out of catchment question

[food4thought]

Hello folks,

Please could someone advise about out of catchment? Do Warwick Grammars consider girls out of catchment? We would relocate if my daughter got a place here.

Rgds
F4T

[kenyancowgirl]

Currently the Warwickshire Grammars have a priority area (or around 17 miles round a point in Stratford town centre). In the first round of allocations, places are given according to the published criteria living within that 17 miles (I can't remember the exact order but looked after children etc and then other children in the rank order, from their score in the test, with some allowances for Pupil premium). These criteria are readily available on each of the Grammar School websites.

If you live out of this 17 mile area, you have to a) score very higly indeed to get as high a ranking as you possibly can and b) hope that there are spaces left after the first round of allocation. So yes they do offer out of priority area but it is relatively small numbers as they want to promote the school to local children who will then embrace the full life.

Why not move anyway to an area with good local schools so you have a back up if your dd doesn't do as well as you hope? Or stay where you are and not uproot the whole family as that would put pressure on your dd if she did get in and wasnt enjoying it....

[food4thought]

hi kenyancowgirl

Thanks for the info.

I have some family in that area so if DD did get a place then that would be reason to move there .......... in which case she would become local to the school (I dont believe in children doing long commutes.) Warwick is a nice place to live as well... A move is a decision we would take later, but it's good to have the option in the first place.

[kenyancowgirl]

Good to hear that you embrace the idea of a local school.

Be warned that you must be honest about the address your DD is living at when you apply - it is great that you have family in the area as that would help you if you moved here but don’t be tempted to apply using their address. WCC makes stringent checks on all applications and requires copious evidence as they take a dim view of address fraud and will withdraw any offer of a place.

Be very aware that the scores required to get into SGGS are high though, AGS is usually less so, but they are very different feeling schools. Where are you living currently? I still think you should not uproot your job, any other siblings, away from friends etc - surely the schools in your area are not that bad? For example, what about your 16 year old son? Why should he have to move? Please don’t just move to have Grammar in a school name...

[sportsforall]

There is also a selective girls school in Rugby with a catchment of c10 miles and school buses within that zone. Both of my daughters are OOC (out of catchment) by c 1/4 mile and both were offered on 1st March at Rugby High School.

The score will need to be considerably above the cut-off. Mine seem to still be able to participate in school life.

[KenR]

Please remember that there will be increased pressure on Warks Southern area Grammars this year due to B/Ham KE grammars introducing B/Ham LA only catchments. This means that Solihull will not be in catchment for B/ham KE grammars, although many Solihull postcodes are within the Warks Southern priority circle catchment.

I anticipate that a lot of Solihull parents will be putting KES, Shottery or even AGS on their CAF which will significantly reduce the chance of out of catchment places being offered.

[food4thought]

Thank you for your posts everyone, it is nice to know that this community is always here to help.

[hermanmunster]

Thank you for your posts everyone, it is nice to know that this community is always here to help.

Hope you get things sorted F4T, it is difficult being part of the "first year" of any big change, we don't how many people will gets places OOC for Birmingham and how many, as KenR mentions, from the "usual catchment" of the Solihull etc will be applying to Warks instead

[kenyancowgirl]

Numbers have definitely increased since my boys sat it - there are 3 sittings this weekend (not including the sitting for anyone who is unwell)

[food4thought]

Dear all,

My daughter got 251. We live out of catchment, please could someone recommend which school would accept this score for a seat?

Thank you
F4T