Please contact: School Admissions & Transport Team Date: 14 July 2020 Children & Adults Directorate School Admissions & Transport Team Gun Wharf, Dock Road Chatham Kent ME4 4TR Telephone: 01634 306000 Direct line: 01634 331110 E-mail: [email protected] Director: Ian Sutherland Secondary Admissions September 2021 Entry – Fair Banding Tests Dear Parent/Carer We are contacting you as your child is approaching the end of Year 5 and you are due to submit their application for secondary school places 7 September – 30 November 2020. Each secondary school has published admissions arrangements that are used to decide which children can be offered places at the school. Three Medway secondary schools operate a fair banding system – Brompton Academy, Strood Academy and The Victory Academy. These are not selective schools but in order for them to have an intake of children that is representative of the national ability range, all applicants need to sit the fair banding test. It is not a ‘pass or fail’ test but is instead used to ensure that children across the ability range are offered places. If your child does not sit the fair banding test and you name Brompton Academy, Strood Academy and/or The Victory Academy on your school application, your child will be considered for places after all children who did sit the banding test and applied for a place (unless your child has an EHCP or is a looked after/previously looked after child). This means that if you apply for Brompton Academy, Strood Academy and/or The Victory Academy and your child has not sat the fair banding test, it is highly unlikely that you will be offered a place at one of those schools. Therefore, if you wish to apply for places at any of these three schools, you must register your child to sit their Fair Banding Test - even if they have a brother/sister who already attends the school. Each of the three schools has its own test, so if you plan to apply for more than one of the schools, you must register for the test at each of those schools. Please turn over for information about how to register for the tests and when they take place. More information about the tests can be found on each of the school’s websites. If your child does sit any fair banding tests, you must still remember to also submit an application for school places via www.medway.gov.uk/onlineadmissions between 7 September - 30 November 2020. If you have any questions about the fair banding tests, please contact the school you would like to apply for. If you have any questions about the admissions process, please contact School Admissions & Transport at Medway Council. Yours sincerely School Admissions & Transport Team Medway Council Fair Banding Registration and Test Dates Test Dates When to School How to register one date will be allocated per child register (dates subject to change) 16 July 2020 Complete and return the registration form 17 July 2020 Brompton Now - 4 found at 12 September 2020 Academy November 2020 https://www.bromptonacademy.org.uk/fair- 17 October 2020 banding-test 7 November 2020 Complete and return the registration form 26 September 2020 (register by 4 September) The Victory found at 21 November 2020 (register by 30 October) See 'Test Dates' Academy https://www.thevictoryacademy.org.uk/prosp 13 October 2020, after school (register by 18 September) ectus-admissions/ 10 November 2020, after school (register by 16 October) Complete and return the registration form 12 September 2020 (register by 28 August) Strood found at See 'Test Dates' 7 October 2020 (register by 25 September) Academy https://stroodacademy.org.uk/http- 10 October 2020 (register by 2 October) stroodacademy-org-uk-wp-content-uploads- 2018-12-admissions-2019 -entry-policy-pdf/ .