Information Resilience and Transparency
Please ask for: Kelly Leeson
FOI Reference: 9530449
Phone: +443000415985
Email:
xxx.xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Date: 22 October 2019
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your request for information made under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) 2000, relating to the Kent Test. Please see the response provided below:
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I am writing to request the following
information with regard to the Kent 11 plus exam sat in September 2019:
A copy of the test papers
The font type and size of text used in the English section
A copy of my child's paper
A remark of my child's English paper
If you do not hold the above data or cannot remark, I should be grateful if you
could advise who does or can.
The test materials, both question papers and answer sheets, are not subject to
disclosure under Freedom of Information legislation because the copyright belongs to
the test designers, GL Assessment, with whom the Council has a confidentiality
agreement. The designers require the Council to maintain confidentiality because
materials used by Kent are drawn from a bank of materials which may be used by other
schools or Authorities for selection purposes.
Therefore, KCC is withholding the test papers from disclosure by relying upon section
41 (1) exemption of the Freedom of Information Act (2000) as the information was
provided in confidence.
In addition, the Kent Test papers cannot be released as GL Assessment keeps the
actual papers and associated materials as confidential as possible. This is to keep the
contents of the tests confidential from its competitors in the marketplace. Releasing
copies of the papers would prejudice the commercial interest of GL Assessment should
sensitive commercial information was disclosed and could seriously affect GL
Assessment’s business and its ability to provide tests in the future.
Therefore, KCC is withholding the test papers from disclosure by relying upon section
43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (2000) which states that "information is exempt
if its disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any
person”. The public interest in maintaining the exemption is greater than the public
interest in disclosure in the case of releasing Kent Test papers.
Font size in a normal test paper is 12 point, in an enlarged paper it is 14 point. The
designer of Kent’s 11+ test, GL Assessment, is responsible for the font used, but they
publish example materials for familiarisation on their website, which can be viewed
here:
https://www.gl-assessment.co.uk/products/11plus-series-11-plus-practice-
papers/11plus-familiarisation-materials/
If you are concerned that your child’s English Test Score is uncharacteristic, you can
ask for the answer sheet to be marked by hand, to check that the result shown on the
machine-marking record is correct. To do this, please email
xxxx.xxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xx.xx confirming your child’s name, date of birth and primary
school, and quoting the ID number given on the message / letter which gave you the
result. There may be a short wait for a response, as the period after results have gone
out is an unusually busy time for the admissions team.
If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied with
legislation, you have 40 working days from the date of this response to ask for a review.
You can do this by following our complaints process; details can be found at this link
https://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council/complaints-and-compliments#tab-9 on our
website. Please quote reference 9530449.
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can appeal to the Information
Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Details of what you need to do, should you wish to pursue this course of action, are
available from the Information Commissioner’s w
ebsite http://ico.org.uk/concerns
Yours sincerely
Kelly Leeson
Information Access Officer