If you're planning to name Brompton Academy, Strood Academy or The Victory Academy on your school application, you must register your child to sit the fair banding test.

This includes children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs (SSEN) or Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

Each school has its own fair banding test so you'll need to register your child with each school if you're considering applying for them. Registration details will be available on the school websites.

Medway Council is not involved in fair banding tests. You’ll need to contact the schools directly for more information.

Test dates

The Fair Banding Test usually takes place during September and October each year.

Please check each school's website for further information.

Assessing your child’s ability level

Your child cannot pass or fail the test. It's there to assess a child’s level of ability and is used to help the school make sure they give school places to children of all abilities.

It’s also not the same as the Medway Test, which assesses if a child is grammar ability.

Places allocated from each band

After the test children are put into bands based on their level of ability.

The academy will have five bands to make sure there's a spread of ability across the school and these are based on the national ability range decided by the National Foundation for Educational Research

The academy will use its oversubscription criteria to give school places from each of the five bands.

If places become free in some bands they will be evenly filled by children falling into the next nearest bands. This could happen if a parent accepts offers of places at other schools, and there are no more children in those bands without a place.

If your child does not take the test

If your child has not taken the fair banding test, it may reduce their chance of being offered a place at a banded school. Children who have not taken the fair banding test can only be considered for a place after all children who have taken the test.

If your child has been offered a place without taking the test, they will still need to take the test before starting the academy to make sure they're placed in the correct teaching band.