Parents of Kent children, applying for secondary schools, learned their allocated schools last week. Overall figures were very similar to last year, although the number of children given none of their choices rose from 413 to 443. As usual, West Kent is the main problem area (not to overlook other hot-spots), although the difficulties are clearly more pronounced this year, especially amongst children qualified for grammar schools. All three of the ‘super-selectives’ - Judd School, Skinners School and Tonbridge Grammar School - saw their base-line Kent Test score for entry rise, Judd requiring a record marks aggregate of 418 points (maximum possible 420), and even then some with this score did not gain admission. There are three main reasons for the increase: the intensive coaching culture in West Kent (especially from the private schools chasing grammar school places) is seeing more children in West Kent passing and also gaining high scores; more children from outside Kent crossing the boundary this year, although we don’t yet know the schools they went to; and the economic climate seeing a fall in admissions to several private schools, putting more pressure on grammar schools. Girls appear to have lost out in the south, including Pembury and Langton Green, whilst many boys around north Sevenoaks and Riverhead have not been offered any grammar school place. Some have been allocated to the Knole Academy in Sevenoaks, which has opened an additional class planning to make it a grammar school stream. Many villages to the north through to Dartford are affected, Dartford Grammar School only offering local places to boys living in the town itself, most of the remainder taken up by boys from SE London right through to Lewisham (the train journey is easy) who achieve highest scores, the cut off again reaching a record, of 414 points. Meanwhile Dartford Girls and Gravesend Boys were not able to take all qualified children in their hinterlands. As the Kent 11+ selects just 25% of the children from across selective parts of Kent, the increase in the West is balanced by fewer successes in the East, leaving several grammar schools there with vacancies.
I believe these trends are making the concept of a common test with common pass mark impossible to maintain, especially as grammar schools have new freedoms to choose their own admission rules, some setting higher pass marks than the standard, hastening the breakup of the system. KCC is now looking at alternatives that address some of the issues above, but anything new will have to be by consensus as the Authority now has no power to impose solutions. My fear is that individual schools will be tempted to set their own entrance tests, leading to the dreadful outcome we see around the M25, as parents drive their children to different grammar school tests every Saturday through September and October. Slightly more sensible solutions may include a common test with differing pass marks for each school, or perhaps an additional paper of a more difficult standard to discriminate between the ablest children.
Another possibility is the proposal for a disused school site in Sevenoaks to be adapted as an annexe to two current grammar schools (one boys and one girls), although legal problems surrounding this are complex. There is also a competing proposal for a church free school on the site whose formal proposal has been submitted to government, and would attract considerable government funding.
Meanwhile, the time bomb of rising pupil numbers, especially in Tunbridge Wells, is spreading through the primary schools, creating intense pressure on local schools – and secondary schools within a few years.
Sadly, government policy has meant there is now no planning authority to resolve these issues and we are destined to see more such problems in the future as the cracks widen.
There is growing evidence that the principle of a single 11+ assessment in both Kent and Medway is under attack as grammar schools come under differing pressures and Academy freedoms allow Governing Bodies to consider alternatives, as some become increasingly oversubscribed and others suffer from falling rolls in their areas. The issues surrounding the "super-selectives" are well documented. At the other end of the scale, the Dover Grammar schools have for some years run the Dover Tests offering an alternative means of access to their schools, which sees them fill, whereas under the Kent Test they would both be half empty (this doesn't stop Dover Girls Grammar from being one of the highest academic achieving schools in the county).
Now Chatham Grammar School for Boys & Chatham Grammar School for Girls have finished a consultation that proposes to offer places to children from 2013 onwards, who have passed either the Kent or the Medway Tests, and in addition for late applicants to be considered on the basis of alternative evidence of grammar school ability. This is in the face of falling numbers entering secondary schools in Medway for some years and for another four or five years to come.
At the other end of the scale, the 'super-selective' grammar schools in West Kent and Dartford have spawned an intense coaching culture for children that sees their pass marks creep higher and higher. This year in the Kent Test, a record number of 589 children scored the maximum score of 420 (pass mark 360), around half coming from Kent primary schools, a proportion that is constant through all the top scores. I believe the required score for most of these schools will rise even higher this year, and anticipate .......
I now have information on the outcome of Kent Headteacher Assessments (Headteacher Appeals) for the Kent Test taken in September. This enables me to update the table and information in the previous item as follows. The two items should be read together. ...........
A very pleasing (and busy) week in terms of interest shown in the website. The release of the Kent eleven plus results has seen over a thousand visitors every day, rising to 1761 on Tuesday, the busiest day since March. I have been responding to large numbers of emails, every one receiving a brief piece of advice or opinion. My telephone consultation service has been in full swing, so rather a hectic week in all! However,.......