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

[sadierussell2]

I'm narrowing down the schools search but I'm more interested in the diversity of these schools because challoners high is a bit more diverse than becky high, and i want my DD to go to a diverse school (shes mixed) and also i want your opinon on how you would rank these schools (forget about distances to my house for now). Thanks

Aylesbury, Wycombe and Chesham are very diverse. A healthy mix of races, nationalities and religions (and none!).

Becky High and Challoners less so, mainly because of the demographic of where they are located.

Beaconsfield and DCHS are in leafy lane areas with high achieving parents but they are from a narrower background than you will find in Aylesbury, Chesham or HW. The government data should give you some info on this. Distance to your house will matter unless DD is very young and you are planning to move. None of the schools will be unwelcoming.

Slough grammars are very diverse by the way.

DCHS is more diverse than being given credit. Varied mix of backgrounds including race, religion, class etc.

Chesham is obviously co-ed so you have the gender diversity.

School-wise - DCHS or Becky High are probably academically the best (almost no discernible difference in achievements) so I would rank

1. Becky High
2. DCHS
3. Chesham

The Aylesbury and Wycombe interchangeably

forget about distances to my house for now

So presumably your DD is young enough that you have plenty of time to move into the catchment area of your target school before you have to submit your CAF? Because the grammar schools will have actual geographical catchment areas and you it could be that you are a couple of miles from a school but OOC for it and ranked in the lowest admissions criterion, whilst further away (and ranked higher up under its admissions criteria) from your actual catchment school.

If you are looking at Buckinghamshire grammar schools, the alternative upper school, should your DD not pass, should also be a consideration? Or are you looking to swoop in to a Bucks address in the two weeks between results and CAF deadline, if your DD achieves a pass?

@CillaDog The op was really looking at race. That area of Bucks is less racially diverse than Wycombe or Chesham. Not sure DCHS has had the uniform difficulties WHS has had!

However: just looking at stats, DCHS has more dc where English is not first language then WHS. Also higher persistent absence!

@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 .

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

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

@TizerorFizz loads from GX.

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

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.

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.

@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.

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.

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.