Children taking the eleven plus in Kent this year will sit the test four months earlier.

Kent County Council has been given the go-ahead to bring forward the timing of the test to just after the summer holidays in mid-September.

The new admission arrangements were sanctioned by the Government despite some misgivings among some schools.

The new date will allow parents to know the outcome of the test before decisions are made about which secondary schools they wish to apply to, in line with revised Government recommendations on admissions in selective authorities.

However, children will still not be told which school they have been allocated a place at until the following March, in line with the rest of the country.

The switch will see thousands of ten and eleven-year-olds sitting the test barely three weeks after the end of the summer holiday.

Cllr Mark Dance (Con), KCC cabinet member for education operations, said: “We put forward the change of date from January to September so that parents can use their choices wisely and not have to gamble on a grammar or comprehensive place. I appreciate the concerns of some families about testing earlier in the new school year and I would like to reassure those that the tests are standardised against a national sample and results will take account of the child’s age at the time of testing.”

KCC carried out consultation on its plans earlier this year. Although most parents backed the idea, there were concerns among some schools that too few parents had taken part.

The changes had to be referred to the Secretary of State because of the opposition of a number of schools.

Opponents of Kent’s selective system denounced the decision, saying it would make it harder for non-selective schools to meet challenging government targets to improve classroom standards.

Kent currently has about 30 schools that fall short of a new Government target for or at least 30 per cent of pupils to have achieved five or more passes at GCSE, including maths and English, by 2012. Education chiefs insist they are confident that target will be met.

But Martin Frey of campaign group STEP (Stop The Eleven Plus) said: “I am desperately sad. This is a disaster for Kent because it will strengthen the county’s grammar schools and therefore weaken the rest, which seems to be utter madness. This will simply encourage more parents to enter their child for the 11-plus and grammars will pick from a larger cohort and will be even more successful at creaming off the most able pupils. There will be greater numbers of less able children in the rest of the system and good results will be harder to achieve. That means they are at greater risk of failing to meet government targets and could bring them closer to being shut.”

The opposition Labour group at County Hall also criticised its own government over the decision. Shadow education spokeswoman Cllr Christine Angell (Lab) said: “This will make children and parents stress earlier about this divisive examination which segregates and labels children at such a young age. This means labelling children even earlier, taking yet another stab at dividing our children even younger. I am very sad that this decision has been approved by the civil servants.”