Kent Secondary School Admissions 2009
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Telephone Consultation Service I now offer a telephone consultation service, advising on secondary transfer issues. You will find further details here. |
This page is designed primarily for parents resident in Kent, whose children will be transferring to state secondary schools in September 2009. It should be read in conjunction with the pages on Grammar School Admissions and Medway Secondary School Admissions.
I have wide experience of the secondary school transfer schemes in Kent and Medway, and am happy to place my expertise at your service, advising on choice of schools and patterns of application, drawing on my extensive local knowledge of the area and its schools. I give talks for parents at several Kent primary schools by invitation, and am also happy to talk with groups of parents, as well as individuals.
There is a new scheme for secondary school admissions for entry in September 2009 in Kent. The main changes are: (1) for grammar school assessment to take place in September 2008, full details below; (2) there will now be four schools named on form. The full details together with next year's oversubscription rules for individual Foundation and Voluntary Aided Schools are posted at KCC. I have simplified the regulations here.
I have wide experience of the secondary school transfer schemes in Kent and Medway, and am happy to place my expertise at your service, advising on choice of schools and patterns of application, drawing on my extensive local knowledge of the area and its schools. I give talks for parents at several Kent primary schools by invitation, and am also happy to talk with groups of parents, as well as individuals.
There is a new scheme for secondary school admissions for entry in September 2009 in Kent. The main changes are: (1) for grammar school assessment to take place in September 2008, full details below; (2) there will now be four schools named on form. The full details together with next year's oversubscription rules for individual Foundation and Voluntary Aided Schools are posted at KCC. I have simplified the regulations here.
THE KENT SCHEME
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families has approved a new scheme for secondary transfer in Kent. The scheme will operate for Kent residents, no matter where the schools for which they are applying are situated, and refers to entry in September 2009.
TIMETABLE
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Key Action
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Key Dates in Scheme
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Registration for Grammar School Testing opens
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2 June 2008
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Closing date for Registration
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11 July 2008
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Test Date
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18/19 September 2008
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| Test Date for out of county and some children from Independent Schools | 20 September 2008 (practice test 13 Sept) |
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Assessment Decision sent to Parents
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20 October 2008
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Closing Date for Common Application Form
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7 November 2008
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National Offer Day
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2 March 2009
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| Schools send out welcome letters | 5 March 2009 |
| Date by which places should be accepted or declined | 26 March 2009 |
| Vacant places allocated to children on waiting list who applied through SCAF | 30 March 2009 |
| New waiting list drawn up according to oversubscription criteria including late applicants | 31 March 2009 |
In each Local Authority (LA), an admissions booklet will be issued by mid September. Each LA has its own closing date, and operates a different process for allocating pupils, for example Kent parents have four choices, and Medway parents have six choices. These booklets contain details of the all important oversubscription rules, which determine if you will be offered a place if too many people apply.
It is essential that all parents, who are considering entering their child for the Kent tests, register their child on a form obtainable from the primary school. Your child cannot take the Kent tests if he or she has not been registered. You cannot apply for a grammar school if your child has not sat the Kent tests. Copies of the registration form will be distributed through primary schools and can be downloaded here.
There is nothing to lose by entering your child for the tests.
APPLICATIONS
Some scenarios:
- If the child has passed the Kent tests, you may name just grammar schools on your SCAF. If your child does not qualify for any of these, because other children have taken up all available places, you will be probably be offered the nearest grammar school with a vacancy, although KCC no longer has an obligation to do so (This is a particular issue in West Kent, but this year also affected children in Canterbury, Dartford, Faversham,Gravesham & Maidstone.
- If your child has not taken the eleven plus, you can only apply for non selective schools.
- If your child has taken the eleven plus and not passed, and you wish to appeal, you must name the grammar schools you wish to appeal to on the SCAF, together with any non selective schools you wish to apply to.
- If your child has passed the eleven plus and you name grammar schools and a non selective school, for example a church comprehensive school, you will be offered the highest school on your list for which your child is eligible. If this is the non selective school then you will be offered it in preference to a grammar school lower down your list.
The process of identifying which one school your child will be offered on National Offer Day is called an Equal Preference Scheme and is quite complex to understand. However...
you will not boost your chances at one school by placing it in a different order than your genuine preference. Sadly, some schools still verbally advise parents otherwise. No Kent or Medway school is told the position where parents have placed a school on the SCAF, and so none can offer a place according to position. You should not place a non-selective school ahead of a grammar school on your form unless it is a real preference, otherwise you may find yourself offered a place at the non-selective school, even though the child has passed the eleven plus.
APPEALS
As a result, you must list any school you wish to appeal for on your SCAF. Sadly, you have to wait until National Offer day on 2 March before the school technically rejects your application and only then can you appeal. This year the first appeals were heard in the last week of March (Medway tends to come first), the final ones not being heard until the first week in July (Maidstone Grammar School).
- You will find details of Open Days and Evenings for admission to secondary schools in Kent in September 2009 here.
- It is difficult to give general guidance on placing schools in order, as circumstances change enormously from town to town depending on popularity of individual schools and their oversubscription rules. Above all, make sure that you and your child visit the schools you are considering.
- Kent, Medway and Bexley all have grammar schools, and Grammar School Applications are considered on a separate page.
- For all oversubscribed schools find out if you would have been accepted last year. Ask for the furthest distance from school those pupils lived, who were accepted. Bexley publishes this information in their admission booklets. Many church schools admit children according to their level of church support. Find out which category of religious support was the lowest accepted.
- If the school is described as “Community” or “Voluntary Controlled”, oversubscription rules are laid down by the LA. Parents in towns such as Ashford, where all schools are of this type, can choose local schools in preference order without difficulty. Each “Voluntary Aided” or “Foundation” school makes its own rules and you need to check these out to find if you are likely to be offered a place.
- Check the rules about free school transport, which only apply if you live more than three miles from your nearest appropriate school, or for certain church schools. These rules are detailed in the School Admission Booklet for your LA. See the page on School Transport and Appeals.
- Try and make sure that you will be eligible for at least one school on your list, otherwise you will be allocated the nearest one with vacancies, which may not be to your liking.
- In Kent, most non-selective schools formally cater for pupils of all abilities. These include several newer comprehensive and church schools, built mainly in rural areas in the 1970s. Thirty are foundation schools and make their own rules for selection if they are oversubscribed. Eleven church schools are scattered round the county. Several of these are highly selective on religious criteria (one reason they regularly appear at the top of performance tables). Their oversubscription rules also vary from school to school and you should plan a year ahead to meet these if you do not currently fit.
- There are currently nine Academies in Kent operating or being planned, and a further two in Medway, independent of Kent County Council. Further details are at Academies.
- Parents applying for secondary school places may be given a supplementary form “only where the additional information is required for the governing body to apply their oversubscription criteria to the application”. You are under no obligation to provide information which is not required for this purpose. No form should ask parents to state what preferences they have named on their SCAF, or the order in which they have stated their preferences, as no school requires this to apply its oversubscription criteria. KCC advise you to delete any such question and mark it “N/A” or “not applicable”.
- "Late" Catholic Baptisms are surging as "marginal or lapsed Catholics" desire to secure a place at an oversubscribed Catholic school. Research published by the Pastoral Research Centre Trust (01/08) shows baptisms of children between one and thirteen years of age have surged to 30% of the total from 5% fifty years ago. Over the same period cradle baptisms have fallen from 85% to 64%. The Trust research establishes entrance ot popular schools as the key reason for this.
- in 2008, around 70% of Kent parents were offered their first choice school in March. I anticipate this could rise to as much as 80% under the new scheme for entry in September 2009. In Medway, 85% of children secured one of their first two choices in March.
- In Kent, a previous system for placing children after 1st March called reallocation has been abolished. Now, each school in Kent will keep a waiting list and fill vacancies from this list, in order. This means there is no advantage in having no school offered on your list in March. You need to apply to go on the waiting list, but you cannot go on a grammar school waiting list unless your child has passed the Medway test.
- both Kent and Medway have an online application system on which parents can change choices up to the closing date. One concern for primary heads is that because they do not see these forms, they are unable to check if parents have made sensible decisions. Conversely, parents can hide decisions from the school, – valuable where certain primary schools strongly encourage certain applications. Online applicants will be able to access decisions after school starts on 2rd March. Paper applicants will receive decisions by post on 3rd March.
- Most schools now have specialist status, specialising in areas such as: mathematics & ICT, humanities, or sport. Some select up to 10% of pupils on aptitude. A few Kent schools select a proportion of children by tests of academic ability, including Homewood (20%), Chaucer Technology College (15%), and Archbishop’s (15%). Find out what the tests are so that your child is prepared.
- For some parents, choice of school is determined by the desire to avoid being offered an unpopular school. I think the best news is the improvement in many of Kent’s weakest schools over the past few years. If all schools are satisfactory, then the pressure on families is greatly reduced.
- Voluntary Aided Church Schools are required to have their admission rules approved by the Diocesan Board of Education. Rochester Diocese does not carry out its statutory obligations, and it is reported that Canterbury Diocese does not. One consequence of the latter is that several schools in Canterbury Diocese have admission rules that do not meet statutory requirements.