Further Analysis of Kent Test Results for Admission in September 2019

This mark is sufficient for entrance to the majority of Kent grammar schools, apart from seven that require higher marks for all or most of their entrants. The required marks for the latter vary according to demand each year, and are reported here.  Further places can be awarded to individual schools by the appeal process; my article on Appeals reporting on 2018 outcomes. 

St Thomas' Catholic Primary, Sevenoaks (68%), followed by Gateway Primary Academy, Dartford (61%), Ethelbert Road, Faversham (60%); Blean, Canterbury (57%); Selling CofE, Faversham (56%); Amherst School, Sevenoaks, Hernhill CofE, Canterbury and St Peter’s Methodist Primary, Canterbury, (all with 55%); Leigh Primary Sevenoaks (54%); Sheldwich, Faversham (53%); Claremont, Tunbridge Wells, Lady Boswell’s CofE, Sevenoaks and Tunstall CofE, Sittingbourne (52%); 

Five of these schools are in the equivalent list for the 2017 Test: Amherst; Lady Boswell’s; Selling; Sheldwich; and Tunstall, with four having been in the list for the highest proportion of grammar school places in each of the past three years: Amherst, Claremont and Lady Boswell's, all in West Kent where private coaching is of course an industry of itself, and Sheldwich near Faversham.    

Apart from Gateway Primary Academy in Dartford, a high performing stand alone academy with no obvious advantages, every one of the schools are in West Kent, or in Canterbury and Swale (including Faversham) where the proportion of successful HTAs is very high (see below).

The variation year by year at the top of this list makes it clear there is no such thing as ‘which are the best schools for grammar entrance?’ a question I am regularly asked. This is because there is no way of knowing what proportion of the pass marks are down: to high quality teaching in the school; private tuition; simply a group of bright children passing through: or the decision making process of Headteachers on the HTA.  

Just two of these schools featured in the top fifteen performers at Higher Grade KS2 SATs in 2018, Gateway Primary Academy (ninth) with 30% of its pupils achieving this level (one of just nine primary schools with all three Progress assessments ‘well above average’), and St Thomas Catholic (eleventh) with 29%.

There is a 21% target of automatic passes across the county, although the pass marks this year gave 18.8%, the lowest for some years. There is also a target of an additional 4% of children to found selective by Head Teacher Assessment (HTA) which looks at children’s work, previous test results, headteacher recommendation and pass mark. You will find further details of the process here and outcomes below. The county success rate for HTAs was 6.3% of the total cohort being found selective by this process, arriving at a total of 25.2%, very close to the target of 25%.

The table below shows the pattern across Kent’s 14 Districts, but hides some wide variation in the success rate of boys and girls.  

 At the foot of the table (leaving out Thanet for the moment) come Dover, Folkestone & Hythe, Gravesham and Swale. The alternative locals test for the Dover and Shepway grammar schools, together with Highsted Grammar in Sittingbourne and Mayfield Grammar n Gravesham (both girls) will have considerably inflated the figures of children in these Districts found suitable for grammar school.

This year local test passes provided over half of the pupils offered places at the two Dover grammar schools and Folkestone School for Girls, indicating a total grammar selection rate of more than 40% in each area. Three quarters of the 138 boys allocated to Dover Boys Grammar qualified through the Dover Test.  

There is a total of 30% of girls in Canterbury District found selective overall, because of the high HTA figure (see below), a figure only topped by boys in Sevenoaks at 31%.

This year 11.3% of all Kent automatic passes have gone to children in the private sector, slightly down from the previous two years 11.5%, but just 4.8% of the upheld HTAs, resulting in overall 9.6% of selective assessments being for children at private schools. The data calculations can only consider those children who took the Test, so the total numbers in each school year group are not known. However, a considerable proportion of these successes will not take up grammar school places, preferring to remain private.

Most automatic passes follow socio-economic patterns across the county, but the influence of HTAs is quite different, perhaps reflecting local pressures. The table below shows outcomes of the four Headteacher Assessment Panels, that operate geographically across the county. It is likely that the NW Kent Panel will have a high proportion of out of county HTAs referred to it, which may be a factor in the high figure.

Note: HTAs for out of county pupils will be considered by the most appropriate Panel, usually West or North West 

Recent changes in admission policy at the two Wilmington Grammars and the Judd and Skinner’s super selective grammars to favour Kent children is further inhibiting supply of places for out of county children, but certainly not demand. For 2019 admissions, of the 3065 (2735 in 2017) ooc Kent Test passes in October 2018, just 399 children (down from 454 in 2017) were offered grammar places in March this year, over half at the four Dartford and Wilmington grammars, with this number likely to have fallen further before entry in September.

Of course this large proportion of speculative test sittings, in some cases merely provides free practice for grammar schools in other parts of the country for many as can be seen by the high number of enquiries on 11 plus forums from parents in possession of a selective assessment for their child. Many of these don’t even know where the Kent grammar schools are!

But of course, it is not free for Kent taxpayers, as the costs of administration, materials and provision of test venues falls on them. Sadly, there appears no way of recovering the costs, which surely run into tens of thousands of pounds, from those parents who have no Kent connections.