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"My daughter has an August birthday. won't she be disadvantaged by the early eleven plus testing in September".

No, as results are standardised against other children of the same age. In other words, she will have to achieve in the top 25% of a group of children of all abilities in another part of the country.

"Isn't September too soon for children to take the eleven plus? some are only just ten".

I agree. But KCC are bound in by agreements with other local authorities to produce decsions in October. There appears no way round this if parents are to be given test results before choosing schools.

"If my son does not pass the eleven plus, when can we appeal"

This is another downside of the early date. There is no way of appealing against the test decision. There never has been. What you appeal for is to go to a particular school. This cannot happen until allocation in March. So you may have to wait eight months from test decision to appeal.

"Doesn't the early testing just after the summer holiday give an advantage to those who have been tutored over the summer.

Sadly yes, already part of the reason for the discrepancy betwen East and West Kent results, this effect will be magnified.

"We have visited The Archbishop's School in Canterbury, which appears a good school. We have good Christian credentials, but the admission criteria are so vague, we can't work out if we are likely to gain a place. Can you advise?"

With difficulty, as The Archbishop's School breaks most of the rules about objective and clear admission criteria, in spite of many complaints from a variety of sources over the years. How do they get away with it? Fortunately, a number of children, wrongly excluded, have gained places through admission appeals (I have been uniformly successful in the past). New rules backed by the force of law should see the school toe the line in future years. Children whose church is seeing a change of vicar seem to suffer particularly in this way, whilst other parents assure me that their vicar has confirmed they will be offered places long before official decision making.