Advice on CAF ranking for Latymer, HBS and South West Herts

[SRKMC]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone who has been through the secondary transfer process can help, as I'm finding it quite confusing!

My daughter will be applying for Year 7 (entry September 2027) and these are the state schools she'd like to put on her CAF by October 2026, in order of preference:

Latymer School (Enfield)
Henrietta Barnett School
South West Herts Consortium schools (Either parmiters, Watford girls grammar or queens)
Presdales
Broxbourne School
Chancellor's School
We're currently planning to move before 7 January 2027 to the area of whichever school she is offered, so we're trying to understand how best to complete the CAF.

She is also sitting the 11+ entrance exams for Highgate School and Haberdashers Girls School, but I believe these applications are made directly to the schools and don't form part of the CAF. Is that correct?

I have a few questions:

When will we have a good idea whether she's likely to receive an offer from Latymer or Henrietta Barnett?

Do they tell you your ranking or whether you're likely to get a place before the CAF deadline?

If she's hoping for Latymer or HBS, do they need to be listed first and second on the CAF, or does the equal preference system mean it doesn't matter where you rank them, as long as they're above the schools she'd prefer less?

We live in Hertfordshire. Do we get six choices on the CAF, or does that depend on the local authority?

Given that we intend to move before January 2027, is there anything else we should be aware of when completing the CAF? I am aware we need to provide proof of address for Latymer before 7th January.

I'd really appreciate any advice from parents who have been through the Latymer, HBS or South West Herts admissions process. Thank you!

You are right that private schools don’t go on the CAF

Moving by 7 Jan is too late to be considered on time for Herts. As you currently live there, it is their rules which govern your application timings

If she's hoping for Latymer or HBS, do they need to be listed first and second on the CAF, or does the equal preference system mean it doesn't matter where you rank them, as long as they're above the schools she'd prefer less?

You will be given a place at the highest school for which you qualify. So if you put Chancellors first and HB second, even if you came top in the HB exam, you would be offered a Chancellors place and not an HB place if you qualified (by virtue of distance or feeder primary).

Are you also doing the Dame Alice Owen exam?

We live in Hertfordshire. Do we get six choices on the CAF, or does that depend on the local authority?

The Herts.gov.uk website I screen shot above tells you this too - you get four choices.

The same Latymer admissions page that tells you about the 7th Jan cut off tells you this - TLDR, you will know before the application deadline where your DD is ranked by Latymer:

Test Results
Results of the Maths and Verbal Reasoning tests will be published securely through Applicaa+ and school
communications before the end of September.
For those in the top 700, the re-standardised results, including the English score will be emailed to parents
before the end of October.

Offers
Using the oversubscription criteria, the Governors will rank all applicants and offer places to the top 192, in line
with the school's admissions criteria, placing the next 50 highest-ranked applicants on a waiting list.
A list of the top 700 applicants will be sent to the London Borough of Enfield who will be coordinating the
process with all other Boroughs. Parents are advised to view the admission arrangements for their home local
authority so that they are aware of procedures.

Parents will be notified, usually in October before the CAF deadline, of the likelihood of receiving a firm offer of
a place based on their ranking after all tests have been marked and age standardised. The outcome of the
Secondary Transfer Procedure will be communicated to parents by their own Local Authority on National Offers
Day early in March.

We must emphasise that meeting the criteria required by the Governors is not a guarantee that a place at the
school will be offered. It is likely that many more candidates than PAN will meet the criteria required to be
eligible for a place should they choose to apply.

The HB admissions page is here: https://www.hbschool.org.uk/admissions/

They do it differently - you will know if DD got through to Round 2 (i.e. top 300) but you will not know her standardised score. Your chances of getting into HB are much greater if you live within 3 miles of the school at the time you apply through Herts LA, as the rank order kicks in after all who reach the Round One cut off score within 3 miles.

I'm interested in this stuff so happy to look it up... but almost anything you need to know about state school admissions is easily accessible on school or county websites, because that is the fairest approacj.

Check the elevenplusexams forums - lots of info there.

Re Latymer - your DC writes the exam at the start of their year 6, early September. We had a letter giving their multiple choice scores in early November. Then another giving their new ranking with English writing score included, in early December. After that, we had a pretty good idea of whether they'd get in.

But there's a lot of movement on the waiting list, so you can't always be sure.

HBS first round result was out on 24/09.

@SheilaFentiman thank you for all your messages and Information, really helpful. So will I get an email to confirm the likelihood of my DD getting an offer at Latymar and HBS after they marked the results. This will be so helpful as it will give us the chance to decide which school to put 1st and which 2nd. Our old house is 3 miles from HBS so our plan was if she was offered a place we would move back there. Having 4 schools to select is hard. What are the chances of getting into a comprehensive school like Broxbourne or Presdales if we don't select any and if she doesn't get into a grammar?

Thanks @Melarus when we went to the open day they said the same thing but said nothing is confirmed until national offers day, but if the scores show she's passed and in the inner catchment area then she has a very strong chance. It's madness!

Thanks @SheilaFentiman that's so helpful to know, but when we applied we used our current address but I did let admission know that we have our other house, they said just to put that down on the application I assume that's the CAF but it's odd as we are in Hertfordshire council can't put the old address there. So confused

So will I get an email to confirm the likelihood of my DD getting an offer at Latymar and HBS after they marked the results.

Not from HBS! Please read the full info in my link.

You will know if she got through to round 2 at HBS but you will NOT know her rank after rounds 1 and 2 are combined. If you were to live within 3 miles on the application date (31 October) then she would get in provided she passed round 1

I know, it's super stressful. But if you look on the forum I posted, elevenplusexams, there are many other people in the same boat. (I don't work for them but spent a shocking amount of time there when my DC was y6!)

You'll be able to see the furthest number down the waiting list who got in last year, and before. It's a huge number (300s?? Can't remember) because a lot of people have their DCs take the test as a free practice, then get disqualified because they're out of catchment. So the list jumps up.

If she's in the top 192 in November, she's definitely in. (But check this, because it's 5-6 years since I went through all this agony myself)

You will apply through Herts if that is DD’s main address at the application deadline of 31/10. That is the address that HBS would use, not your former address.

Clearly it would be unfair to other applicants if you could pick and choose between two addresses on the same application round.

If you want to be more sure of a place at HBS, move back to your old address now. But you would probably have to give up all ties to your current address eg give notice on your rental. Having two houses fairly close to each other in application season can be fraught with challenges because LAs check carefully that the application address is where you are really living.

ETA all LAs have a process for sharing applications to schools out of their area with the neighbouring LAs, which is why you can write HBS and Latymer on the Herts form.

You need to use your bottom choice for one you'd accept and know for sure you will get - even if it is not your preferred option. Otherwise she could be left with nothing at all, if she doesn't get any of the selectives.

You won’t know by January where she will get an offer, only if she has qualified for consideration or not. Many LA do not allow an update of address to be taken into account for on time allocation after October deadline, or if they do only for a few weeks. Others may count the application as “late” so do check what might apply in your case. Privaye schools are not so strict but their offers tend to be later than January.

Yes, this! I don't know the comps you named, but please do put one down in last place if you are close enough to definitely get in.

Every March these boards are full of people who didn't do this and regret it.

For the SW Herts consortium, you should get scores mid October.

Final test results for all tests will be published on Thursday, 16th October, around midday. Results of tests will be available on Parent Portal and you will also receive an email to advise you of this.

You have asked: What are the chances of getting into a comprehensive school like Broxbourne or Presdales if we don't select any and if she doesn't get into a grammar?

If you don’t put any comps on the form and she doesn’t get into the grammar, the LA will put her in the nearest available school with a space. If Broxbourne or Presdales is full with applicants who listed it on the CAF, then you will not get a space there.

To clarify - nearest to your current address, unless you move by early Dec, in which case it will be nearest to the new address. Having said that, it sounds as if you may move out of Herts between the application deadline and the day that allocations come out, so I guess Herts would end up liaising with Hampstead or wherever your other house is, if you did move.

You cover such a disparate area with your list that it’s hard to understand your chances at any given comp if you put one of them as choice 4.

Presdales - is your current address within one of their priority areas?
Broxbourne - a straightforward distance assessment, how close are you?
Chancellor’s - does DD attend one of their priority feeder primary schools?

You don’t have to answer online but if you are looking for a “banker” comp to put in fourth place, you need to think about those questions.

This site may be useful

https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/schools-and-education/school-admissions/research-a-school/school-admissions-previous-years-statistics.aspx#DynamicJumpMenuManager1Anchor1

On allocation day (2nd March) Presdales didn’t admit anyone outside of their priority areas and Broxbourne had just under 2km as their furthest distance admitted. Given continuing interest lists, that won’t be the final position come the start of term but gives you some idea.

@SheilaFentiman @LIZS @Melarus @TomatoesintheGreenhouse

Thank you to everyone who has replied and shared such detailed information. It has been incredibly helpful.

From everything I've learned, it seems that, as a parent, I have more control over my daughter's chances of getting into a private school than a highly selective grammar school.

We are based in Goffs Oak, so our options are quite limited. Although we live just a 10-minute drive from Dame Alice Owen's, we are not in the priority area for my daughter to sit the entrance tests because our postcode is Goffs Oak rather than Cuffley, even though we're only five minutes away.

Latymer is around a 15-minute drive from us. The admissions team emailed me to say that, based on my daughter's ranking and the second-round tests, we should have a good indication of whether she is likely to gain a place. However, they also said we would need to be living in the inner catchment area by 7 January. At the moment we are not, and we don't want to move unless we know there's a realistic chance of her being offered a place.

HBS told me they will use the address on the CAF, although any change of address submitted before December can still be taken into account. I have also had relatives go to HBS and they live near Southgate.

Our closest state schools are Goffs Academy and The Broxbourne School. My daughter is registered to sit The Broxbourne School's aptitude test. My nephew attends the school, having gained one of the 10% of places offered through the aptitude test.

Given our current address, would it be sensible to list our preferences as:

Latymer
HBS
Watford Girls' Grammar
The Broxbourne School
Would we have any realistic chance with this order of preference, or would you suggest a different approach? I'm open to everyone's advice and guidance.

Highgate and Haberdashers are independent so if she gets in then we just have to see financially how feasible it is. Praying she gets a scholarship! 😊

Thanks so much!

Also for SW Herts Grammar schools Which ones are really good if anyone knows about any of the schools, that will be helpful. Thanks

@SRKMC I don't know about the schools you mention so my advice is general. You have had some great advice on here from knowledgable posters

The order of pref on your form should be the order you actually prefer. Listing a school in fourth does not damage your chances of getting a place. The only way listing it last means you won't be offered a place at Broxbourne if you qualify (on distance or whatever the criteria are – but most likely distance) is if you are offered a place at somewhere higher up your list. Hence listing in actual order of pref.

Would you have got into Broxbourne on distance in the last couple of years?

If you own two homes, there must be one you live in. I assume the other is rented out? You will be applying from the one you live in and, frankly, if your application is assessed on how far away you live, you need to live in the area. You can't play a game of "offer us a space and then we will move" – it doesn't work like that. I wonder if you owning two homes (which let's face it, most of us don't) is clouding the issue for you and making it confusing?

Re the private schools – you mention a scholarship but they generally offer a max 10% reduction. Is private a real possibility? Could you sell the second home to fund it? If you have two properties I doubt you would be allocated a bursary tbh.

From everything I've learned, it seems that, as a parent, I have more control over my daughter's chances of getting into a private school than a highly selective grammar school.

Well, yes. Just as if you go private for healthcare, you might have a choice of consultant A or B or hospital X or Y does your knee op, which is less likely on the NHS.

@clary is correct and the two house thing is confusing matters.

You also need to be really careful about the difference on the Herts address change deadline and the Latymer address change deadline. As you are applying through Herts, the county date may trump the individual school date. I would get it in writing from Herts if this may be an issue.