Parmiter's School

Parmiter's School was founded in 1772 and provides a comprehensive education – with a partially-selective academic stream – to boys and girls aged 11–18. The school gains its name from Thomas Parmiter, a silk merchant from East London, who left property in his will to establish almshouses and a free schoolhouse.

In 1977 the school was moved to Hertfordshire, although the school still enjoys charitable relationships with London’s East End. The school’s motto is “Nemo sibi nascitur” (no one is born until himself alone) and aspires to instil academic excellence, discipline, community spirit, and diversity as key values in its students.

• Address: Parmiter's School, High Elms Lane, Garston, Watford, Hertfordshire WD25 0UU
• Local authority: Hertfordshire County Council
• School type: mixed partially-selective school
• Headteacher: Michael Jones
• Number of pupils: 1,400+
• National rank (Sunday Times Parent Power): 103
• A level results: 80.9% A*–B
• GCSE results: 61.9% A*/A/9/8/7

If you would like your child to be considered for a place in Year 7 at Parmiter's School, you will need to complete the common application form for your local authority.

If you would like your child to be considered for a place under the academic criterion, you will also need to register for them to take the academic ability test with the SW Herts Consortium. This group of grammar and partially-selective schools all administer the same academic tests, so if your child is applying for an academic place in any of the schools in the consortium, they will only need to take the academic tests once.

1. Register for the academic ability test

If you are thinking about registering your child for the academic criterion at Parmiter's School, it's a good idea to speak to your child's teacher first to see if the 11 plus and a selective education is right for them. The 11 plus is a challenging exam, designed to select the children working within the top 25% of their year group.

You will need to register your child with the SW Herts Consortium between Tuesday 11th April 2023 and Friday 16th June 2023. You will then be notified of your child's test venue on Friday 7th July 2023.

2. Apply for a school place

You will be notified of your child's scores in the academic test via your parent portal on the SWH Consortium website on Wednesday 19th October 2023. You can use your child's results to decide whether to apply for a place at Parmiter's School.

To apply for a school place, you will need to name Parmiter's School on your common application form. You must complete the form for your home local authority:

• Buckinghamshire residents: Buckinghamshire Council
• Hertfordshire residents: Hertfordshire County Council
• London Borough of Barnet residents: Barnet Council
• London Borough of Enfield residents: Enfield Council
• London Borough of Harrow residents: Harrow Council
• London Borough of Hillingdon residents: Hillingdon Council

Before completing your common application form, make sure to check the school's oversubscription criteria first. In the likely event that more children achieve the qualifying score than there are places available, the school will need to apply oversubscription criteria to prioritise places.

The application form must be submitted to your home local council by 31st October 2023.

Your child's scores in the academic ability test will be age-standardised to ensure that children born later in the school year aren't disadvantaged. Scores will then be combined to give a total score across both papers, which is then placed in rank order with all the other children who took the exam. The range for the combined score is between 140 and 272.

There is no minimum score required – the 52 children with the highest scores will be eligible for a place.

Achieving a particular score doesn't guarantee a place at the school, as it may be oversubscribed with qualified candidates. We always recommend researching the admission policies for your target schools and looking at their oversubscription criteria.

Parmiter's School does not have a strict catchment area. However, a number of places are prioritised for children who have passed the academic test and who live in particular postcodes:

• 49 academic places: prioritised for children living in postcodes WD3 to WD25 inclusive, and postcodes AL1, AL2, AL3, HP1, HP2, HP3 and HA6
• 3 academic places: prioritised for children living in any other postcode

Other oversubscription criteria apply to children not applying for an academically-selective place. More information is available on the Parmiter's School website.