A SECOND Kent grammar school is facing allegations of offering places to 11-plus failures.

The Kent Messenger can reveal headteachers in east Kent have demanded an investigation into reports that Barton Court Grammar School in Canterbury has been inviting 11-plus failures to sit another test to determine their suitability for a place.

County education chiefs confirmed they are looking into the matter, as are officials from the Department for Education.

Heads also want an explanation of why an independent panel upheld 30 out of 57 appeals for places at the school – meaning Barton Court will expand to five forms of entry in September. They believe the number of successful appeals is unusually high.

KCC told all secondary schools this week that they were not legally permitted to consider new applications from children who had failed the 11-plus and unsuccessfully appealed for a grammar school place.

Barton Court has denied doing anything wrong but has sparked bitter complaints that it is “poaching” pupils and boosting student numbers by the back door.

One Canterbury headteacher says he was contacted by a parent earlier this month, whose child had been due to come to his school, and told that after sitting what was described as a “suitability test,” a place had been offered at Barton Court.

Philip Wicker, of St Anselm’s School, said the child in question had failed the 11-plus.

“If this is true, this is a flagrant breach of [KCC’s] co-ordinated scheme. Yet who is to police the scheme and ensure fair play?”

Dr Ian Craig, KCC’s assistant education director, said: “I cannot see any reason for it [Barton Court] to set tests because the school is already full.”

In a statement, Dr Stephen Manning, headteacher of Barton Court, said: “Parents have a right to apply for a place at any school. If we have a vacancy in any year from 7 to 11, parents may apply to take part in our selection procedures, designed to select the most academically able 25 per cent of the population.”

“If, as is usually the case, there are no vacancies, they may request to be put on a waiting list to be informed should a vacancy arise.”

The latest row follows the Kent Messenger’s revelation that Sittingbourne's Highsted Grammar School had provisionally offered places to some parents whose children had failed the 11-plus.