What is happening with kent test 2014?

[frangipani]

oooh! I can't help feeling a little excited about the prospect of an announcement!
Feels like we've been waiting forever and I'm really looking forward to having a sense of direction with our prep.

[mystery]

You are assuming that the announcement will tell us something!

[frangipani]

You are assuming that the announcement will tell us something!

Good point!

Excitement has faded

[LouLouD]

The Final Tender Document says Service Commencement Date is 23rd October.

[fatbananas]

I've emailed the person on the KCC business portal and, similarly, not a dickie bird....

This might be a bit off topic, but am I right in understanding that Judd school get KCC funding? If so, how can they justify having no catchment area? If they had local authority funding, shouldn't they make sure they were funding purely for local DC?

No schools have catchment areas. All schools have to treat children from over the borders the same as children from within the borders. Most of the funding for all schools comes from central government, not from Council Tax. Council Tax does not go very far.

So what's the thing with a cut off score for MGS and then certain parishes, or a certain score and within 9 miles for Simon Langton? And the fact that Judd and Skinners are supposedly super-selective because they have no catchment area - at least that's how I understood it, but I'm new and learning!

[LouLouD]

This is taken straight from MGS's website. DS1 goes there.

Oversubscription Criteria

Entry is through the Kent age 11 assessment procedure. When the school is oversubscribed (the School’s Planned Admission Number is 175), the following oversubscription criteria will be used in the order shown:

1. Qualifying children who are looked after children.
2. Children resident in one of the parishes listed below, with a combined score of 390 or more, in order of (a) siblings and (b) those living the shortest distance from the school.
3. Other qualifying children resident in one of the listed parishes, in the order of (a) siblings and (b) those living the shortest distance from the school.
4. Other qualifying children, in the order of (a) siblings and (b) those living the shortest distance from the school.
The parishes in question are those of Addington, Aylesford (South), Barming, Bearsted, Bicknor, Birling, Borough Green, Boughton Malherbe, Boughton Monchelsea, Boxley, Bredhurst, Broomfield and Kingswood, Burham, Chart Sutton, Collier Street, Coxheath, Detling, Ditton, Downswood, East Farleigh, East Malling and Larkfield, East Sutton, Eccles, Frinsted, Harrietsham, Headcorn, Hollingborne, Hucking, Hunton, Ightham, Kings Hill, Langley, Leeds, Lenham (includes Lenham Heath), Leybourne, Linton, Loose, Maidstone, Marden, Mereworth, Nettlestead, Offham, Otham, Platt, Ryarsh, Snodland, Stansted, Staplehurst, Stockbury, Sutton Valence, Teston, Thurnham, Tovil, Trottiscliffe, Ulcombe, Wateringbury, West Farleigh, West Malling, West Peckham, Wichling, Wormshill, Wrotham, Wouldham, Yalding (includes Laddingford). See the note about transport below.

Definitions:

Looked After Children/Children in Local Authority Care
A child under the age of 18 years for whom the local authority provides accommodation by agreement with their parents/carers (Section 22 of the Children Act 1989) or who is the subject of a care order under Part IV of the Act. This applies equally to children who immediately after being looked after by the local authority became subject to an adoption, residence or special guardianship order. (As defined by Section 46 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 or Section 8 or 14A of the Children Act 1989).

Qualifying
A child who has been assessed as suitable for admission to grammar school. To be eligible boys should be assessed through the Kent Age 11 Selection Procedure.

Sibling/Current Family Association
A brother or sister attending the School when the child starts. In this context brother or sister means children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers and sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters and foster brothers and sisters.

Distance/Nearness of children’s home to school
The school uses measurements provided by the LA. The LA use the distance between the child’s permanent home address and the school, measured in a straight line using Ordnance Survey address point data. Distances are measured from a point defined as within the child’s home to a point defined as within the school as specified by Ordnance Survey. The same address point on the school site is used for everybody.

Child’s Home address
A child’s home address is considered to be a residential property that is the child’s only or main residence (not an address at which the child may sometimes stay or sleep) and which is either owned by the child’s parent, parents or guardian or leased or rented to them under a lease or written or rental agreement. Where partners live apart but share responsibility for the child, and the child lives at two different addresses during the week, we will regard the home address as the one at which the child sleeps for the majority of week days.

[mystery]

Yes - and I don't think you can put anything into oversubscription criteria which specifies that a child one side a county boundary will get higher priority than children on the other side.

[mystery]

The Final Tender Document says Service Commencement Date is 23rd October.

Yep - you're right. I was just looking down at the bottom of the page on the Kent Business Portal but clicking into the document itself gives that date. It's still an estimated timetable though.

If the Kent Business Portal is kept up to date it doesn't look as though it has been awarded yet.

[themadcatlady]

Let's hope the announcement doesn't take too long and that it has at least some indication of what we can expect, next year. It seems like a stressful enough process to go through anyway, without all this uncertainty!

[twellsmum]

Pretty sure that TWGGS gives priority to Kent girls so that if you had two girls out of catchment with the same score, one living three miles away in Frant and one living 15 miles away in Sevenoaks then the child from Sevenoaks would get priority as they live in Kent over the Frant child who lives in Sussex.