East Hertfordshire state secondary schools

Herts and Essex is in bishops stortford and so the only possible way of gaining a place is via the music or sport aptitude test as with that postcode you live miles and miles outside the normal catchment for the school.

I live in Herts and grew up in Herts but not in the areas you mention (had to look them up). You should consult www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/schools-and-education/school-admissions/research-a-school/school-admissions-previous-years-statistics.aspx#DynamicJumpMenuManager_1_Anchor_1
Herts publish this excellent outturn report which analyses how many Y6 primary school children got into a ranked school and then looks at secondary schools and how many Y6 got in as first choice etc. This should give you a good profile of the state education provision and then likelihood you will get in, subject to each schools' entrance criteria. Some of the areas you mention are sparsely populated by school age children (unless you are very close to Hertford, Ware or Sawbridgeworth) so you might have little choice and then have to fund/manage transport. HTH.

Problem with the out turn report is it has no information from academies (like herts and Essex ) so is only helpful for community run schools.