Kent Secondary Statistics on Admission and Appeals

All data on this page is provided by Kent County Council, often under the Freedom of Information Act. Many thanks to officers for their co-operation.

11 Plus Test Results for 2012 Entry

The Kent pass mark is an aggregate of 360 from the three tests, with a requirement for all three scores to be 319 or greater. This standard is chosen to select 21% of all children in the Kent selective areas. Children from the non-selective areas of Kent (served by Angley School, Homewood School, Longfield Academy, Mascall's School, Marsh Academy) and out county candidates have to achieve the same scores. Another 4% of children in the selective areas are added through the headteacher assessment procedure, to bring the total to 25%. The following table shows the outcomes of the test.

Kent Grammar School Assessments for Year 6 children, for Admission in September 2012

	boys	girls	total	% boys	% girls	Total %
Living In area	7008	6827	13835	51%	49%	100%
In area who sat test	3717	3939	7656	53.0%	57.7%	55%
Automatic Pass	1452	1326	2778	20.7%	19.4%	20.1%
Headteacher Assessment	647	847	1494	9.2%	12.4%	10.8%
Headteacher Assessment pass	322	460	782	4.6%	6.7%	5.7%
Total Passes	1774	1786	3560	25.3%	26.1%	25.7%
Out area who sat test	543	545	1058
Automatic Pass	185	172	357
Headteacher Assessment	83	134	217
Headteacher Assessment Pass	41	54	95
Total Out Area Passes	226	226	452
Out of County Tested	1258	1087	2345
Out of County Automatic Pass	698	559	1257
OOC Headteacher Assessment	63	51	114
OOC HTA Pass	24	25	49
Total OOC Passes	722	584	1306

The number of out county chldren successful in the Kent Test is up from the 1156 of 2010, but only a small proportion of these children actually take up places in Kent grammar schools (137 boys and 117 girls offered places in Kent Grammar schools in March 2011 for admission in September).

You will find the data for previous years below but, as I have collected it in more detail for 2012 entry, it is not directly comparable.

Secondary School Transfer 2011 Entry

Please note that all data below is based on the situation on 1st March. There is considerable subsequent movement before the start of the new school year in September.

Kent County Council figures show a pleasing increase in the number of children being offered their first choice secondary school on 1^st March, up from 80% in 2010 to 83% in 2011. Just 413 got none of their choices. With nearly 500 fewer Kent children in the system, waiting lists for popular schools were generally much lower this year.

However, 66 Kent children who passed the Kent Test and named a grammar school on there application form received none of their preferences. Another 69 such children were offered a place at a non-selective school below the highest placed grammar school on their list (who had presumably put this down as a safety net). KCC in their publicity did not recognise this lattter group as having lost out on a grammar school place although qualified.

Last year the eighteen most popular schools each turned away more than 50 children who put them in first place, but this year the same number of schools sees the bar drop to 40 places oversubscribed.

Leigh Technology Academy (Dartford) remains Kent’s most popular school for the fourth year running, with 199 disappointed first choice applicants. Second comes Tonbridge Grammar, with 104 girls who had passed the eleven plus turned away. After Westlands (Sittingbourne) on 94, comes Dartford Grammar School with 88, entering the lists for the first time as applicants from the London Boroughs realised the school was accessible, a third of the places going to high scoring applicants from out of county. Next in line was Judd School (grammar, Tonbridge), followed by: Valley Park School (Maidstone); Fulston Manor School (Sittingbourne); Brockhill Park Performing Arts College (Hythe); Brompton Academy (Gillingham); King Ethelbert School (Margate – new entry); and The Thomas Aveling School (Rochester).

Then follows Skinner’s School (grammar, Tunbridge Wells ), slipping from its position as most popular grammar school in 2010, and: Folkestone Academy; Dartford Grammar School for Girls; Canterbury High School; Hillview School for Girls (Tonbridge); Bennett Memorial Diocesan School (Tunbridge Wells); and Simon Langton Girls Grammar School (Canterbury – new entry).

At the other end of the scale, four Kent schools were over half empty before KCC drafted in additional children who had been offered none of their choices: Skinner’s Kent Academy; Angley School (Cranbrook); Walmer Science College, and New Line Learning Academy (Maidstone). One wonders how some of these schools can continue to function with finances depending on pupil numbers.

The school with the greatest increase in popularity was Dartford Grammar School (up 55 disappointed first choices), the biggest loser was surprisingly Homewood School in Tenterden, down 100, but still oversubscribed.

The pressure of out of county children taking up places in Kent grammar schools was once again greatest in the North West of the county, with 189 children taking up places in the four Dartford Grammar Schools (52 of these coming from as far away as Lewisham and Greenwich) as opposed to just 57 in the three West Kent super selectives, both figures very similar to last year.

Many of these figures will have changed between March and September, as parents had to decide whether to accept places offered, others being offered places off the waiting lists. As many as 700 further children may have gained places through the appeal procedure.

Kent Pupils	2011		2010		2009		2008
No. of pupils	No. of pupils	%	No. of pupils	%	No. of pupils	%	No. of pupils
Offered a school named on the application form	15032	97.33%	15,270	96.1%	15,504	95.5%	15,396	95%
Offered a first preference	12775	82.71%	12,725	80.1%	12,769	78.5%	11,508	70.5%
Offered a second preference	1567	10.15%	1,753	11.0%	1,850	11.5%	2,750	17%
Offered a third preference	533	3.45%	595	3.7%	640	4%	1,138	7%
Offered a fourth preference	157	1.02%	197	1.2%	245	1.5%	N/A	N/A
Allocated by Local Authority	413	2.67	620	3.9%	773	4.5%	840	5.5%
Total number of Kent pupils offered	15445		15,890		16,277		16,236

The 2011 figures include 443 offers made to Kent pupils at out of county secondary schools.

The 2010 figures include 481 offers made to Kent pupils at out of county secondary schools.

Year	2011	2010	2009	2008
Out of County Applicants	1671	1,532	1,554	1,795
Out of County Offers	513	532	521	556

Year	2011	2010	2009	2008
Total Numbers of Pupils in the Cohort	17133	17,422	7,831	18,134

Secondary school transfer 2010 entry

On allocation day in March, for 2010, most oversubscribed school in Kent for the third consecutive year was the Leigh Academy in Dartford, turning away 218 first choices. This is followed for non -selective schools by, in order: Valley Park School- 112, Homewood School - 110, North School Ashford - 96, Fulston Manor School - 83, Westlands School - 78, Bennett Memorial Diocesan School and Folkestone Academy - 64, Brockhill Park School - 60, Sandwich Technology College - 57, Mascalls School - 55, Charles Dickens School - 53, and Hayesbrook School - 50. All others are less than 50.

Newcomers to the list are: Brockhill Park (up from 17), Sandwich Technology (up from 48), and Hayesbrook (up from 29). Out go: Aylesford (down from 68 to 15), Maplesdon Noakes (55 to27 ), St Simon Stock (53 to 11) and Cornwallis (50 to 30 )

For grammar schools most first choices turned away - Skinners School with 115 (up from 92 but see below); then Judd School- 88 (in top two for past two years); Tonbridge Grammar School - 77 (top last year); Weald of Kent Grammar School - 50; Dartford Grammar School for Girls - 47; Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Girls - 39; Maidstone Grammar School - 36; Dartford Grammar School - 35; Queen Elizabeth's Grammar SChool - 34; Simon Langton Grammmar School for Boys - 34; Sir Roger Manwoods School - 33; and Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys 32. All others had fewer than 30.

The caution with regard to Skinners is that many parents put them second to Judd and this year in particular the figures are skewed with Skinners offering places to 73 first choices, 39 second choices and 3 third choices (St Olave's is often the third school in this triangle)). Over at Judd there were 120 first choices and 2 second choices offered places so I would argue that Judd is the more oversubscribed – the vagaries of the system!

The Judd School has offered 16 places off the waiting list on 31st March. Clearly this will have a corresponding knock on figure for The Skinners School who initially offered 6 further places.

Also of note are Longfield Academy up 72 first preferences from 64 to 136 (turning away 22 of these), Oakwood Park Grammar School up 54 (turning away 15 of these) , Chaucer Technology College up 45, Swan Valley Community School up 43.

For all the above schools, waiting lists and appeals will see numbers of the children turned away eventually offered places at their first choice school.

There were just 5 Medway schools with vacancies before Medway Council reallocated children who had been given none of their choices. After reallocation, Bishop of Rochester Academy and St John Fisher RC were full, whilst Hundred of Hoo, Chatham Grammar Boys and Chatham Grammar Girls still have spare places. 151 places were taken up by Kent children nearly every school accepting some; with 116 Medway children going the other way into Kent - nearly half of these to Holmesdale. 68 out of the 298 children entered for Medway Reviews were successful.

The following grammar schools each had more than ten vacancies on March 1st: Borden, Clarendon House, Dover Grammar Boys, Folkestone Girls, Harvey, Highworth (heavily oversubscribed with first choices last year!), Invicta. The following grammar schools have four or fewer vacancies (none between four and ten!): Gravesend Boys (heavily oversubscribed with first choices last year!), Gravesend Girls, Wilmington Boys, Wilmington Girls. All other Kent grammar schools were full on National Offer Day.

Non selective schools with vacancies, that were full last year: Hextable, Meopham, Northfleet Girls, St Edmunds Dover, St George's Gravesend, St John's Gravesend, Walmer, Wilmington Enterprise.

Non selective schools full that had vacancies last year: Castle Community, Longfield Academy.

Please note that even though a school is full according to the Planned Admission Number, appeals can and will be successful in some cases. An Independent Appeal Panel has the right to instruct schools to take additional children. Last year the number of successful appeals at oversubscribed schools in Kent ranged from nil to 38. Further, where a grammar school has vacancies, the appeal panel is under no obligation to fill these and won't if there are insufficient children of a 'grammar school standard'.

Five Kent schools had over half their places empty before the Local Authority allocated children, who had not been offered any of their choices, to them.

Secondary School Appeal Statistics for 2010 entry

I do not publish statistics for individual school appeals, as these are determined by Appeal Panels, not by the schools themselves and so can vary enormously year by year.

Type of Appeal	Number	Successes	% success rate
Community Non Selective Schools	88	45	51
Community Grammar Schools	336	128	40
Foundation & VA Non Sel Schools, organised by KCC	425	247	58
Foundation & VA Grammar Schools, organised by KCC	543	174	32
Foundation & VA Non Sel Schools, appeals not organised by KCC	30	27	75
Foundation & VA Grammar Schools, not organised by KCC	362	135	37
Academies	91	29	22
Total	1696	612	36

Please note:

1) Appeals are only heard for places at grammar schools or non selective schools that are oversubscribed. Grammar school appelas can be against a decision that the child is not of grammar school ability, that the school is full, or both.

2) the Foundation and VA Non Selective Appeal figures are distorted by 4 schools whose combined 132 appeals were all successful.

3) The Academy figures is distorted by the Leigh Academy's 65 appeals.

4) Appeals not organised by KCC are managed by a number of different providers

11 Plus Test Results 2011 Entry

The source of the data on this page is Kent County Council. My thanks for their co-operation in this.

Category	2009 entry	2010 entry	2011 entry	change
	Number	Number		Number
Kent Entrants	9249	9418		-101
OutCounty Entrants	1992	2107		+115
Success Boys	2588	2561		-27
Success Girls	2549	2552		+3
Success Kent	4039	4120	4149	+81
OutCounty Success	1098	993	1156	-105

So, of the 11,255 children who sat the Kent Test in September, 5,113 were assessed selective, roughly the same number as last year (11,241). The number of out of county children sitting the test rose by 115, the number of Kent children fell by 101 reflecting a lower number in the age group. However, the number of Kent children passing is up by 81 to 4,120, whilst the number of out county children passing is down by 105 to 993.

There are 4,458 grammar school places in Kent, so if only Kent children were taking them up, there would be 338 spare places, nearly all in the East of the County. The great unknown is how many out of county children will take up Kent places, as many of them have multiple applications across different counties and Boroughs.

My sense of these figures is - little change.

I have now obtained information on the distribution of successful out of Kent 11 plus candidates, and this shows a remarkable shift in pattern. The number of successful candidates in East Sussex and Surrey is just 40, only 6 higher than the total that were offered places at Judd, Skinners or Tonbridge Grammar last year. As these schools only take high scorers, many of the ooc children will not be eligible and others will not apply for places. With the lower cohort size in West Kent this really promises to make life easier for many grammar school applicants in 2011. I am unable to suggest a reason why this reduction has happened, except the possibility that recent publicity has convinced some it is too difficult to gain entrance to these schools.

Another 302 ooc qualified ooc children come from other London Boroughs astride the rail mainline to Dartford, with 31 from Thurrock. We can assume that all those who are looking to Kent grammar schools realistically, and some will just have taken the test for practice, are looking to the two Wilmington and the two Dartford grammar schools, although the different oversubscription criteria for each afffects the number that will be admitted in the end.

To these, there needs to be added a further 130 Medway children, although many, if not most, of these have taken the Kent Test as a reserve to Medway grammar school places. Those looking seriously into Kent will be considering grammar schools in Gravesend, Maidstone or Sittingbourne, although the former are likely to come under additional pressure again from the out of county surge, as happened in 2009.

2010 Admissions

For 2010, Most oversubscribed school in Kent for the third consecutive year was the Leigh Academy in Dartford, turning away 218 first choices. This is followed for non -selective schools by, in order: Valley Park School- 112, Homewood School - 110, North School Ashford - 96, Fulston Manor School - 83, Westlands School - 78, Bennett Memorial Diocesan School and Folkestone Academy - 64, Brockhill Park School - 60, Sandwich Technology College - 57, Mascalls School - 55, Charles Dickens School - 53, and Hayesbrook School - 50. All others are less than 50.

The Judd School has offered 16 places off the waiting list on 31st March. Clearly this will have a corresponding knock on figure for The Skinners School who initially offered 6 further places.

For all the above schools, waiting lists and appeals will see numbers of the children turned away eventually offered places at their first choice school.

Non selective schools with vacancies, that were full last year: Hextable, Meopham, Northfleet Girls, St Edmunds Dover, St George's Gravesend, St John's Gravesend, Walmer, Wilmington Enterprise.

Non selective schools full that had vacancies last year: Castle Community, Longfield Academy.

Five Kent schools had over half their places empty before the Local Authority allocated children, who had not been offered any of their choices, to them.

Secondary school transfer statistics 2010 entry

Kent Pupils	2010		2009		2008
No. of pupils	No. of pupils	%	No. of pupils	%	No. of pupils
Offered a school named on the application form	15,270	96.1%	15,504	95.5%	15,396	95%
Offered a first preference	12,725	80.1%	12,769	78.5%	11,508	70.5%
Offered a second preference	1,753	11.0%	1,850	11.5%	2,750	17%
Offered a third preference	595	3.7%	640	4%	1,138	7%
Offered a fourth preference	197	1.2%	245	1.5%	N/A	N/A
Allocated by Local Authority	620	3.9%	773	4.5%	840	5.5%
Total number of Kent pupils offered	15,890		16,277		16,236

Year	2010	2009	2008
Out of County Applicants	1,532	1,554	1,795
Out of County Offers	532	521	556

Year	2010	2009	2008
Total Numbers of Pupils in the Cohort	17,422	17,831	18,134

Transfer Appeal Statistics 2009

LEA or Community Schools

School Type	Number of Appeals	Number of Successes	% Success Rate
Grammar	391	167	43
Non Selective	158	99	63
Primary	367	36	10

Please note that the large majority of successful primary appeals would be for junior classes, as Infant appeals are governed by Infant Class Legislation (see Primary admissions page).

Foundation and Voluntary Aided Schools

School Type	Number of Appeals	Number of Successes	% Success Rate
Grammar	562	201	36
Non Selective	215	104	48
Primary	82	Not known

In addition there are a number of schools that do not use KCC Appeal Panels. Statistics are not available for these.

Statistics vary enormously school by school. For grammar schools the proportion of successes range from 76% of 33 appeals (an LEA school) down to 7% of 108 appeals (a Foundation School). For non selective schools, there were five schools where all appeals were successful, but one Foundation school with just 10% of 20 appeals successful.

Secondary Transfer Statistics 2009 entry

There was a total of just 131 vacancies in Kent’s 33 grammar schools, at National Offer Day in 2009 mainly in the east of the county. The problem is that the 268 out county children who took up places in West and North West Kent Grammar schools displaced many children from these areas eastwards, some to grammar schools they cannot reach daily, with more than 40 boys West Kent boys offered places in Folkestone or Sittingbourne.

The biggest influx is into the four Dartford grammar schools with 29 children coming from Greenwich and another 15 from Lewisham. Bromley took up 59 Kent grammar school places, Bexley another 56 and East Sussex 50.

Most oversubscribed grammar school was Tonbridge (101 turned away), edging out Judd from last year (95). These were followed by Skinners, Dartford, Weald of Kent, Tunbridge Wells Boys, Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells Girls. This year’s problem is highlighted by these eight schools who all turned away more than 40 qualified first choices. Last year there were just three, the same top schools as last year.

However, for the second year running the most oversubscribed school in the county is the Leigh Academy in Dartford, rejecting 200 first choice applicants.

One striking feature of non selective school placements is the wide fluctuation in popularity from year to year. I think the biggest controversy in the county surrounds Valley Park School in South Maidstone, whose popularity has soared this year, turning away 106 first choices, up from 16 in 2008. Other non selective schools rejecting more than 60 first choices are: Folkestone Academy (newly rebuilt); Homewood (Tenterden); Bennett Memorial (Tunbridge Wells); Westlands (Sittingbourne), Charles Dickens (Broadstairs), North (Ashford), Archbishops’ (Canterbury); Aylesford (rebuilt under PFI and not even full last year); Mascalls (Paddock Wood) and Fulston Manor (Sittingbourne). Only half these schools were in this list last year showing how difficult it is to predict popularity.

At the other end of the scale, four schools were over half empty before children unsuccessful in any of their applications were allocated to them..

Secondary Transfer Appeal Statistics 2008

LEA or Community Schools

School type	Number of Appeals	Number of successes	% success rate
Grammar	456	184	40
Non Selective	126	68	54

Foundation or Voluntary Aided Schools

These are appeals organised by the KCC for these schools. Many Foundation and VA Schools organise their own appeals and I do not have data for these.

School Type	Number of Appeals	Number of successes	% success rate
Grammar	540	143	26
Non-Selective	185	101	55

Note: these statistics hide a multitude of sins. One LEA Grammar school had 55 successful appeals, others have very few. Grammar School appeals include both selection appeals (where the child do not pass the Kent test, and oversubscription appeals (where many appellants may have passed the Kent tests and be seeking a place in schools that are full).

Last modified on Friday, 09 December 2011 10:13

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