Transfer to Secondary School 2025 – Kent Grammar School Tests

Children currently in Year 5 who were born between 1 September 2013 and 31 August 2014 can take the Kent Test in 2024. If your child is outside this age range but is expected to transfer to secondary school in September 2025, please email kent.admissions@kent.gov.uk.

www.kent.gov.uk/ola

Registration for the Kent Test for children due to start secondary school in September 2025 opened on Monday 3 June 2024 and closes at midnight on Monday 1 July 2024.  KCC cannot accept late registrations.

This year, the test will take place on Thursday 12 September 2024 for pupils in Kent primary schools, and on the weekend of Saturday 14 September 2024 for other pupils.

The results will be sent on Thursday 17 October 2024.

If you provided an email address when you registered, your Kent Test result will be emailed to you after 4pm on Tuesday 17 October 2024 (the delivery time will depend on your email service provider). KCC will only send this to the email address used to register your child.

If you did not provide an email address, your child’s result will be posted to you on results day by first class post. You can ask your child’s primary school for their test scores the day after results go out.

The Kent Test:

• The tests are multiple-choice with a separate answer sheet. They are marked by an automated marking machine.
• The first test will be an English and Maths paper and will take 1 hour. Each section will involve a 5 minute practice exercise followed by a 25 minute test. The English section will involve a comprehension exercise as well as some additional questions drawn from a set designed to test literacy skills.
• The second test will be a reasoning paper. It will take about 1 hour, including the practice sections and questions. It will contain a verbal reasoning section and a non-verbal reasoning section of roughly the same length. The non-verbal reasoning will be split into short sections, administered and timed individually.
• There will also be a writing exercise which will not be marked but may be used by a local headteacher panel as part of the headteacher assessment stage of the process. 40 minutes will be allowed for the writing task, including 10 minutes planning time.
• The Kent Test familiarisation booklet (PDF, 967.4 KB) gives a description of the different parts of the test and advice on approaching the types of questions asked.

If you need further advice, please email the secondary admissions team at kent.admissions@kent.gov.uk, quoting your child's Pupil ID for security purposes.

CAT Tests

Children in Year 5 sit CAT tests each year. We use the results from these as an indication of how well a child may do in the Kent Tests. As soon as we have the results for your child we will send these home with an explanatory letter and will offer one evening after school when you may book an appointment to discuss these with your child’s class teacher. 

Please do not hesitate to contact us if there is anything we can do to assist you in this process.