Kent - doom and gloom email.

[MrsB]

These two paragraphs below are out of order in my opinion. There is a different way of making clear that some children won't have a cat in ***** chance of getting into a so-called "superselective" from out of area without putting off people who might have a chance. If I'd read this from over the border*, it might have put me off, but both mine have made well above ooc cut-off scores for out of county children for Kent superselectives --- and I don't think their class teachers would necessarily have been that encouraging. And I don't think comparing 445 with 4400 is particularly helpful without further interpretation.

"Many children will find the test difficult. Grammar schools in Kent provide for children in about the top 25% of the ability range. Some of Kent’s Grammar schools - particularly those which are most likely to offer places to children from outside Kent - give priority to those with the highest scores. If you have not already done so, you should check with your child’s primary school that they are doing well in class before committing them to take the Kent Test.

Passing the Kent Test does not guarantee your child a place in a Kent Grammar school. Many of our grammar schools still offer the majority of their places on the basis of straight line distance between your child’s home address and the school, so if they are oversubscribed not everyone who has passed will be offered a place . Consider how likely your child is to be offered a place at the school they want, and how they would travel to that school if a place was offered. Last year, around 4,400 children living outside KCC’s borders took the Kent Test, but only 455 went on to attend a Kent Grammar school."

* am not over the border though!

It reads to me like a letter stemming from their bitter experience. All they are saying is make sure your DC stands a cat in hells chance before you put them through it and use up the resource of a test place in an oversubscribed area. That's reasonable.

And as for "Consider how likely your child is to be offered a place at the school they want, and how they would travel to that school if a place was offered. Last year, around 4,400 children living outside KCC’s borders took the Kent Test, but only 455 went on to attend a Kent Grammar school". That's a pretty big difference. Were those parents just using it as a free practice test for an Indy exam, or were they genuinely thinking they would attend a Kent school and then changed their minds? Imagine it is 1 March, and your DC does not get an offer. You sit there for 3 months watching the waiting list go down ever so slowly, while someone with a higher score living miles away slowly comes to the reality that it is not going to be feasible. Would not wish that on anyone.

[salsa]

People at the borders often look at several schools. Around Bexley, most children take Kent, Bexley and Bromley. I can assure you that many parents do not realise how difficult it is to actually get a grammar place and it is often around the time of filling in the CAF that parents realise that there isn't much chance. It is sad, really. All that effort of preparing. However, they may then decide to have a go for the independents, also thinking that their children would land a substantial scholarship. Then they realise how difficult that is. I've seen this scenario countless times. Having a child at the top of their class does not mean that they will get a place at a selective school if you are OOC. The reality for the the OOC child is often a lot of hard work to get a place, hence all the preparation and why those who are in area cannot often understand why all the preparation. Waiting 3 months? Waiting for Allocation Day, waiting for an appeal (I hear that, this year, there were 150 appeals for Dartford Grammar), waiting for the waiting list to move... it goes on and on.

Salsa

[mystery]

Quite - there's way more reasons for the 400 out of 4000 out of county sitters taking up grammar places than just not being up to it or being tourists if you even half try to get your brain around it.

Whoever wrote this gloom and doom email should also get going on all the Kent school admissions information. How about:

"Before you put your child through the Kent test consider all these negatives:

-It's horribly difficult for the overwhelming majority of children and even if your child is assessed grammar suitable there might not be a place at the grammar school of your choice and some grammar schools select by score.

-The primary schools find it a real pain adminstering the test and so the fewer that sit it the better.

-Many parents and children get so disappointed when their child is not grammar assessed we have to answer phone calls etc etc and it's all rather dull year in year out dealing with the aftermath.

We could supply plenty more couldn't we!

And before you put any school, grammar school or not, down on the CAF think about this:

- it might well be a long way from where you live and your child might have to meet other children who live in other towns and even outside Kent - it can be a terrible shock to the system to find out that they have as much right to attend a school within the Kent boundary as them

- there might not be a place for your child at it so do make sure that you put a school on your CAF that is really quite unpopular so that you can be sure that you get one of your five choices and our statistics look better

- do consider schools outside Kent - they might be closer to your home address and they are generally very welcoming to Kent children

- some schools are extremely good and massively oversubscribed. Try not to put them first choice as you could be disappointed and it spoils our statistics

- if you are applying for a Kent school from outside Kent, read the school admissions policies extremely carefully. Admissions authorities are not really allowed to treat children from outside Kent any differently from those who live in Kent, but if you read many school policies carefully you will see that they have been carefully written to do this whilst still complying with the letter of the law. Additonally, many admission authorities have been careful to write their policies so that they get children from preferred towns, villages, feeder schools, district areas etc etc.

Plenty more to add here haven't we?"

[salsa]

Oh, Mystery, you are wicked! (in the nicest possible way )

[kingreader]

Not sure.

Do you not think it possible that the email has been sent out to answer a number of questions for which they are receiving a high volume of phone calls for?

e.g.

Question – Will my DC be allocated a test centre near to where we live and if we can’t get to the test centre allocated can we change to a different one?
Answer - The test centre we allocate may be a considerable distance from your home, and once we have allocated a test centre we will not be able to offer you a different date, time or venue.

Queston – Why have I not been allocated a test venue nearer to where I live?
Answer - This year, the Council has received a record number of Kent Test registrations for children who do not live in Kent. Even with schools in North West, West and central Kent taking part we do not have enough capacity in test centres close to the county border, so we are approaching schools in East Kent (Canterbury and Thanet) to try to find enough space to test everyone who has registered.

Question – If my DC is allocated a morning slot, what time will they need to be there?
Answer - Testing takes place in the morning and in order to be tested children will need to arrive between 8:00 to 9:00am.

Question – Do I need to tick a box for the test results to be shared with X Grammar (in another area)
Answer - The test is only valid for Grammar schools in Kent.

Question – Do you have any details on trains/bus/taxi’s routes to X Grammar
Answer - Make sure you know where the Kent Grammar schools are

Question – Do we need to live in catchment for X Grammar/are places allocated by score and/or distance/What date do I need to move by etc. etc. etc.
Answer – Make sure you know what the admissions criteria are for the school(s) you are interested in.


Reading through each of the points in the email, they all answer questions that I have seen raised on these forums.

Very well put, its the best explanation ive read that doesn't result in wild conspiracy theories. Surprised i haven't heard a rant about council salaries yet on this topic! The letter/email seemed to highlight certain truths to at least one person who wasn't 100% about their child sitting the test - i wonder how many more have responded in a similar way...

[mystery]

Heh heh .... as a personal recipient of council salaries for quite some years I would never have sent that email to Saturday candidates without sending something equally despressing to weekday candidates.

[loopylala]

Heh heh .... as a personal recipient of council salaries for quite some years I would never have sent that email to Saturday candidates without sending something equally despressing to weekday candidates.

Out of interest, what kind of things would you propose they put in the email to weekday candidates?

[mystery]

Being wicked here (and sarcastic too), just what I put slightly higher up this thread. And I'd print the whole lot i n the admissions booklet in glorious technicolour and maybe have a youtube video of someone reading it out along with a few people in the background waving banners saying, "Kent schools for Kent children" and "Don't waste Kent test papers if you are going to fail" ... that kiind of thing.

But seriously, I'd just leave it as it is and just send something out with the Saturday test centre allocation saying terribly sorry that some people may have a long way to travel to test centres but that's the way it is in order that there is an appropriate number of candidates at each test centre.

If you work in admissions, you're generally well drilled in county boundaries not mattering.

[loopylala]

If you work in admissions, you're generally well drilled in county boundaries not mattering.

Wouldn't it make more sense to drill them on how the admissions process works and on the admissions criteria for the various schools?

Perhaps it would be best for Kent to move to a system that does qualifying score and then distance to the school. That way those children living on the border who are closer to the Kent Grammars than those children living in Kent, would be on an equal footing?

[mystery]

Kent cannot set any Kent-wide admissions policy for secondary schools because Kent is not the admissions authority for most secondary schools. Most secondary schools are academies now aren't they? They are their own admissions authority. So no, KCC admissions team do not need to know and understand each school admission policy. There is certain information they have to publish on the admissions process and they need to make sure they don't misinform the public. I would say that the depressing email verges on misinformation but without actually doing so. Not sure why anyone thinks it was a helpful thing to receive apart from the fact that one person on here decided not to enter the Kent test.

I am still a bit puzzled about the email though. What category of people was it sent to and when?