You will find preliminary information on Medway allocations here, and last year's article here.
Medway Council Policy on Late Entry to Grammar Schools
Medway Council has a policy that Medway children who did not apply for grammar school during the normal admission time are not allowed subsequently to take the test, and so cannot apply late. This is unlawful as the Schools Code of Admission states: 'Any parent can apply for a place for their child at any time to any school outside the normal admissions round'. The Admissions Code rule is applied in Medway to out of county (ooc) children however, with a large number of candidates shortly to take the Medway Test. Of course, this means serious and unlawful discrimination against Medway children. Each year I am approached by families caught up in such muddles created by Medway Council. Bizarrely, I wrote last year of seven boys, mostly from Medway, who applied late to Holcombe Grammar and were allowed to take the Test late, which appears to contradict this year's interpretation!.
Kent Test
The two Chatham grammar schools chose to accept a pass in the Kent Test as an alternative admission criterion some years ago, with just five being offered places at Chatham Girls and 16 at Holcombe Grammar. Again one has to ask if this is a worthwhile exercise especially as many if not most of these children will be ooc.
A previous item established that 756 children who attended Medway state schools, or exactly 23.0%, passed the Medway Test, another 34 coming from local private schools. The stressful and flawed Medway Review process, explained here added another 12 children from Medway schools (eight girls and four boys), with none from private schools or outside Medway. Not for the first time I have been shown two Review sheets containing identical written comments, prepared for children from different schools, presumably in the hope they would not be caught out.
| Medway Test and Review Outcomes 2018 | |||||||
| Cohort |
Passed
Test
|
Passed
Test %
|
Entered
Review
|
Passed
Review
|
Passed
Review %
|
Overall
Pass Rate
|
|
| Medway | 3286 | 756 | 23.01 | 161 | 12 | 0.37 | 23.38% |
| Medway Private | 71 | |
10 | 0 |
0 | ||
| Outside Medway | 659 | 44 | 0 | 0 | |||
The target success rate is 25%, so 53 Medway children were deprived of grammar school places by the failure of the Review process.
Offers across the Medway Boundary
The take up of places in the six Medway grammar schools from outside the District is very similar to 2017, at 185, or 19% of the total uptake. It is focused on three schools, Chatham Girls, Holcombe Grammar and Rochester Grammar, as explained below. As one would expect, the majority come from Kent, 109 pupils and, I suspect, most will take up those places in September. The next highest cohort of 34 children comes from Greenwich and, as far as the two two Chatham grammars are concerned, I believe are there because they have failed to gain entrance to the nearer grammar schools in Gravesend or Dartford. This is also probably true of the 21 from Bexley. Rochester Grammar may be different as it carries a cachet for some families, willing to see their daughters travel long distances daily from the age of eleven to take advantage of what is on offer. But what about the: three from Croydon; three from Newham; and three from Thurrock.
15 Medway children have been offered places at nine grammar schools across the boundary, the largest number of five being to Invicta Grammar in Maidstone.
Individual Grammar Schools
Chatham Grammar School for Girls
The school has had a recent roller coaster ride with admissions. Three years ago, they admitted just 93 girls into Year 7 although it had an intake figure of 142, after a disastrous decision to limit the school to three forms of entry, placing a cap on appeals. That cohort number has now fallen to 85. In 2016, the intake rose to 114, then for 2017 admission the school was adopted by London families as a stop gap grammar school who found nothing nearer, and its Year 7 roll is currently standing at 183 girls. The school has now made just 83 offers for 2018 entry, its lowest figure for three years, and now utterly dependent on the 26 ooc girls allocated places, with 13 coming from Kent, seven from Greenwich and four from Bexley. The school had raised its Planned Admission Number (PAN) to 180 this year to cater for the large final number expected from outside Medway as in 2017, but they have not come. Fewer than half of the total offers were for first choices, so some may well fade away. I am guessing that a larger number than usual may be successful at appeal! Meanwhile, the school, having given responsibility for admissions to Medway Council, is unable to accept much needed late applications from Medway girls although this decision is unlawful - what a mess! It is now essentially run by the non-selective Brompton Academy as part of the University of Kent Academy Trust.
Fort Pitt
I think FP is the only grammar school in Kent or Medway which has resolutely refused to increase its PAN from the 120 it has maintained for many years. The school should certainly have space to expand so if it wished, having reduced its PAN from 192, around ten years ago. It has been steadily losing popularity recently, but still turned away 17 grammar qualified first choices this year, down from 33 in 2017. The Independent Appeal Panel has never upheld more than four appeals in recent years.
Holcombe
Raised its PAN from 120 in 2017 to 150 this summer, following last year’s influx of out of county boys. It has just filled the 150 places, but with only 79 first choices, tailing away to 20 boys who placed it in 4th-6th place. These will include some of the 51 ooc boys, mainly from: Kent- 22: Bexley -13; and Greenwich- 10. It will inevitably lose some of these ooc places to schools nearer London, and others to Sir Joseph Williamson’s on appeal (see below). Has been mired in controversy over three issues in the past year. Given the numbers at Chatham Girls, this shows the failed proposal to become co-educational rejected by government last year was certainly not viable in the context of events elsewhere in Medway. Looking at new staffing arrangements, it appears the school is being taken over by the non-selective Victory Academy, also in the Thinking Schools Academy Trust.
Rainham Mark
This is the first year of the school’s switch away from super-selective to giving priority to local children. The number of first preferences has gone up and, pleasingly for school and local families I am sure, the number of disappointed first preferences has halved to 33, helped by the school increasing its intake from 205 to 235 children. With 226 first choices offered places and nine second, this is certainly a different pattern form previous years, which saw considerable numbers of ooc children gaining places. Appeal Panels have rarely awarded places to more than six children, almost exclusively those who have passed the Medway Test. Will they come up with a different approach with the new admission priorities?
Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School
Maintained last year’s increase on PAN from 180 to 203, turning away 54 grammar qualified first choices. It also gives priority to those living nearest, so it is no surprise that it offered to 192 first choices and 11 second. There is a usual pattern at appeals of around 20 boys being offered places and, with an admission pattern close to 2017, although the number of first choices has risen, I would anticipate a similar outcome.
The Rochester Grammar School
Has kept its intake at 205 girls, as in 2017, 30 places above its PAN, and normally allowing a neat maximum of five places for appeal. Perhaps there is a growing sense of realism around as the level of first choice oversubscription has fallen from 87, to 55, but still the highest of the Medway grammars. The tail off of offers to the lower preferences up to number five, after the 186 first choices accepted is perhaps expected with 40% of them, or 81 girls coming from outside Medway. This includes 47 from Kent and 17 from Greenwich.
