elsewhere.

You have joined this board specifically to complain about this alleged person who I'm guessing is personally known to you.