Kent does not publish last distance offered information, do any other LAs refuse to do this, do I have grounds to challenge it?

[starpatch]

Just that really I have a year 5 child so starting to think about secondary choices for next year, but I live in Kent and the council don't publish information on last distance offered. This seems a bit bonkers to me (I moved from elsewhere). The website advices we approach the schools direct, I was reluctant to bother the schools, but I have emailed some and only 1 school out of 3 gave me the information. We only get 4 secondary school choices. If my son gets a selective place it seems like he would get into the local grammar (I can't be sure as information not published!) but the secondary moderns I prefer are all a case of ' he might get in' so I really need to have more information. I tried one of the paid for websites but I paid my money and then it just said 'information not available for this LA'. Grrrr! I am seriously thinking of making a freedom of information request!

You'll have better luck if you actually list the names of schools you're interested in.

Is it not available because it is not an application criteria? E.g. do the grammars work on highest score then weighted by birth month - or something like that?

If you do go for FOI is there one admission authority you could ask and would it be back in time?

Did the schools just not reply or did they refuse to give you the info? We are in Kent and emailed 2 schools and they both gave us the information. If they just didn't reply I would forward it to them again

I’m Kent too and went the route of calling them (admissions teams) to find out how far they went out the previous year on first and second offers. Didn’t seem much point visiting schools where we stood no chance!

I’ve Googled this before and came with a FOI where some one asked exactly this - and got given the distances for about 2 schools I think it was, and nothing else.
It seems a bit crazy to me too. It’s freely available for primary schools, but it might be because so many of the secondaries have much more complication admissions criteria than just siblings then distance?

In my area people seem to put in freedom of information requests for it. Someone posted this one to a thread just recently, www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/richmond_school_admissions_cut_o_2#incoming-1886523

(That's for all of the schools in Richmond and Kingston boroughs).

You can do an FOI request?

In Kent, you do have to approach the individual schools. KCC make the first offer on March 1st but after the second round in April, the system gets handed over to schools. There is then a considerable churn of places through May and June, especially in West Kent.

Lots of kids who accept grammar places then get offered scholarship places in the independent schools. That then filters through the different grammar and then non grammar schools. Add the appeal process in and then there is even more of a churn.

So in short, KCC can't tell you because it is individual schools who manage the admissions from end of April onwards.

Your best bet is to email local schools and ask for information on last distance offered on National offer day in March and then for the start point for that cohort in the September.

But do not email this side of half term. Admission teams are being inundated with requests for info from current Year 6 parents. 11+ results day is looming so admission teams are currently run ragged.

Leave it till mid November and I would have thought you will get a much better reply rate to your emails. Good luck.

Thanks so much for all the replies. Yes that is a good idea to try calling admission teams first, then if that doesn't work I will do the freedom of information request. I think I would rather badger the LA than the individual schools as it is their policy. I wouldn't request for all the schools, just the ones that I am interested in that I think are a possibility. Yes distance is the criteria for all the schools.

I take your point CagneyNYPD1 but this was the case in the other council area we lived in too, they still published that last distance offered for the initial offers, it gave you a bit of an idea. Also very few parents would go private in my area.

Ring up after half term and ask. Emails are easily lost at schools as they get so many. Plus if the answer is complicated (just based on the Kent grammar I know best, there's two admissions areas (local and not local) both with separate cut off scores (which change every year) and different criteria.

Sorry, posted too soon. Plus, if the answer is complicated you can ask further questions to clarify.

KCC education department would refer you over the the schools I’m sure and it’s not badgering to ring Admissions and ask. When I did this three years ago they all were friendly and helpful and give me the answers.