The Report on the 'thorough investigation' into the problems with the Medway Test has now been published. Parents may be relieved to learn that "thankfully the children were not adversely affected" although the large number of complaints reportedly received by Medway Council and the Local Government Ombudsman, the record number of entries on a Medway Messenger blog (currently standing at 514) and my own email inbox suggest otherwise. According to Mr Les Wicks, Portfolio holder for Education at Medway Council (Serving You),.......
I now have the results of the Medway Review process which shows 61 Medway children successful at Review, against a 2% figure of 59. Please note that I have not collected data by Test Centre, as I do not believe they will reveal anything untoward, although other FOI requests submitted by parents are exploring those issues and I will report on them if relevant. The figures are:.............
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,.......
There is no doubt that the planning and operation of the Medway Tests at the Rainham School for Girls and Chatham Grammar School for Boys was a shambles and the problems should never have occurred. Details are explained in the news item elsewhere in this website. Last year I was involved in a similar controversy at the Chatham Grammar School for Boys centre, which resulted in the Ombudsman and Medway Council agreeing on the faults and the Council promising to do better for 2011. In fact, the quality of provision at these two sites is, in my judgment, considerably worse......
The Medway Tests for Entrance to Grammar School in September 2011 had problems in two Test Centres this year. Children from a number of primary schools who sat the test at Chatham Grammar School for Boys had their test papers collected in early and then they were given out again, causing disruption, and children at the other centre were the victims of disruptive behaviour by some of the candidates. My advice was to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman and he has recently concluded his investigation....
| Number of Reviews | Number of successful reviews | % of cohort | |
| Medway | 249 | 56 | 2 |
| Kent | 21 | 6 |
The Code of Practice for School Appeals came into operation for appeals in 2009, and can be found here (make sure you consult the 2009 version). Ther were minor changes for 2010, but it was decided not to issue a fresh booklet.