KENT 11-Plus Exams

Administration

The examination in Kent (excluding Bexley and Medway) will be administrated by Kent County Council.

General Advice

Before you fill in the Kent Common Application Form (CAF) make sure that you have read and understood the oversubscription criteria for the schools you are listing. You need to think carefully about whether your child is likely to meet these criteria. You will be asked to stipulate 3 preferences on the CAF. One of the most important criteria for many schools is the distance you live from the school. The distances from which schools allocate places change from year to year, depending on demand. You may need to check with the school whether they have been able to admit children from your address in recent years. When deciding your preferences, be realistic about whether you live in the right place.

Grammar Schools in the Kent area

Ashford, Maidstone and Shepway area

Folkestone School for Girls
The Harvey Grammar
Highworth Grammar School for Girls
Invicta Grammar
Maidstone Grammar
Maidstone Grammar School for Girls
The Norton Knatchbull
Oakwood Park Grammar

Canterbury, Dover, Swale (excluding Sheppey) and Thanet area

Barton Court Grammar
Borden Grammar
Chatham House Grammar
Clarendon House Grammar
Dane Court Grammar
Dover Grammar School for Boys
Dover Grammar School for Girls
Highsted Grammar
Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar
Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar
Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys
Sir Roger Manwood’s School

Sevenoaks, Tonbridge & Tunbridge Wells area

The Judd School
Tonbridge Grammar School
The Skinners’ School
TunbridgeWells Grammar School for Boys
TunbridgeWells Girls’ Grammar
Weald of Kent Grammar School

Dartford, Wilmington & Gravesham area

Dartford Grammar
Dartford Grammar School for Girls
Gravesend Grammar
Gravesend Grammar School for Girls
Wilmington Grammar School for Boys
The Grammar School for Girls, Wilmington.

Examination Dates 2008

8th January 2008: Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning
9th January 2008: Mathematics and Writing task (composition)

The dates for candidates applying from out of area will be individually notified.

Examination Format

The tests, taken in January 2008, are mathematics, verbal and non-verbal reasoning in a multiple-choice format.

Reasoning tests look at how quickly and efficiently children solve problems of increasing difficulty. These include questions using words or numbers and patterns and sequences. The tests are marked and the scores standardised.

Standardisation means that each child’s score can be compared with those achieved by other children of the same age. An allowance is made so that the youngest children are not disadvantaged.

Kent County Council also require children to complete a piece of writing under test conditions. This is not marked, but the Head teacher Appeals Panel may consider it at a later stage.

The examinations are multiple choice and set by Nfer. Note that Nfer has had a name change and will in future be called GL-Assessment though the content of the practice papers will not change.

Decision Process

The assessment decision is based on the test results. However, before you receive your decision, your child’s primary school head teacher will have the opportunity to appeal against assessment decisions they disagree with2. In such cases, a panel of head teachers, with representatives from local primary and secondary schools, consider all the relevant information before making a decision. This can include your child’s test scores, recent school work, the writing task and comments from your child’s current head teacher. The panel will expect to see a full range of work for a child, regardless of which scores may be below the threshold. An appeal will only be upheld by the Head teacher Panel if the panel is confident that the child will be well placed in a grammar school.

Parents have a right to appeal against the decision to refuse their child a place at their preferred school. If your preferred grammar school does not offer your child a place, Kent County Council will tell you how you can appeal against the decision.

Kent County Council Online Admissions

Kent County Council operate on online admissions system allow parents of Year 6 children who do not want to fill in the physical Kent Common Application Form to do so online. Their website is: www.Kent.gov.uk/ola

Kent Timetable

September 2007
You will receive information on secondary transfer from Kent County Council through your child’s primary school
September/October 2007
Schools hold open events
19th October 2007
You must have returned your Kent Common Application Form to your child’s primary school by this date, or applied online. Applications received after 19 October 2007 will not be considered with those received on time. Kent County Council will try to meet your preferences after we have dealt with all others that were received on time.
8th & 9th January 2008
Examinations held (see above)
3 March 2008
You will be posted a letter on this date by Kent County Council to let you know the secondary school place they are offering your child. The letter should arrive on 4 March 2008.
25 March 2008
By this date you should have:
- made any appeal you wish to for a school you have named but haven’t been offered
- OR let Kent County Council know if you are not accepting a school place you have been offered
- OR let the school you have been offered know if you wish to accept the place
- OR asked to be put on the waiting list for schools you want

National Allocation Day

On 3 March 2008 Kent LA will write to Kent parents offering places. You will receive only ONE offer. You must let the school know by 25 March 2008 whether or not you want the place. This is important, because if you do not let them know that you want the place, they can offer that place to someone else, and you will lose it. You can also lose your school place if the information you put on your application form is later found to be incorrect.

If you have not been offered the school(s) you wanted, our letter will tell you how to appeal for a place. If you make an appeal for a place at a school, an independent panel will look at why you were not offered a place there, and decide whether there is a good reason to change that decision. This is separate from asking to go on a waiting list in case any spaces come up at the school. If you have applied for a Kent school but do not live in Kent your home LA will write to tell you which school you have been offered.

Kent Waiting Lists

PLEASE NOTE: A grammar school can only put children on its waiting list who have been assessed suitable for grammar school.

Each oversubscribed school will keep a waiting list, prioritised according to its oversubscription criteria. If the number of children who want to take up places drops below the school’s Published Admission Number, the school must use its waiting list to decide who gets the vacant places, whether or not it plans to hold appeals later in the year. Schools can offer places to children on their waiting list after 27 March 2008, when the Admissions Scheme ends.

Everyone who is added to the waiting list will be ranked in priority order according to the school’s oversubscription criteria, including children who apply after 27 March2.

Schools with vacancies against their Published Admission Number will offer those places on 28 March 2008. After that, they will offer vacant places as they come up. A school which has reached its Published Admission Number cannot offer places over that number, except through the independent appeal process.

Putting your child’s name on the waiting list for a school will not stop you appealing for a place there: you can do both2. Putting your child’s name on the waiting list for one school will not prejudice an appeal for another, and appealing for one school will not affect your position on the waiting list for another.

Kent Appeals

You can appeal for any school you have been turned down for, but if it is a Kent school please do your best to make sure that your appeal is received by Tuesday, 25 March 2008. This will help the people who organise a school’s appeal hearings to try to arrange for all the appeals for that school to be considered at the same time, and by the same panel, which is what the School Admission Appeals Code of Practice recommends. Do not wait for the outcome of one appeal, or the offer of a place at another school before appealing: you can always withdraw an appeal request later.

Appeals received after 25 March will need to be accompanied by a reasonable explanation as to why they are late. It is best if all appeals can be heard at one time: a late appeal may have to be heard after others for the same school.

Parents who have appealed unsuccessfully for a particular Kent school may not apply for a place at the same school within the academic year unless they can show there has been a significant and material change in their circumstances since the appeal.

Once the Kent scheme to co-ordinate admissions ends, schools will allocate any vacant places that come up to children on their waiting lists. They can also consider new applications after 27 March 2008.

If you have not been able to get a place at any of the schools you named on the CAF, and you are still not happy with the place you have been offered, you can apply directly to other secondary schools in Kent. If they cannot offer you a place, they will explain how you can appeal, and whether they can add your child’s name to a waiting list. Children who join a waiting list after 27 March 2008 are ranked according to the school’s published oversubscription criteria, not according to when they applied.

Kent Consultation 2008

The Kent Local Education Authority conducted a consultation this year.

The consultation received almost 3000 responses and 60% of these were in favour of giving parents the outcome of assessment decisions before they make their school preferences.

It is expected that the Kent 11 plus exams will be moved to September in 2009 following a period of consultation by the local education authority.

Parents should expect to register for testing in June 2008 if a decision is made to deliver testing before preference and details of how and when to register will be made available as soon as a decision is taken.

Consequently it is expected that the relevant dates for entry 2009 at Kent County Council will be as follows:

2 June 2008
Registration for Testing opens
11 July 2008
Closing date for Registration
18/19 September 2008
Test Date
20th October 2008
Assessment Decision sent to Parents
Common Application Form Closing Date
14 November 2008
5 December 2008
First Data Exchange with Neighbouring Authorities
12 December 2008
Applicant Numbers to schools (including info for those needing to arrange additional testing)
5 January 2009
Applicant details sent to schools to apply oversubscription criteria
30 January 2009
Ranked Lists returned to LA by all schools
20 February 2009
Secondary schools sent lists of allocated pupils – primary schools informed of destination of their pupils
2 March 2009
National Offer Day
26 March 2009
Date by which places should be accepted or declined

Further Information

Admissions and Transport Team
Kent County Council
Education Department
Room 2.24, Sessions House
County Hall
Maidstone
Kent
ME14 1XQ

Tel: 01622 696565

E-mail: kent.admissions@kent.gov.uk