Watford Grammar Boys or Merchant Taylors - how to choose

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Guest99

Watford Grammar Boys or Merchant Taylors - how to choose

Post by Guest99 »

My son is likely to be offered a place by both of these schools. I am really struggling to decide between the two. Watford is easy to get to - Merchant's a bit more trouble. I really liked the Head's approach at Watford and his down to earth attitude. I also really liked the facilities and much smaller classes at Merchant Taylors.

The money fortunately isn't really as issue as I can afford to pay. I have tried looking at the results and the "valued added" etc but it seems impossible to compare as they all mess around with them. Merchant's A levels include a large number of A grade A levels in General Studies - Watford hasn't published any recent detailed data.

Is any one else struggling with swuch a choice? All comments and views welcomed.

Joe
Guest42

Re: Watford Grammar Boys or Merchant Taylors - how to choos

Post by Guest42 »

Guest99 wrote:I really liked the Head's approach at Watford and his down to earth attitude. I also really liked the facilities and much smaller classes at Merchant Taylors.
Joe
Do you think that the character of Watford Grammar might change as a result of the new School Admissions Code?
Guest

Re: Watford Grammar Boys or Merchant Taylors - how to choos

Post by Guest »

Guest42 wrote:
Guest99 wrote:I really liked the Head's approach at Watford and his down to earth attitude. I also really liked the facilities and much smaller classes at Merchant Taylors.
Joe
Do you think that the character of Watford Grammar might change as a result of the new School Admissions Code?
Ah! Hadn't thought about that. I am not too sure of the new rules. I better look up. I guess it will change over time. From that perspective I guess Merchants is a safer bet. Thanks for pointing this out. Sometimes cn't see past my nose.
Geoffrey

Post by Geoffrey »

Merchant Taylors is more isolated, both geographically and socially - something worth considering.

Also, General Studies A Level is often specifically excluded by the top universities as a valid subject when they make conditional offers. Rightly or wrongly it is not considered rigorous enough. In other words, the offer will be something like AAB (excluding General Studies). So I would look more at the traditional academic subjects to get a better handle on the results.

Good luck.

Geoffrey
Guest

Post by Guest »

Please come back to us and let us know your feelings on whether the school may change in character. I've recently been trying to understand the impact of the code on my local partially selective- we have the option of another school as well, but this would mean a much more inconvenient journey to school.

This article may be of interest to you


http://www.davidgauke.com/search/article.php?id=394
Guest42

Post by Guest42 »

Anonymous wrote:Please come back to us and let us know your feelings on whether the school may change in character. I've recently been trying to understand the impact of the code on my local partially selective- we have the option of another school as well, but this would mean a much more inconvenient journey to school.

This article may be of interest to you


http://www.davidgauke.com/search/article.php?id=394
That's a very interesting article and I think it highlights the fact that we have a period of uncertainty ahead of us. Firstly we have to wait for the schools to publish their admissions criteria for 2008. Then we have to wait for objections. Then we have to wait for a decision from the schools adjudicator and then presumably there will be appeals against that decision.

My feeling is that the sibling rule will disappear and inevitably this will change the character of these partially selective schools. As someone who has younger children who will transfer to secondary after 2008, I find this very disappointing.

Guest42
Guest

Post by Guest »

Apparently admissions criteria for 2008 are now being submitted to local authorities, so the first stage of this is now availablfor us to see.
Guest42

Post by Guest42 »

Anonymous wrote:Apparently admissions criteria for 2008 are now being submitted to local authorities, so the first stage of this is now availablfor us to see.
Do you know where this is available for us to see? I would like to look!
Guest

Post by Guest »

VA Schools submit to the LAs, you will either need to ring the school or ask your local authority.
Guest

Post by Guest »

Guest42 wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Apparently admissions criteria for 2008 are now being submitted to local authorities, so the first stage of this is now availablfor us to see.
Do you know where this is available for us to see? I would like to look!
Watford Girls' have their draft arrangements on their web site. The Boys and Girls schools usually coordinate their arrangements, so the Boys criteria will presumably be similar. The first draft (there a couple of days ago) was identical to the previous arrangements. Now there's a ReDraft dated Jan 07. As far as I can tell, the only changes are
  • * a new first-priority criterion for looked-after children
    * dropping the criterion for children of members of staff
    * change of the sibling criterion to siblings enrolled at the time of admission, rather than application.
All to be expected, as the first two are mandatory parts of the new Code, and the third follows the revised Hertfordshire sibling rules (and is good news for twins). It will be interesting to see if they can defend the cross-sibling arrangement between the two schools.

Presumably Parmiters and Queens will be similar. Queens is in a fairly strong position regarding local admissions. Rickmansworth have a different problem: the Code says the selected proportion cannot be larger than at any time since 1997, and they dropped from 35% to 25% for a couple of years, so they'll presumably be forced to that level.
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