lapindebois wrote:
Because I have been puzzling over this, and I don't. OK, so I get that they have introduced a 360 'pass' mark - fine. But given that they don't prioritise by score, I cannot see any sense in having an inner and an outer area. Judd - yes. They prioritise by score, so I can see why they'd want to reserve 25 or so places for outer area, so that they still get the very brightest boys. But for Skinners, as far as I can see, it just means that somebody scoring 360 on the outside of the inner area could fail to get a place, while someone scoring 360 on the very inside of the outer area could get a place. Which seems weird and unfair. Why not just set your 360 pass mark and then prioritise everyone by distance? Am I missing something??
There are 140 places reserved for inner area and 20 for outer. As PanicMode says, Kent Council is pushing for most places to be reserved for Kent children (and providing money if they are!). In theory, as you say, a person at the outer bit of the inner area could miss out, but they would be quite a long way away (north of Sevenoaks) whereas the nearest 'outer' person will be very close, as Tunbridge Wells is right by the Sussex border. Skinners is also going to hike the number of places by 10 each year for the next few years, most if not all going to inner area.
The 20 outer area places give siblings a chance and then, for the remaining places and as brothers feed through, the closest of the Sussex people.