Note on Coronavirus: There are various references to school admission appeals in this article, based on normal expectations . At the time of writing there is no information about the procedure to be adopted this year, except that it has to be very different from normal, as explained here.
The number of Kent grammar school places available for Year Seven pupils has risen by 70 places overall since last year, to 5,540, with a total increase of 610 over the past five years. The main changes are 30 additional places at each of three North West Kent grammars, Gravesend and Wilmington Boys & Girls grammars, together with a reduction of 30 places at Tunbridge Wells Boys (but may well be reversed at appeal time). The number of places offered before appeals is 5,417, up by 195 from 5,212 in 2019. A major cause for this is an increase in the total pass rate for grammar selection from 25.7% in 2019 to 26.6% for 2020 entry.
Around 400 of the Kent grammar school places offered, or 7% (down from 8% in 2019) of the total, went to pupils from outside of the county (ooc), with 154 Kent pupils (down from 223) going to out of county grammars, mainly in Medway. 150 ooc pupils coming in were offered places at the two Dartford Grammar schools with the pressure on places at these two schools continuing to rise inexorably. Dartford Grammar School had an astonishing 409 grammar qualified first choices turned down for its 180 places, up from 336 in 2019. The next most popular schools were unsurprisingly Dartford Girls, The Judd School, Skinners, Tonbridge Grammar, and Wilmington Boys, in the same order as 2019. The number of vacancies has fallen sharply from 217 in 2019 to 123 this year across six schools.
Thanet is a surprising black spot for grammar school applications, with Dane Court and Chatham & Clarendon turning down 79 grammar qualified first choices between them. At least 47 of these had no alternative local grammar school to meet their needs. This follows a sharp raise in the proportion of Thanet children being assessed selective from 19% in 2018, to 23% this year.
I look below at the outcomes by area in more detail, including levels of oversubscription and vacancies. you will find full details of the 2019 Kent selection process here.
Please note that some numbers are approximate for two reasons. Pupils on Education Health Care Plans are not included in the data I have been provided with and I have estimated these. Secondly KCC does not provide exact figures where numbers are less than five, which for example explains the approximation in ooc figures. For simplicity I have used my best estimate in such circumstances.
You will find: the equivalent article for 2020 Kent non-selective schools here; an initial article on allocation here, that also provides cut off scores for the super selective schools; the 2019 equivalent article here; and for Medway grammar schools here.
You will find application numbers, appeal statistics and academic performance for the past few years, together with the Ofsted record for each school at the Individual Schools section of this website. Please let me know of any not up to date that you would wish to see, and I will revise them.
Please note that all statistics in this website refer to grammar qualified children, both via the Kent Test and also through local Tests available through six grammar schools as explained below. My analysis of 2019 Kent Test outcomes for 2020 entry is here.
To find allocation details and commentary for Individual Schools in:
Immediately below is a full list of those schools oversubscribed by more than 25 first choices (grammar qualified) over places. This pattern will change following re-allocation and successful appeals in coming months, which can alter the picture significantly, as schools admit additional pupils. In some cases these are drawn from other grammars. Last year 29% of the 1,982 Kent grammar school appeals were successful ranging from none at Dartford Girls through to 86% at Highsted, followed by 70% at Simon Langton Girls and 66% at Maidstone Girls.
Apart from the Thanet oversubscription, the biggest individual surprise is probably at Skinners in the second year of its new admission criteria. The increase in the aggregate pass score in the Kent Test explained here, whilst not changing the proportion of children passing, has had an unintended consequence at the school. This has seen the cut off distance for the majority of offers shrinking dramatically as explained below.
MOST OVERSUBSCRIBED KENT GRAMMAR
SCHOOLS ON ALLOCATION 2020
|
|||||
GRAMMAR
SCHOOL
|
PLACES
OFFERED
|
QUALIFIED
1ST CHOICES
TURNED DOWN
|
OOC*
OFFERS
|
APPEALS
2019
|
APPEALS
UPHELD
2019
|
Dartford | 180 | 409 | 81 | 130 | 6 |
Dartford Girls | 180 | 246 | 69 | 91 | 0 |
Judd | 180 | 167 | 17 | 58 | 9 |
Skinners | 160 | 148 | 21 | 53 | 4 |
Tonbridge | 180 | 105 | 29 | 30 | 2 |
Wilmington Boys | 150 | 64 | 18 | 114 | 8 |
Maidstone | 205 | 60 | 0 | 68 | 18 |
Dane Court | 165 | 50 | 0 | 68 | 21 |
Wilmington Girls | 150 | 36 | 46 | 91 | 4 |
Sir Roger Manwood's | 150 | 34 | 5 | 31 | 10 |
Simon Langton Boys | 150 | 31 | 0 | 21 | 10 |
Chatham & Clarendon | 180 | 29 | 0 | 130 | 18 |
Tunbridge Wells Girls | 145 | 29 | 5 | 30 | 8 |
Weald of Kent | 300 | 27 | 55 | 96 | 19 |
All appeals at the six schools in the table below will be from children with a non-selective decision after the Kent Test procedure and most of the vacancies will vanish after appeals and late applications. Last year there were just four schools with vacancies at the October 2019 census in Year Seven: Dover Grammar Boys’ with 15; Tunbridge Wells Boys with 13 (having increased its Admission number by 30); Norton Knatchbull 10 (admission umber increased by 60); and Oakwood Park 2.
Four schools with vacancies in 2019 filled this year: Barton Court (5 empty spaces last year now one first choice oversubscribed); Borden (16 last year, 9); Highworth (21 last year, 2); Oakwood Park (41 last year, 0);
KENT GRAMMAR SCHOOLS WITH VACANCIES, MARCH 2020 | ||||
GRAMMAR SCHOOL |
PLACES
AVAILABLE
|
VACANCIES |
APPEALS
2019
|
APPEALS
UPHELD 2019
|
Maidstone Girls | 180 | 55 | 114 | 75 |
Norton Knatchbull | 210 | 23 | 66 | 37 |
Dover Boys | 150 | 23 | 9 | 4 |
Simon Langton Girls | 165 | 19 | 44 | 31 |
Highsted | 150 | 3 | 75 | 45 |
Invicta | 240 | 1 | 89 | 20 |
Individual School Survey. This looks at the situation for each Kent grammar school, below, including the number of first choices offered. At my request, KCC included the number of children with Education Health Care Plans offered places in these figures, otherwise they would have redacted this information (as happened last year).