Grammar Schools in Hertfordshire

Having registered on the consortium’s home page, you need to enter some personal details including your email address. This will prompt you to set a password, which you must remember for the future, as you will need it to login to check results. You will then have to fill in information about your child, including any supporting documentation and selecting which tests you wish to apply for. You only have to do this once, as this registration is for the consortium test, not for a specific school. You must also remember to fill in a Common Application Form, which goes directly to the local authority. There is a calendar available on the website which gives all the dates of tests and results for that academic year.

There are seven schools which use this test: Croxley Danes, Queens’ School, Parmiter’s School, Rickmansworth School, St Clement Danes School, Watford Grammar School for Boys and Watford Grammar School for Girls. Children sit the test at the school closest to their primary school if at all possible, making travel easier.

Seven schools use this test and they are listed above. However, some also offer aptitude places in Sport and Music. Queen’s School offers places for Sport based on a sport aptitude test and all schools offer academic and music tests, except Croxley Danes which offers Music only.

Whilst the results for the tests are made known in October, places are not offered until national secondary school offer day, which is in March. There are around two weeks between the results of the tests and the deadline for making an application for secondary school, allowing parents to choose their preferred school based on the results of the 11+ test.

The test is held in early September, usually in the first week of Year 6. The music and sport tests are then held throughout September. As the tests are marked by computer, the results come out in mid-October, so there is only a small delay between your child sitting the test and the result being known. It is important to remember though that offers of places at specific schools are not made until March, along with the rest of the state secondary schools in England.

There are two papers in the South West Herts Consortium 11+ exam and each lasts around 45 minutes, with a break in between. This timing does vary from year to year so it is best to prepare your child to take two papers of between 30 minutes and 1 hour each. The test is likely to take around two hours to complete in its entirety allowing time for settling in and practice questions.

There are two assessed subjects in the South West Herts Consortium 11+ exam: Maths and Verbal Reasoning. The Maths paper is based on what the children have studied in Year 5 and should be accessible for all children who have attended a primary school which has followed the National Curriculum. The Verbal Reasoning paper will not be taught in primary schools but needs careful preparation as it may include unfamiliar question types. Familiarisation papers are available on the GL Assessment website.

The South West Herts Consortium 11+ exam was created by GL Assessment, a company who provide 11+ assessments for many selective schools in the United Kingdom. Whilst other 11+ exams may include English and Non-Verbal Reasoning papers, the South West Herts Consortium 11+ exam only includes Maths and Verbal Reasoning.

It is impossible to accurately predict the number of questions in the South West Herts Consortium 11+ exam but what is easier to predict is the time per question. Ideally children should aim for 30 seconds per question in the Verbal Reasoning exam and 1 minute per question in the Maths exam. This is to ensure they complete all the questions in the time allowed. It is a good idea to practice timed sections of both papers as often as possible.

Although the papers are marked by computers and the marking is therefore unlikely to be inaccurate, it is possible to request a remark. This costs £35 and can be completed on the website of the South West Herts Consortium. The only other possibility for appeal is to undertake the local authority appeals process in April, once school offers have been made in March.

Each school in the South West Herts Consortium will set its own pass mark, above which the child will be offered a place at that specific school. The historical pass mark is available on each of the school websites and varies between schools. There are also admissions policies for each school which are important, and must be carefully examined alongside the 11+ examination information.

The South West Herts Consortium 11+ test is set by GL Assessment and contains Maths and Verbal Reasoning papers only. Whilst Maths is commonly taught in every primary school, Verbal Reasoning is not, and so this may be more challenging for many applicants. There are familiarisation materials available on the GL Assessment website for parental use, and it is important to note that there is no English component, so children with a specific aptitude in English will not have this recognised by this particular examination.

It will depend on the school of choice. All papers are age-standardised, so if a child is young for their year, their mark will be increased slightly and the opposite will take place if the child is older. As most schools in the Consortium have a very small catchment area (up to around 0.6 miles) the score is equally important as the place of residence.

Yes, the pass mark does differ between South West Herts Consortium schools, and each school has different criteria for places. There are music assessments at some schools and both academic and music at others. In addition, Queen’s School has a sports aptitude test. The schools are very popular and it is wise to choose carefully when making an application, taking into account where you live and what the lowest pass mark was historically.

Again, ensure you look at the catchment area for the South West Herts Consortium school to which you are applying. Some schools have different offer scores for those children who live closer to the school. Historically, there is a 15 to 30 point difference on the offer score depending on whether the child lives within the catchment area. Parmiter’s School has a high mark of 245 for those coming from outside the area.