Confused about 11+ exams in Herts Consortium

[ttmum]

I live very close to Queens school which is part of the watford consortium. Does my child have to sit for the watford consortium exams to get into the nearest school to us? I am so confused as to the requirements to get into secondary school in the bushey/watford area.
Can someone please give me a clearer pic? Many thanks

[watmum]

I expect that someone will come along with a difinitive answer for you ttmum, but my understanding is that, yes, as Queens is one of the consortium schools then your child does have to sit the exam.

I think that the only way out of doing the exams is to apply for school like Francis Combe, Bushey Hall, St Michaels (if you are Catholic) Kings Langley etc

Hope that is helpful.

[WP]

I live very close to Queens school which is part of the watford consortium. Does my child have to sit for the watford consortium exams to get into the nearest school to us? I am so confused as to the requirements to get into secondary school in the bushey/watford area.

Each school has their own rules, so you need to check each of them. You could check the Moving On directory from last year; the schools will probably propose the same criteria this year.

I understand that Queens' require all applicants to take the consortium tests, because they use them for initial streaming in year 7. Later they switch to subject-based setting. All applicants to Bushey Meads are also required to take those tests, in this case to operate their banded admissions criteria.

[ttmum]

Thank Watmum and WP. It looks clearer to me now.

[WP]

In their admissions criteria, Queens' say:

All applicants, even if they enter Queens' through other criteria, will be asked to sit the test. This will enable the school to measure the ability of its intake so that a good distribution of ability in forms and teaching groups is achieved.