Aylesbury Grammar Schools

[Berry364]

Hi! DH, DD and I are planning to move to Buckinghamshire for DH's work and I'm looking at schools for DD. We're completely new to the area so we don't have any experience of the grammar school system. My concern is that if DD doesn't pass the 11+ the local comprehensives don't have good Ofsted ratings. Looking at the stats for a couple of the primary schools in the areas we're looking, less than 5 got the required score to be admitted to the grammars, which doesn't look great, even though they're rated Good by Ofsted. I'd be really grateful for any insights into experiences of the 11+ and the grammars themselves.

I live nearby.Most people prep for the Grammars quite far in advance.You could move to somewhere like Thame which has excellent Primary schools and a fantastic secondary school.Its technically Oxfordshire but right on the border. Whereabouts are you going to be living or DH working, then I could give you some pointers.

State schools don't prep for 11+, so not sure the number of leavers going to grammars is necessarily a reflection on them. How old is your dd?

Schools are not allowed to prep for the 11+ so stats for each primary school aren’t a reflection on how good they are. All tuition needs to be facilitated by parents.

The Aylesbury secondary schools don’t have a great reputation to be fair, but they’re not necessarily bad. The “best” in Bucks is Waddesdon Church of England and is highly sought after. Amersham School is also great. The only way to guarantee a grammar place if you pass though is to live in Bucks. Thame is no sure thing.

Tring is also a good place to live. In Herts, but many children go to the Aylesbury grammars from there. But again, no guarantees if you are out of county.

Many thanks for your responses. DH will be working in Wendover, which is lovely but hardly anything on the market and potentially a little out of our budget for what we want. We're considering Longwick as there are some new builds at the moment and Pitstone, For Tring we'd need to really compromise on the property size, which I don't think we're prepared to do. We've considered Thame as it seems a lovely market town, but it may be pushing DH's commute a little further than we'd like.

When I heard that Bucks was a grammar school county I thought that sounded great, but I hear that some families have found their children have struggled in the grammar environment.

I hadn't realised that the schools didn't teach for the 11+, guess they're already prepping them for SATs. It'll be a few years before DD is applying for secondary, but it'd put my mind at ease to know that we didn't have to move again for the sake of schooling.

You also need to keep an eye on the HS2 route during your search. Honestly there are much nicer villages than Longwick as per your other thread.The schools (Primary and Secondary) in Thame are absolutely fab and its a great community too

Thame is a lovely place to live with great schools. Unfortunately, as you have found out, houses in the Bucks catchment areas for both the grammars and with a good secondary modern as a backup are £££££.

Aston Clinton is nice - catchment for John Colet and the Aylesbury grammars - and you get more house for your money, but if you are wedded on being as close to Wendover as possible you are going to be struggling for a quality large house at a decent price with the good school catchments. It might be useful to provide a guide as to what you want to pay for a house, number of bedrooms etc so people can make more recommendations.

I also agree on being wary of HS2 developments in that neck of the woods. The disruption it is bringing is horrific.

As for children struggling in the grammar environment- yes some do. Those who are heavily tutored for years and just scrape in. Tutoring is rife. We took the relaxed approach, asked primary school if they felt my DD was grammar material (a resounding yes) and then we did some prep at home - a very light touch. A naturally bright child can pass the 11+ with preparation (intensive tutoring is absolutely not needed) and usually thrive in the grammar environment. Realistic parental expectations are everything.

I ho.nestly would go for Thame every time 3 Primarys, lovely cafes, restaurants, parks and a fantastic community. I dont think it would add much on to the commute. Im not overly positive about the girls Grammar. Close friends daughter went and the bitching was rife, 7 girls left after their first month. The other Grammar is the Henry Floyd which is good if you like acting and drama.Interestingly you can send your child to the Grammar for 6th form and be out of catchment. Or you could look at Long Crendon which is dual catchment.

Another recommendation for thame. Lord Williams school is fab. Or to be in Bucks for the grammar schools (which are good - single sex ones have better rep than co-Ed one though) then Waddesdon school is amazing if they didn’t get in (or even if they did …)

Hi. Before we moved I used to commute from Thame to Wendover and it is a lovely commute with different route options and not much traffic (about 25 mins). I loved living in Thame and miss it now we have moved.

Whatever you do don’t actually move to Aylesbury itself - it’s a proper shit hole. If you need more for your money house-wise, north of Aylesbury is cheaper but obviously a little further to Wendover. If you look towards Buckingham direction you also have RLS which is a great grammar & STFS in Winslow which is meant to be a good secondary modern, also Cottesloe in Wing.

Look at Cheddington perhaps ? Easy drive to Wendover and a good primary school , secondary school in Wing of grammar school options don’t work out . I know lots of families who have enjoyed living there and the surrounding villages.

Thanks all, your advice is really appreciated!I think we've ruled Longwick out, seems there are doubts about the primary, no alternative to the grammars at secondary and it looks like it's due to join with PR after a phase of huge housing developments. Looks like Pitstone and Cheddington may be options, both within the catchment for Cottesloe as a good grammar alternative and with good primary schools. Also, near some nice towns.

Hello,
I wondered if I could piggyback on this discussion and see if anyone could offer me any advice on a very similar move? We are looking at moving to Thame area from London, want to be fairly near Haddenham or another station to commute. Really like Thame and surrounding villages eg Long Crendon. Looking at Chinnor at the moment and seems that is in catchment for lots of great primary schools plus Lord Williams for secondary which is also outstanding.
Estate agents say we are also able to try out for the Bucks grammar schools for our 2 children as an out of county pupil but I can’t seem to work out if this is actually correct or if it’s quite unlikely that we’d stand a chance when this far from the schools and also out of county, given how competitive it would be. Does anyone have any advice?

Also does anyone know anything about the independent schools in the area either prep schools or secondary? Not currently in our budget but worth knowing which are good in case we had a windfall or liked them enough to buy a much cheaper property to free up funds to go there. So far we’ve just considered Ashfolds which I loved but my husband thought it seemed a bit old fashioned as it eg just teaches Latin not Spanish, has a lot of great sports facilities but not drama / music so much and also it doesn’t prep kids for 11+ which seems a shame if u are paying all that money.
Any thoughts?

Thankyou!

Estate agents say we are also able to try out for the Bucks grammar schools for our 2 children as an out of county pupil but I can’t seem to work out if this is actually correct or if it’s quite unlikely that we’d stand a chance when this far from the schools and also out of county, given how competitive it would be. Does anyone have any advice?

There are 2 separate parts to this answer, @Kate675. Anyone can take the Bucks 11+ exam, no matter where they live. This right is enshrined in law via the Greenwich Judgment.

However, Bucks grammar schools have catchment areas (ie places are awarded on a distance-from-school basis not on a scores-in-the-test basis), so even if a child gets the 11+ qualifying mark, they won't be given a place at a grammar school unless they live in catchment. How long you have to have been living in catchment varies according to the school, so that is something you'd need to look into.

So the simple answer is, the estate agents are correct in so far as telling you that your DCs can take the Bucks 11+ test, but unless you are already living in the area, it would be pointless as you won't get a place. HTH

Thankyou so much @thing47 that makes sense now! What I meant was, the agents said that if we moved to Chinnor we could apply for grammar schools (my children are still early primary so I’d have a while before doing so) but when I looked at the catchment for some of the grammars none of them seem to include Chinnor. So I wondered if the information was out of date. Other villages such as Long Crendon seem to be within catchment…

I don't know Chinnor well enough to say, I'm afraid, but all the grammar schools have catchment area maps on their websites so it should be easy enough to check. Long Crendon definitely is.

@Kate675 the catchments for the Bucks grammar schools need to be viewed alongside the last admitted distances statistics. Some children who pass AND live in catchment do not get places as they get filled by more children living close by.

I do, however, believe that in recent years if you live in Bucks and your child passes the 11+, then you will get a grammar place - it might just not be your first choice one.

Chinnor is Oxfordshire so out of catchment. Long Crendon is Bucks so within catchment. Both villages are a long way from the catchment grammars so even if your DC passed then the chances of getting a place at your first choice grammar is lower but perfectly possible. I am out of county but my DD got a Bucks grammar place - but we are only three miles from the school.

You should also be aware that there are a huge number of new build developments going up in Aylesbury at the moment which will further shrink last admitted distances. The closer you can live to a grammar, the more certainty of a place.

I can’t quite understand the implications of the catchment area maps on the various grammar school websites as if you take for example Sir Henry Floyds, whilst Chinnor is probably about the same distance from the school as Long Crendon, the line they’ve drawn on the catchment map suggests Chinnor is out of catchment but Long and Haddenham are in. I guess this is why house prices are very high in Long Crendon and Haddenham?

Or maybe the catchment changes from year to year so it might just mean that no one from Chinnor applied and entered in recent years but that if they did they may well get in if purely on distance measured from the school, although they’d have less of a chance than those living closer?.
What a minefield it is!
Any thoughts?

Sorry our messages crossed - Thankyou for the clarification!

So the simple answer is, the estate agents are correct in so far as telling you that your DCs can take the Bucks 11+ test, but unless you are already living in the area, it would be pointless as you won't get a place. HTH

Not 100% true. The grammars still go a little out of catchment. We are milton keynes and some children get in. The distance changes every year and because of the new builds in Aylesbury the distance will get smaller and smaller.

You need to go onto the Bucks County Council Web site and look at the allocation profile for this year and the previous few years to give you an idea of distances. There is another tool on the website that will measure distance from one address to a school as per the councils way of working it out.

(However do be mindful estate agents will say anything to get a sale....)

....And just because you would get in on a previous round of admissions doesn't mean you will in future.....

Some Children from longwick go to Lord Williams in Thame

The estate agents are correct. From Thame, or anywhere, you can opt to take the Bucks 11+ as an out of county applicant. If you score 121 or above you can apply for a Bucks grammar school place.

For at least the last 10 years, children from Thame have always qualified, on distance, as out of catchment, for a place at all 3 Aylesbury grammars. Once places have been allocated to in catchment children, then all remaining places are allocated to out of catchment children, starting with the closest to the school. They publish the 'last place allocated' distance each year. All 3 schools have usually had a last place allocated' distance of between 13 and 18 miles depending on the year, so Thame has always been well within that distance.

This changed this year. For 2022 intake, the furthest distance the Henry Floyd took from was 6.7 miles, much smaller distance than previous years. So the very outskirts of Thame would fall within that distance but some children from Thame did not get a place at the Floyd. AHS and AGS had bigger distances so all Thame children that applied there did get offered places.

It is all explained on the buckscc website. Search for bucks transfer test.

Thankyou this is super helpful!

What do people think about grammars vs Lord Williams? Is there a particular grammar school that is good, I guess they all have their different strengths so hard to answer generally? I think ethos of a school is important combined with your own child’s personality and talents so it’s very hard to ever get this right far in advance!

I also saw that most Granmar schools are single sex and as I have a boy and a girl this slightly puts me off as currently it’s lovely having them in the same school community (not to mention making drop offs and pick ups and finding time to attend school events easier as a working mum!)

I’ve also heard that independent schools in Bucks are not that special because the state options are so good. Any views on this?

Sorry for so many questions!

Thankyou!