Medway 11 Plus

The New Schools Admissions Code, by law from 2012 , due to take effect for admissions for Entry in September 2013, states that schools must take all reasonable steps to inform parents of the outcome of tests before the closing deadline for applications on October 31st 2012.

Medway has six grammar schools, and one bilateral school (The Howard School).

Admissions criteria for the various schools differ, with some using distance from the school as a primary criterion, while others use the score achieved in the 11+ tests as the over-subscription criterion. It is therefore essential that parents check the admissions policies for each school extremely carefully before deciding on the rank order of schools for the Common Application Form.

The Appeals process in Medway is both complex and controversial.

For the 11+ tests in 2012 (for 2013 entry), it has been confirmed that children will take the test at their own primary school in Medway. Children from outside the area and those attending Medway primary schools that opted not to run the test, will take the 11+ at an independent centre. See below for more details.

The Chatham Grammar Schools are also accepting children who take the Kent tests.

Admissions Information for September 2013 entry

The pass mark in Medway is calculated as follows. Firstly the scores are standardised, giving a minimum score of 70 and a maximum score of 140. Then the individual test scores are weighted as follows:

1. The Verbal Reasoning test score is given a weighting of 1
2. The Maths and Extended Writing task are given a weighting of 2

Thus the test effectively consists of 20 percent Verbal Reasoning, 40 percent Mathematics and 40 percent English.

School Information

The Medway Review and Appeals Process

If your child is not successful in the Medway test and you wish to appeal against their result, you have two choices. You can apply for a Review of your child’s case or you can Appeal. If you have applied for a Review and it is not successful an Appeal can only be heard if there was a technical fault in the way that the Review was conducted.

The deadline for review requests is 12th October 2012, and parents are informed of the outcome of the review by 26th October 2012, before the deadline for submitting the Common Application Form.

The following extract from the Medway admissions brochure details the process of Reviews and Appeals in the County.

Review

If your child is deemed non-selective and you feel the scores do not reflect your child’s ability, you can request a review. You will be sent an information leaflet and form to complete with the test results. The form must be returned to the Admissions Team by 12th October 2012. We recommend that the decision to submit a review request is discussed with your child’s school, but it is a parental decision.

Your child’s primary school will be asked to provide work in maths, science and English and this will be reviewed by a panel. Supplementary material supplied by parents or other agencies will not be admissible. The panel will decide if the work demonstrates that your child is of grammar school ability and a number of children will be deemed selective through this process. The result of the review will be sent to you by 26 October 2012 before submission of your preferences. You do not have to undertake a review in order to appeal against the non-selective decision.

Appeals

If your child does not gain the score at testing to be deemed selective and was either not successful at review, or you chose not to undertake a review, then you can appeal against the decision to refuse admission to a selective school to an independent appeal panel. Details will be sent with your school allocation letter on 1 March 2013. You can submit more than one appeal simultaneously, but can only appeal for schools listed on your secondary transfer form. Letters of support from head teachers or other representatives of the school being appealed for are not admissible.

If you decide to request a review of your child’s test results it is important to note that the Appeals Panel will only be able to consider whether the review was carried out in a fair, consistent and objective way. Only if there is evidence that it was not fair, consistent and objective may the panel then consider any factors which you contend may have affected your child’s performance and any evidence you wish to present to support your claim that your child is of the required academic standard. If you go straight to appeal without a review of your child’s test results the panel will be able to consider these factors.

_{Page updated on 2nd May 2012}