Medway Test result and Review statistics for 2009, together with 2007/8 appeal outcomes are 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, both supporting parents through the appeals process and 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 an increasing number of primary schools, by invitation, and am also happy to talk with groups of parents, as well as individuals.
TIMETABLE
Key Action
Key Dates in Scheme
Medway Admission Booklet published
7 September2009
Closing Date for Registration for Medway Tests
18 September 2009
Medway tests
17 October 2009
Parents informed of test results
30 October 2009
Closing Date for review requests
6 November 2009
Parents informed of review results
13 November 2009
Closing Date for Common Application Form
18 November 2009
National Offer Day
1 March 2010
Vacant places re-allocated
w/b 22 March 2010
In each Local Authority (LA), an admissions booklet will be issued in early September. Each LA has its own closing date, and operates a different process for allocating pupils, for example Medway parents have six choices and Kent parents have four 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. Medway residents need to apply on the Medway Secondary Common Application Form (SCAF), including any schools in Kent. In the same way, residents of Kent should apply for Medway schools on their own Local Authority application form.
GRAMMAR SCHOOL TESTING
It is essential that all parents, who are considering entering their child for the Medway or Kent tests, register their child on the appropriate form obtainable from the primary school or the LA. In Medway, you will find a copy fo the form in the LA Prospectus “Admission to Secondary School”. Your child cannot take the Medway or Kent tests if he or she has not been registered. You cannot apply for a Medway grammar school if your child has not sat the Medway tests. There is nothing to lose by entering your child for either set of tests.
Where children have taken the Medway Test and been unsuccessful, parents have the right to request a review of the decision within the next week. Results will be out in time for you to complete your SCAF. Parents will need to think carefully about whether to apply for a Review, as if unsuccessful, you may find yourself barred from making an appeal on academic grounds. For more information see below and at Medway grammar schools.
APPLICATIONS
Secondary School Open Days take place in October and November. Most Grammar schools hold Open Days after assessment results are sent out on 30 October. Details of these are published in the Medway Admissions Booklet.
Parents will then be able to select up to six schools in order on the Secondary Common Application Form (SCAF).
Some scenarios:
1) If the child has passed the Medway tests, you may name just grammar schools on your SCAF.
2) If your child has not taken the eleven plus, you can only apply for non selective schools.
3) 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.
4) 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 a 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.
Each school draws up a list of eligible applicants in terms of priority according to their oversubscription criteria. They are not told where you have listed them on the SCAF, so list schools exactly as you prefer them and don’t be swayed by any school telling you it gives priority to those who list them first. Your child will then be offered the highest preference school for which they are eligible. This means that some children could get their fourth choice ahead of others who listed it first if their claim is stronger. If your child does not qualify for any school on your SCAF, the LA will offer a place at the nearest school it judges as appropriate, or sensible.
APPEALS
Your right to appeal is to a particular school, and so you must have applied for it on your SCAF. Medway & Kent parents have the right to apply for any additional Kent school (including grammar schools)after 31 March 2010, and if turned down to appeal. This did not initially apply to Medway schools last year. However, after much lobbying the Council amended its regulations and allowed Kent children to make late applications for Medway Grammar Schools, but not Medway children! We await the 2010 rules with interest.
Grammar school appeals are likewise not against a non selective decision in general, but must be made for a named school. 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 1 March before the school technically rejects your application and only then can you appeal. If you have been to a Medway Review, the grounds on which you can appeal are severely limited according to the rules although appeal panels interpret these differently.See Medway grammar schools.
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).
GUIDANCE
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.
For all oversubscribed schools find out if you would have been accepted last year. Ask for the distance from school the furthest pupil who was accepted lived. 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. Each “Voluntary Aided” or “Foundation” school makes its own rules and you need to check these out carefully 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.
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”. In Medway, this only applies to St John Fisher Catholic School. 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.
In Medway, 85% of children secured one of their first two choices in March for entry in September 2008. Around 70% of Kent parents were offered their first choice school but I anticipate this could rise to as much as 80% under the new scheme for Kent entry in September 2009.
Each oversubscribed school in Medway keeps a waiting list and fills 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 be placed on the waiting list, but you cannot be placed 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. Details of the Medway scheme can be found here. 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 such as Rochester Grammar will give priority to up to 10% of places for candidates with a particular aptitude, in this case Music.
There are currently two Academies in Medway being planned, independent of Medway Council. In addition the new Strood Acdemy will open in September 2009. You will find more information on all three at Academies.
Medway secondary schools mainly use nearness of homes to the school as measured by the nearest safe walking route determined by the Medway Council Geographical Information System. In a series of successful appeals in recent years, including a complaint to the Ombudsman at The Thomas Aveling School, I have demonstrated that the application of this system is seriously flawed.
Rainham Mark Grammar & Chatham Grammar Girls took all applicants who passed the Medway Tests in 2008 & 2009, regardless of scores. Don't be put off by high scoring criteria at either of these schools. Rochester Girls Grammar has a high initial cut off score. However, it takes in a good number through the appeal system, some with a bare pass, so don't be put off if you like the school. You will not know the cut off score before you apply.
One outcome of the Equal Preference scheme first adopted for 2008 entry was a polarisation with more parents opting for the more popular schools as they had nothing to lose if unsuccessful.