St Clement Danes vs Hershel Grammar School

Eleven Plus (11+) in South West Hertfordshire

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ToadMum
Posts: 11947
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:41 pm
Location: Essex

Re: St Clement Danes vs Hershel Grammar School

Post by ToadMum »

I hesitate to ask, but with Up to 10% of places will be for students demonstrating academic ability only weighing in at no.5 in the list of admissions criteria, I'm not sure how anyone could assume that SCD (excellent school in many aspects as by all accounts it is) was a designated grammar school?
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Tarajisifa
Posts: 41
Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2018 2:29 am

Re: St Clement Danes vs Hershel Grammar School

Post by Tarajisifa »

ToadMum wrote:I hesitate to ask, but with Up to 10% of places will be for students demonstrating academic ability only weighing in at no.5 in the list of admissions criteria, I'm not sure how anyone could assume that SCD (excellent school in many aspects as by all accounts it is) was a designated grammar school?

At times when one is new to the system, it is so complex and so much to take in. Not easy. It took me a few years to get my head around the various types of schools; Grammar, semi-selective, 11+, private aka independent aka public, through school, etc etc . . .
Bing
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:01 pm

Re: St Clement Danes vs Hershel Grammar School

Post by Bing »

My child has also got a place at SCD, she has only sat the SW Herts exam as I only want schools with sibling policy, so all the grammars are out. As we are far out, SCD was the only SW Herts school we were interested in with the 24 academic and 24 music non catchment places (there are also 3 academic +1 music at Parmiters, 2 music places at Ricky, 18 music places in Croxley Danes but I didn't know it 2 years ago) . I went to the open day in 2019 and it looks like a nice school with good facilities, everything was clean and tidy, although result wise it is not much better (actually slightly worse for high attainers and for girls) than our local comprehensives. It is basically a nice comp in a nice setting. It is not a grammar school, it is not the most sought after in the consortium either (just my impression, no data to back it up) so I don't know if that is important to you. We picked it because it looks like a decent school in a nice environment, and about the only one we can apply for. I am under no illusion that my girls would do any better there academically than at the local schools. In fact I questioned (and still questioning) if it is worth the extra travel and uprooting them from their friends for the bigger ground etc. I do sometimes think parents (me included) can be blinded to think selective schools are always better, and the more selective the better. I am fortunate though to have visited a few schools before lockdowns, it is harder to choose when you can't get a feel of them.

I don't know about the Slough grammars although I have heard of Harrow students attending them, I think especially as the Bucks grammars are not available to Harrow people. I know people who commuted from Harrow to Slough for work and they hated it. So maybe you need to think about how your child will get to school, and also after school activities etc. I know when people travel to QEB or HBS, the parents arrange private minibus or taxi share. From Kenton, if you can get to Harrow on the Hill, then you can catch the Met Line or Chiltern Rail to Chorleywood, SCD is about 15 mins walk through the common. I did this journey myself for Open Day and it wasn't so bad. There are also a few bus routes maybe you can do drop off to the bus stops. For us, we are planning to move closer to school to ease pick up/drop off.
Iplipl
Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2020 5:57 pm

Re: St Clement Danes vs Hershel Grammar School

Post by Iplipl »

Bing wrote:My child has also got a place at SCD, she has only sat the SW Herts exam as I only want schools with sibling policy, so all the grammars are out. As we are far out, SCD was the only SW Herts school we were interested in with the 24 academic and 24 music non catchment places (there are also 3 academic +1 music at Parmiters, 2 music places at Ricky, 18 music places in Croxley Danes but I didn't know it 2 years ago) . I went to the open day in 2019 and it looks like a nice school with good facilities, everything was clean and tidy, although result wise it is not much better (actually slightly worse for high attainers and for girls) than our local comprehensives. It is basically a nice comp in a nice setting. It is not a grammar school, it is not the most sought after in the consortium either (just my impression, no data to back it up) so I don't know if that is important to you. We picked it because it looks like a decent school in a nice environment, and about the only one we can apply for. I am under no illusion that my girls would do any better there academically than at the local schools. In fact I questioned (and still questioning) if it is worth the extra travel and uprooting them from their friends for the bigger ground etc. I do sometimes think parents (me included) can be blinded to think selective schools are always better, and the more selective the better. I am fortunate though to have visited a few schools before lockdowns, it is harder to choose when you can't get a feel of them.

I don't know about the Slough grammars although I have heard of Harrow students attending them, I think especially as the Bucks grammars are not available to Harrow people. I know people who commuted from Harrow to Slough for work and they hated it. So maybe you need to think about how your child will get to school, and also after school activities etc. I know when people travel to QEB or HBS, the parents arrange private minibus or taxi share. From Kenton, if you can get to Harrow on the Hill, then you can catch the Met Line or Chiltern Rail to Chorleywood, SCD is about 15 mins walk through the common. I did this journey myself for Open Day and it wasn't so bad. There are also a few bus routes maybe you can do drop off to the bus stops. For us, we are planning to move closer to school to ease pick up/drop off.
Thanks Bing for your time and detailed response. We have now made up our mind that due to difficulty in travel, we have opted for SCD.
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