Secondary Transfer 2025
Important Test Information for Parents
The SW Herts Schools Consortium comprises the seven secondary schools in the area which operate admission tests for a proportion of their intake:
Croxley Danes, Parmiter’s, Queens’, Rickmansworth, St Clement Danes,
Watford Grammar School for Boys, and Watford Grammar School for Girls.
If you are considering applying next term under the academic or music criteria for a place for your child at any of these schools, you will need to register with the Consortium before Friday 14th June 2024.
No late registrations will be accepted. If you feel you have extenuating circumstances that you consider relevant to any failure to register, you will have the opportunity to present these during the Secondary Transfer Appeals process. Please read the following guidance carefully, particularly no.9.
- The website for registering your son or daughter with the Consortium is now open, having become operational on Monday 8th April at midday. It will remain accessible until Friday 14th June which is a period of almost ten weeks and you can register your child at any time in that period. There is no advantage in registering on the first day; indeed if too many parents try to do so, the website might not cope with the demand.
- The website address is: www.swhertsschools.org.uk. There are links to each school’s website and a frequently asked questions section.
- You will be asked to register for the tests by creating an account, activating your account and then logging on to a parent portal using a password of your choosing. The password should be memorable and secure. We strongly advise the following:
– You do not use a work email address. The firewall generally prevents our email responses for account activation being permitted to enter your inbox. Please use a personal email address.
– Add the Consortium Administration Enquiries email address to your contacts to ensure that emails are received and not deposited in junk or spam without you seeing them. This is:info@swhertsschools.org.uk
This will assist in preventing crucial communications from being either blocked or filtered into Junk, Spam or Deleted Items. This is particularly important in case of any changes to test dates or timings or if you apply to have a marking review, the results for which are emailed. You should ensure that the email address you use to register will remain unchanged and available throughout the period in which you will need to access information on the portal. Once you have registered an email address, it will not be possible to change it for an alternative though you will be able to access your registration information throughout the registration period in case you want to change your test preferences or any of your information other than your email address. No changes can be made once registration closes on 14th June.
- Once you register you must regularly log on to the secure web page to view the initial registration of tests/the allocation of test centre/allocation of Music Stage 2 appointments (if your child is successful after Music Stage 1) and the final results. (Please see the calendar for information on timescales and deadlines). It is your responsibility, as a parent, to log on to the secure website to view the information at the appropriate times throughout the testing process. You may be reminded by the individual test centre you have been allocated of your test timings immediately prior to test day.
- The Familiarisation Papers can be downloaded from our website using this link:
http://www.swhertsschools.org.uk/familiarisation-papers/. To help children get themselves familiar with the format and types of questions found in the South West Herts Consortium Schools tests, GL Assessment have provided us with free sample materials. It is a good idea to familiarise your child with the format of these tests so that, on test day, they will recognise the test booklet where the questions are written and the separate answer sheet where candidates are expected to record their answers (rather than recording answers in the test booklets which are collected up at the end of the test and shredded). We believe these materials are a useful tool to prepare your child to be able to recognise the test booklets and the separate answer sheet in
readiness for test day. As entrance tests vary from area to area, the familiarisation materials and practice papers offered on the link below are generic and are not intended to replicate the timings or number of questions on the papers candidates will take on test day. These materials are not designed for a specific area, region, or test and the quantity of questions and timings should not be relied upon as a baseline for the testthat will be taken in September.
- If you consider that your child might be disadvantaged under the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act, or has special educational needs which require the test centre to make particular provision for the tests, you must provide written evidence of this from your child’s current school SENDCo. This evidence MUST BE UPLOADED to the portal when you register for the test (Step 3 Child’s Welfare and Support Information). Once we receive this information it will be passed to the test centre to which your child has been allocated in order for them to assess your child’s particular requirements. All arrangements are in place for special provision prior to the end of term. You cannot submit this evidence after the closing date of 14 th June when the registration portal closes. If you contact us after this date you should be prepared for your child’s test centre to decline your request for provision on the main test day and your child will be allocated to the reserve day when your requests can be met in full.
A great deal of resource planning goes into the test day and ensuring that staff with the requisite training can be allocated for special consideration. If you are trying to submit evidence after the deadline, please email the Consortium Administration Team
- You will be allocated a test centre by Friday 5th July. This has absolutely no bearing on the schools to which you might eventually apply. The tests will take place in September.
- Please make sure that your child is eligible for a place at your preferred school under that school’s admission criteria. These are published on each school’s website. If your child is not eligible, there is no point in registering to take the tests.
- We have set out the Key Testing Dates on the next page. This has been kept separate from the main body of this letter so that you can print out the page and put it somewhere where you will be able to see it, to remind you of the upcoming dates and stages of the test process.
Key Testing Dates In 2024 for Secondary Transfer 2025
| Date |
Test |
| Monday 8th April |
Online registration for the tests opens |
| Friday 14thJune |
Online registration closes |
| Friday 5thJuly (around noon) |
Parents informed of test venue |
| Saturday 7th September |
Academic test |
| Monday 9th September |
Music aptitude test |
| Wednesday 11th September |
Queens’ School sports aptitude test |
| Thursday 19th September (around noon) |
First Round music scores notified to parents |
| w/c Monday 23rd September |
Start of second round music tests |
| Wednesday 16th October (around noon) Thursday 31st October |
Scores notified to parents
Secondary application deadline |
*Sports Test times are allocated on an alphabetical basis which cannot be changed.
All communication with regard to the Sports test comes directly from Queens’ School and your sports test time will not show on the Parent Portal
The Test Administration Team can be contacted via email only at info@swhertsschools.org.uk There is no facility to telephone.
Please do not contact enquiries@swhscregistrations.co.uk or support@swhscregistrations.co.uk as these email inboxes are no longer monitored and you will not receive a response.
We will make every effort to ensure that all email queries are answered within 48 hours during term time school hours. Please note that during peak times – such as immediately prior to and following the release of test scores – response times may be longer. We would ask you to note that email responses from the Test Administration Team are likely to be specific to your enquiry and may not be relevant to the nature of any other person or persons’ enquiry. Therefore you should not copy, disclose, or distribute its content to any person or persons or publish its content on social media nor act in reliance on any such e-mail, as this is prohibited and may be unlawful. Abusive and/or anonymous emails will be deleted and will not receive a response.
We cannot respond to any queries with regard to School Admissions or School Applications. We are test facilitators only and our sole responsibility is for the test registration and administration process. Any queries regarding school places should be directed to the school or schools in which you are interested in applying. Contact information for all Consortium Schools can be found on our website here Schools – South West Herts Schools (swhertsschools.org.uk)
Persons making requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for data with regard to whole cohort test scores in previous years should note that in compliance with GDPR Regulations, no test information is retained once a test cycle has ended. We are legally obliged to delete all personal information submitted by registrants within 12 months and so any data pertaining to prior test cycles(including raw and standardised scores)is purged from our system annually.
