Becky High, Dr Challoners High, Aylesbury High, Wycombe High or Chesham Grammar

@SheRaRa AHS catchment map is blue line.

@xyzandabc Of course dc live some distance apart. Not unusual. It would be the same for RLS. It’s rural Bucks!

Again, not what I said. I'm literally just giving you my personal experience but you seem to want to disbelieve my experience. As a pp has described. We live 11 miles from AHS in one direction, bestie live 11 miles almost directly out the other side of Aylesbury. No one is saying the allocation distance has ever gone as far as 20 miles.

Little Brickhill is Milton Keynes not Bucks.

Bucks CC admission data is y7 and it’s administered based on the legal admissions policy so it’s accurate.
Having said that, Bucks lists where DC live (LAs) and they do list MK. So quite difficult to make sense of it. Best to live in catchment though if distance goes down to 9 miles again.

6th form is different but few grammars take in dc apart from normal admission time. In year is fairly rare. Little Brickhill is Bucks and around 15 miles away and Walters Ash is 13 miles. They are on the extremities of catchment but WA is a hell of a lot closer to Wycombe High and is in their catchment too. As I said, there can be overlaps. Bucks always says that living in catchment is no guarantee because obviously pass numbers vary and girls in population can vary. Also Naphill and Walters Ash school is a forces school/area. In addition schools change catchments and hopefully give the girls a place at a grammar. Little Brickhill people would almost certainly try and avoid MK school in that area.

Varies as you might expect but no year has been 20 miles plus on Bucks allocation web site.

The distances quoted are from the school, though, which is quite centrally located on the northish - southish line to the east of its catchment area, looking at the map linked to on the AHS website. The distance between e.g. Little Brickhill in the north and Walter's Ash in the south is c.25 miles as the crow flies, though each within the bounds of reported allocation distances, depending on year of entry. (These are just names on a map to me, I have to admit, not being any more than vaguely familiar with Bucks - I have no idea what the likelihood is of a secondary school aged girl of 'grammar suitability' and wanting to go to Aylesbury High School living there, but they are both within the catchment area).

Also, people do move after joining a school (although if moving back to somewhere from where they wouldn't have got in in the first place, only after a reasonably long interval, if they've got any sense...).

Aylesbury Vale pass rate is 19% so much lower than Chiltern and South Bucks which are both 41%. Wycombe is 25%. 25 years ago, AV pass rate was 16% so although lots of new housing, not much change in pass rate. Fewer prep schools might also account for this.

2018 was 15 miles. Since then it’s been between 9 and 14. Varies as you might expect but no year has been 20 miles plus on Bucks allocation web site. 6th form might recruit from further away. So I’m still surprised where such a mix is coming from. Aylesbury has, historically, had a lower pass rate than many other village schools. Not that I’ve trawled through all that data recently!

As I said, I don't have the stats, just going on what dds said when I asked them to estimate. I also didn't say white students were the minority, I gave a spread because they weren't exactly sure. You are pretty close geographically but the students come from a huge area, DDs bestie lives 21 miles away from us. The 100 languages I can believe as they have a huge map in the dining hall with all the languages listed and pins where all of the languages come from. I look at it every time there is an event.

I’m also slightly surprised that white British are a minority at AHS given the number of DDs that come from the villages. Ofsted and Government data doesn’t go that deep as far as I can see. I’m pretty close geographically and ethnic minority DC are a tiny minority in my locality.

@TizerorFizz I know… that’s why I said it was very diverse and white British were the minority so she certainly wouldn’t feel out of place being mixed race.

100 languages?? Not sure that can be true. 23.7% pupils whose first Language is not English so around 300 girls but that’s a massive spread of languages. I’m not entirely sure that reflects the catchment area as I know it.

I don't know the actual stats or how they compare to other grammars. But 2 x DDs at Aylesbury High and it seems quite diverse to me.

Have asked DDs and they approximate that it's probably around 45-55% white and 45-55% non white depending on the particular year group. More asian than black students. Plenty of mixed race students from all ethnicities. Well over 100 languages spoken, they really do value and celebrate diversity and no one would ever feel out of place due to their skin colour or heritage.

@BewitchedorBewildered Yes. Not entirely surprised and GX is handy for a lot of things with great transport links.

@TizerorFizz loads from GX.

It may well be that the catchment produces more dc of ethnic minority parents likely to pass: as a percentage? If you want the grammars, not staying in a house out of catchment makes sense in primary years. What preps or primaries dc attend won’t matter I think.

My input is not from statistics but from direct and very recent experience of DCHS. Great school that embraces diversity. We are Caucasian but most of my DD's broad friendship group are Asian or mixed race. Great Headteacher and SLT too.

A couple of the Bucks grammars have been the April before CAF submission for a while (DCGS & somewhere else).

The OPs DD is mixed race. She wants diversity @Jennaveeve

@MarchingFrogs As the Adjudication was 2022 though, there’s been quite a lot of time for a complaint to have been lodged and although the Bucks advice says most grammars are 1 Sept, it says some are different. Longer residence in catchment I believe. It’s obviously a valence when you get so many people in well off areas trying to cheat. And they have been doing it for decades! It’s not a new problem.

Just looked again, white British is the minority, by a decent percentage - so I definitely wouldn’t worry about your DD feeling out of place.

I went to WHS back in the 90’s. Good God the new uniform is horrific. So cheap looking.

WHS has always been incredibly diverse. Looking at it now, it seems even more so.

Adjudication are normally individual, but I think there have been instances where 'further investigations' have been made (I only read them sporadically and usually where it's a school I know). Other schools might do well to take note of such rulings, though, because should a similar objection be made about their admissions arrangements, the onference is that the objection would probably be upheld. The 2017 furore over St.Olaves illegally excluding pupils failing to do as well as the school would have liked in their AS levels certainly led to a quiet rewording of sixth form policies pretty widely.

But I digress.

Anyway @sadierussell2 , whichever school(s) you decide that you really, really like, it is really, important to read the admissions policy, for the correct year of entry, for each one. They are published on the school's website in the March of the academic year before the CAF deadline - so the latest one available at the moment for example, is the policy for entry into year 7 in September 2025.

@MarchingFrogs Having now read it, I see it’s dated 2022: 18 months ago. This makes me wonder if Bucks grammars think it just applies to Chelmsford? I note the adjudicator says the objector has had numerous cases about other schools but I’m wondering if each individual school’s judgements don’t apply to every other school? Hence this separate case. Seems a bit odd though.

@MarchingFrogs Interesting. I literally just looked up Bucks current info. It’s as above.

Obviously, other areas haven't latched on to the OSA ruling re Chelmsford County High School and setting a date other than 31t October as the relevant cut-off...

72. In addition to the existence of a catchment area, the objector’s concern was that the arrangements require applicants to have lived within the catchment area from 1 September of Year 6. We consider this aspect of the arrangements is unfair contrary to the requirement at paragraph 14 of the Code for fairness, in that it results in unjustified disadvantage for those children who have recently moved into the area between 1 September and 31 October (when applications must be made) for reasons unconnected with securing a place at the school. We therefore uphold this aspect of the objection.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6336caeed3bf7f34e92c19c6/ADA3928_Chelmsford_County_High_School_for_Girls_Essex_29_September_2022.pdf

@MarchingFrogs 1 Sept 24 deadline for home address for 25 entry for most. I think DCGS might be before that. Yes. A decent back up is important. Most secondaries are fine but some are a bit iffy. You would think house prices might matter too. Large variations in them with Aylesbury cheaper than elsewhere, mostly .