This article looks across Kent to the key oversubscription and vacancy situations in grammar schools. Main pressure points are in West and North West Kent, led by Dartford Grammar, 226 first choice applications oversubscribed, followed by the three West Kent super selectives and Dartford Grammar School for Girls. There is then a sharp fall to the next most popular school, Wilmington Grammar School for Boys but still at 49 first choices rejected. At the other end of the scale, ten grammar schools have vacancies on allocation. Medway schools here.
Kent has seen an extra 91 net places put into its grammar schools, above the numbers planned for admission this year, and 244 more than in 2015, to meet rising rolls in several areas.
I look at individual schools below, and you will find my previous article on allocations published at the beginning of March here, and for 2015 here. Non-selective schools here.
Note: the initial allocation figures for all Kent secondary schools reports that 3013 children, 18.6% of the total, did not get their first choice school on allocation. This figure is misleading as 1037 of these were children who put grammar schools in first place but had not been found selective and so were ineligible, this becoming an irrelevant choice. They should therefore be deducted from the figures, reducing the figure to some 15% of children overall in Kent who did not get their first legitimate choice, a much lower figure than in many parts of the country.
Second most popular grammar school was Tonbridge Grammar with 142 first choices turned away, up from 77 in 2015, followed by Dartford Girls’ Grammar with 119, up from 95, again unfortunately with a number of local girls turned away but letting in 65 ooc girls, having increased its capacity by an extra 20 girls, but a much higher proportion of offers made to first choices at 89%.
The other two grammar schools in Dartford were also both well oversubscribed, although both changed their admission rules last year to give priority to Kent children for most of their places, with Wilmington Grammar Boys turning away 49 first choices and the Girls Grammar 34. The number of out county boys to Wilmington fell sharply from 91 to 32 as a result of the changes, with Wilmington Girls’ fall from 105 to 91.
It was very pleasing to see that The Judd School in Tonbridge, 97 first choices oversubscribed, has also changed its admission rules to give priority to those living in the locality for all but 20 boys. As a result, the number of Kent children to be admitted is rising to 141 out of 155, up from 114 in 2015. However, the pressure on The Skinners' School in Tunbridge Wells which has no such rules, increased to compensate, with 113 first choices oversubscribed, fourth most popular in Kent and the ooc offers rising to 45 out of county boys from 26 in 2015. Still in West Kent, Weald of Kent Grammar was oversubscribed by 33 grammar qualified first choices, even though it has increased its number of places by 55 to 230 girls, a massive vote of confidence in the school, in preparation for its expansion into the Sevenoaks Annexe next year. The surge in applications to the two Tonbridge girls’ grammars has been very much at the expense of Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Girls, although the latter is still oversubscribed. Tunbridge Wells boys’ is oversubscribed by 12 first choices.
However, one consequence of all this is that I have been contacted by some families in the North Sevenoaks district whose children, although qualified, have no grammar school place allocated, and I am not confident this year they will secure one.
The myth that all Kent grammar schools are always oversubscribed, regularly quoted to me is definitely not true, with nine of the 32 having vacancies at this time, although many of the empty desks will fill through appeals. The schools with more than 10 spaces are: Maidstone Grammar for Girls (34); Chatham & Clarendon (26); Dover Boys (following a late increase in admission number of 30) (23); Barton Court (19); and Borden (15).