“Children Looked After”, “Children Previously Looked After” or “Children in Public Care”.  A “looked after child” or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order.  *This criterion now applies to children looked after and children who were previously looked after, including those who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted or became subject to a child arrangements order or a special guardianship order.

*This follows an update to the School Admissions Code.  

10% (21) places will be allocated based on the straight line distance measurement provided by Hertfordshire County Council’s computerised mapping system.  Hertfordshire County Council’s ‘straight line’ distance measurement system is used for all home to school distance measurements.  Distances are measured using a computerised mapping system to two decimal places.  The measurement is taken from the AddressBase Premium address point of your child’s house to the address point of the school.  AddressBase Premium data is a nationally recognised method of identifying the location of schools and individual residences.  (Places will not be offered, under this criterion, to applicants who qualify under other criteria.)

Children with a sibling attending the school and residing at the same family household from Monday to Friday at the time of application.  A sibling is defined in these arrangements as children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers or sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters and foster brothers and sisters.   The twin or other full brother or sister, born in the same academic year as an applicant offered a place, will qualify under this criterion.  Where a place has been obtained and a child admitted to Parmiter's School and it is subsequently identified that this place was gained fraudulently, there will be no sibling connection available to subsequent children from that family.

Children with a parent who is a current employee at Parmiter's School with at least two years service at the time of application and/or the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.  A parent means the mother, father, step-mother or step-father of the child and in every case living at the same permanent address as the child.   If the number of applications under this criterion exceeds the number of places available, the tie-break will be the length of service of the member of staff.

Children for whom it can be demonstrated that there is a compelling medical reason for attending the school.  Applications under this criterion will only be considered at the time of the initial application, unless there has been a significant and exceptional change of circumstances within the family since the initial application was submitted.  All schools in Hertfordshire have experience in dealing with children with diverse medical needs.  However, in a few very exceptional cases, there are reasons why a child has to go to one specific school.  Few applications under Criterion 5 are agreed and applications can only be considered when supported by a recent letter from a professional involved with the child or family, for example a doctor or psychologist.  The supporting evidence needs to demonstrate why only Parmiter's School can meet the medical needs of the child.   All applications under this criterion will be considered at a meeting of the Admissions Committee of the Academy Trust.

Up to 25% (52 places) shall be available in merit order by reference to academic ability.  In order to be considered under this criterion, a verbal reasoning test and a mathematics test must have been taken, the results of which will be used to assess academic ability.  No minimum score will be required to gain admission, places being offered strictly in descending order of each applicant's standardised test score.  Preparation for the tests is unnecessary.  The tests are administered by the SW Herts Consortium (Parmiter's School, Watford Boys' Grammar School, Watford Girls' Grammar School, Rickmansworth School, Queens' School, Croxley Danes School and St Clement Danes School) and registration for the tests must have been made by the deadline.  Information about the tests and the arrangements, including examples of the questions, are available on the school website: www.parmiters.herts.sch.uk and the SW Herts Consortium website: https://www.swhertsschools.org.uk/. 

Up to 10% (20 places) will be allocated based on Musical aptitude.  Applications will only be considered on the basis of the second stage music test.  Further information on music testing is available in the Secondary Transfer Admissions Policy 2024 and also on the SW Herts Consortium website.    

This is an overspill criterion.  If there are any places left at the end of the allocations, we return to the Proximity list.