Kent 11+ 2023

[MoggyMittens23]

Is anyone else here from Kent and their child sitting the Kent test this September? thought it might be good to have a support thread going. If there already is one could someone point me in the right direction? Thanks

Good luck everyone. Really do feel for every one of you refreshing your emails right now.

Blacklambandgreyfalcon we are also waiting for Kent as well as bexley but as least we find out one result today. I seem to recall with my eldest that bexley was released around 11 am and Kent was released later in the afternoon ....

It's lovely to be able to chat here, as there's no talk on 11+ on our class WhatsApp, despite the majority of the kids in the year took it.

I know kids will be discussing their scores at school, but guessing parents won't be for some time? What has it been like in the past years I wonder.

There's a message on their website saying that they will be released by 6pm today. That doesn't fill me with confidence that it will be early today!

Dd said when she went into school the next day the teacher asked them not to discuss in the classroom and to be mindful of others which I think was good. She said they were welcome to discuss outside of the classroom.

I didn't really like people asking me how she'd done before I had even seen her. Everyone's different though. I remember picking mine up at school 30+ years ago and opening it in the playground with my friend. I think it was better to get off home and open them.

@historyrepeatz
That's great that your dd's teacher said that, in fact I have a feeling our school will say something similar. (Although I guess they will still talk at playtime)

I personally wouldn't like people being nosy either, whether good or bad, it's really not their problem, they'll find out when kids all go off to secondary schools anyway.

Oh people will ask. People who did nothing to help you and who are not close will ask. That is my past experience. So I would have a thought out response whether your child passes or not.

Yes having people that barely talk to you come up and ask is a bit even if it's good news. I'm okay with the parents of DC's little friendship group asking and I think they will wait until a bit later in the day. The parents and children both will be encouraging either way.

last time, for us, there seemed to be an unspoken agreement in the playground that no-one asked at pick-up that day. - even though it later transpired that pretty much everyone had had their results by then.
Even afterwards, it was only really spoken about in terms of school choices rather than direct questions.
I hope it’s the same this year.

Luckily for me I don't pick up at the school gate, ds2 walks out himself, so I avoid the questions and competitive chat there.

Last time I made a purposeful choice never to divulge what Ds1s final mark was or how close he may or may not have been to the pass mark. Some other kids were comparing numbers but I refused to join in. He passed, and that is all the info I was prepared to say. I will be sticking to that again this time round whatever the outcome tomorrow.

I know people have strong feelings on it , so not for everyone but i find it very useful on a forum like this to share raw scores and standardised scores for specific ages for a cohort for each test . I am happy to share if my child passes or doesn't as it gives clues to what is needed to pass for future years. It helped me when looking at the 2018 scores but no recent data? How do people feel about posting that tomorrow ?

Same here @Pascha - DC1 has no idea what she scored. There wasn’t much talk of actual scores amongst parents here, but I don’t know about amongst the kids.

If it's any help I think the Kent test this year is 107 per paper and 332 in total - good luck for all tomorrow. 😊

That's really interesting that you decided not to tell your children their score. I'm not sure that's a decision I could make, because where I am the actual score makes a difference to which grammar school you are likely to be accepted to. So if he passes, any discussions with DS about which schools to put on his form will have to include discussion of scores.
I'm grateful for the insight though. I see no reason at all for numbers to be discussed outside our family, and will tell him not to do so whether he passes or not.

ELR76 how do you know that is the score?

yes I don't share marks. I know some kids get really into it and I find it rude. My eldest could not believe pupils would discuss marks while they knew other classmates had not made the marks so even he said it was off putting. He also mentioned that even at the grammar people would ask each other what they got?!

A local grammar school head announced it at an open day i attended.

@ELR76 Really??!!! That's interesting, would be almost exactly the same as last year then.

ELR76 thank you! I guess the head would know! Very interesting .. so maybe slightly tough test then?

Does that potentially mean that scores were lower in general? Last year cutoff for individual scores was 108. (But 332 overall)

www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/schools/school-places/kent-test#tab-4,5

These reports might give you some of what you are looking for here.

Who knows....was quite surprised when it was announced.

@historyrepeatz
I like the data they have published, but it doesn't quite go into the raw marks against standardised scores, which I believe @Lulu1976 was hoping to share...

I am happy to share this if it helps others, as I've found the breakdowns from 2019 interesting.

@username4826490 @Lulu1976 are the raw scores in the email? We don't get them for Bexley and my older child didn't do Kent.

The raw scores won't be in the email, but you can find out by asking KCC for them.

Around here, realistically there are only one or possibly (in a low birth year) two grammars close enough to offer a place on distance criteria. They are both selective but not superselective so the kids pass and get in or not pass. How high the final mark is doesn't come into it.