Secondary school admission for kids outside the county

[Reetu]

Hiya, Though my daughter will be giving the 11+ exam for kent this year . I wanted to know what is the percentage of admissions outside county. as I am from outside county can anybody help me out where the criteria and percentage of admission for outside county explained for kent secondary schools.
Thanks
Reetu

[mystery]

You need to read the admissions policy for each kent school that you are interested in.

[Ladymuck]

Last year a total of 5,370 children passed the Kent Test, 4,072 from Kent and 1298 who come from out of county. Only 277 out of county children took up Kent Grammar places, of which 170 came from Bromley and Bexley to the 4 Dartford grammar schools.

I assume that the reason why the percentage out of county getting spaces is so low is that there are not many grammars which are so close to the border that you would get in on distance (only possibly the Dartford schools). I believe that the only other way for an out of county child to get a Kent grammar place is at one of the superselective schools. So of 1298 who sat and passed from out of county, 107 went to superselectives and 170 went to the Dartford schools. Others of course may have had places at one of the Bromley or Sutton grammars schools, and had sat Kent as a back-up.

[Reetu]

Thanks for the reply ...any idea which secondary schools should I opt for who consider out of county applications....as it is hard to know which is good and which take into consideration out of county .

[Ladymuck]

Where do you live?

[Reetu]

I live in watford

[mystery]

Tonbridge grammar school.

[hermanmunster]

Watford seems quite a long way from Kent. Are you considering moving ?

[Ladymuck]

There are 35 spaces for girls out of Tonbridge catchment based on score. However I would check how many of these in practice go below 243 (max score). If they are all on 243 then distance is the tie break.

You would have to take the length of commute (as well as the cost!) into account as well.

[mystery]

The school should be able to give you year on year data. I am pretty sure the cut off for out of area children has been lower than 423. It is worth investigating it all and finding out how the waiting list works too e.g. Do they juggle two lists so that if an out of area child refuses a place after 1 march it is offered to the next out of area child by score, or of they are all just muddled up on the list.

Certainly you have to have a high score to get in, but it is a very good school. I presume that achieving a togs score is easier than a henrietta Barnett score, for example.