Kent Test

Forget what the teachers say - if you want your child to pass, put in the work

It would be easy to think of the Kent Test as a rather straight forward affair. Perhaps some maths questions and a little English comprehension. And, who knows, maybe a dash of history and a glug of geography to get a real grasp on a youngster’s intelligence?

It would, after all, make sound sense when it comes to judging a child’s ability to hack it in the selective system.

But then the chances are you have never have set eyes on the non-verbal reasoning paper.

It sounds straight forward in concept – complete sequences, unlock codes and predict patterns. Stuff that you can see will stretch a child’s brain and identify if they have the required mental dexterity to deliver a grammar school with the exam results it needs to stay sufficiently high in the county’s league tables.

And, indeed, there is every argument to say that a child who can indeed set their eyes on these questions and answer them in the allotted time fully deserves to be identified as one of the top whatever it is percent.

Because on first sight they are tough.

So tough, in fact, that unless you are akin to Stephen Hawking when it comes to intellect, you will struggle to answer them in the allotted time. Sure, once you realise how they work they become considerably less daunting, but for that first time? Well, I’d be impressed if many youngsters sail through.

The over-riding emotion will be anxiety, blended effortlessly with furrowed brows, from parents who suddenly realise this getting into a grammar school lark is not as straight forward as once it seemed.

The dilemma, then, is how do you get your son or daughter through the test to secure them a grammar school place? How do you give them a chance to get to grips with the non-verbal paper – especially when many junior schools won’t give you any chance to get familiar?

The answer, of course, is that you coach them. Not necessarily by getting a private tutor, but you take a trip into WHSmith and you buy a selection of books which give you past test papers.

I am aware of children who have ended up getting among the top Kent Test scores in the county but for whom the first test paper resulted in a resounding zero and beads of cold sweat breaking out on the foreheads of child and parent alike.

All of which leads to one inevitable conclusion…if you want to get your child through the Kent Test then you give them help.

Which rather flies in the face of some schools – especially those who have decided simply being a grammar is not enough and want to employ so-called ‘super-selection’ to the process – who claim they do not want any child who’s been told how to do well in the test.

Poppycock. Whatever grammars may tell you, they want children whose parents have indeed bought the revision guides.

Who have convinced their off-spring that a Saturday afternoon is well spent trying to crack the method used in a variety of increasingly complex and difficult to understand mental conundrums. Who are prepared to stress to their child that success will only come with hard work and dedication.

Why? Because they know that if that pupil then comes to them complete with parents prepared to kick them up the backside when they start to slack, then the grades they need to hit their targets will be achieved so much easier.

Which, in turn, means they remain comfortably top of the tree when it comes to league tables.

A school in Canterbury recently said it wanted to join the likes of those in Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge who demanded not just a pass to gain entry for the next academic year but a pass with flying colours.

They then proceeded to say how if a child had to be coached through the test, they weren’t interested. Yet, isn’t that what teaching is all about? Is that the very essence of an exam? Isn’t that precisely the method the school will be deploying for the rest of their secondary education?

Of course, the selective system divides attitudes across Kent as much as it divides pupils.

It is, let’s not pretend otherwise, a system which means non-selective schools across the county suffer. Not through any fault of their own, but that if the top 20 per cent, say, of capable children get creamed off there will be an obvious drop-off in the results they can realistically expect to achieve.

And while the grammars crow about the level of achievement at exam time, well, quite frankly, if they failed to deliver that then they would be guilty of a gross dereliction of duty.

The challenge is then for comprehensives to pull themselves up to ensure they hit all the targets the Government – which deals primarily with a nation which doesn’t deploy grammars – set. The unfairness of such demands has been well chewed over.

Yet, on the flip side, getting your child into a grammar is an undeniable boost to any parent. It effectively guarantees that if the school do their job – and make no mistake many grammars still fail students by failing to monitor their progress sufficiently – they’ll leave school with a half decent clutch of GCSEs in their sweaty little palms.

But all of that awaits. Because right now parents across the county, realising September isn’t all that far away, are making the first scary step towards getting their child a pass mark, but opening the non-verbal reasoning book and having a heart attack.

Go easy on them…it can only get worse, and there’s only seven a bit months to go.