How SchoolGuru can help you bag the best state schools in Hertfordshire

Watch the SchoolGuru feature on BBC2’s Daily Politics show. It explains what we do and why we do it (our thanks goes to Maple school and the St Albans’ mums for being part of the programme).

Bag the best schools in Hertfordshire

You can see which schools you’ve got a realistic chance of getting into, by using the Admission Calculator. We’ll give you the facts. No spin – guaranteed. Here’s how you can make the Calculators work for you...

  1. You can assess your chances of getting into schools all over Hertfordshire. You might find that there’s a lovely village school, not far from your house, that you’d never have thought of before.

  2. You can use the Admission Calculator to help you decide where to move to, so that you can target a particular school. You can put in the details for each property you’re considering, and then work out whether you’re likely to get what you want on allocation day. This could prevent you from making a big, stressful, expensive mistake (average cost of moving house: £9,500). We've got some tips for you movers and shakers here.

  3. You can get a quick reality check on your chances of getting into the very best schools – and even the OK school at the end of your street. Never assume it's a cert, without checking with the Admission Calculator. The golden rule is: ‘it might be near, but proceed with fear’.

  4. You can use the results to stop you making a catastrophic mistake – like only applying for unrealistic schools. There's nothing wrong with including one wild card, or even two, if you fancy your chances. But using up all your options with long shots? You’ve got to be crazy. You might not get any of them – and that's never, ever good news, as you’ll be allocated a school you haven’t chosen, that can’t fill its places. To help avoid this, we urge parents to include at least one safe school in their preferences. And you can sort out the wild cards from the safe bets, by using the Admission Calculator.

  5. Remember, with SchoolGuru, there are no guarantees, warranties or Three Degrees. We provide information in good faith, and we’re obsessive about our stats, but we can’t be held liable for any decisions that you make as the result of using the site. We use a different measuring system than Herts CC so there may be a variation in the distance calculation from your home to the school. We recommend contacting Herts CC or the school admission authority to request your precise home to school distance measurement. Please check our terms and conditions for further details.

Ready to have a play with the Admission Calculators? Let's go!

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SchoolGuru in the news

Did you see the article about SchoolGuru in the Daily Mirror? Read it now!

Even the Government is talking about us! (Not sure if that’s good or bad):
Department for Communities and Local Government

School admissions:
Primary schools Admission Calculator
Secondary schools Admission Calculator
Herts school appeals:
Appeals advice
School appeals guides