Independent Education Advice - News and Comment

News and Comment

(updated 1 September)

Please feel free to suggest items of news, or areas where comment is needed to: peter@kentadvice.co.uk.

News items below appear below as and when I have time in a very busy schedule supporting clients. I am very happy to learn of fresh items of news.

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The website is curently being professionally redesigned and will be replaced in September. It will still offer the same combination of information and opinion but will be far more structured so that visitors can track down items of interest and relevance more easily.

Exclusive News (Tuesday afternoon): Academy Declarations

Just two schools, the Westlands School & Woodgrove Primary Federation in Sittingbourne have made the deadline to become academies tomorrow morning, September 1st. Five others are expected to change status by the beginning of October when the complex legal proceedings are completed. These are:Castle Community College in Deal; Canterbury High & Canterbury Primary Federation; and Fulston Manor and Highsted Grammar both in Sittingbourne. It is anticipated that Sandwich Technology College will go on 1st November, with Weald of Kent Grammar (Tonbridge), Dartford Grammar School (Boys) and Chiddingstone CEP School all converting on 1st January 2011. Other schools that have completed the voting procedure and have now applied but with no date agreed are: The Ramsgate Federation of Grammar Schools, Hayesbrook (Tonbridge), Highworth Grammar (Ashford), Meopham Primary, Tonbridge Grammar School.

Note that Tonbridge Grammar, Weald of Kent Grammar and Meopham Primary were not on the original list.

I shall be on Radio Kent tomorrow morning with Paul Carter, Leader of KCC, discussing these issues, shortly after 7.35 a.m. and again on Meridian TV probably Monday evening.

The Judd School, The Skinners School & Tonbridge Grammar School, Schools Adjudicator

The battle over the Admission arrangements for these three schools which select on high scores rather than give priority to local children, thus squeezing out Kent chldren grammar school places who have passed their eleven plus has now intensified.

Kent County Council has submitted formal objections to the Schools Adjudicator objecting to their current arrangements. Reasons for objection include: making it difficult for the LA to carry out its legal responsibility for providing appropriate schools for Kent children; fuelling the coaching culture, thus skewing the pass mark across the county so that children of a grammar school ability may be deprived of a grammar school place in all parts of the county at the expense of heavily coached children; the whole selection process used by Kent is not designed to be used for selecting high scorers, so for example children with SEN may be disadvantaged which would be illegal - further a recent Ombudsman Ruling on problems with testing for high scoring candidates underlines this issue; the legal problem of providing more grammar school places in the area to meet demand caused by the high scoring procedure - places which in any case may well be accessed by further out of county candidates; the problems of local children having to be offered appropriate places in grammar schools as far away as Folkestone or Sittingbourne; The Schools Adjudicator last year ruled that KCC was o bliged to try and resolve the acknowledged issues with Judd and Skinners by negotiation - no success has been achieved this way, so one can anticipate that the ruling this time round will resolve the issue one way or another, barrig legal action. A summary statement includes the sentence:

"Schools which adopt admission criteria enabling them to give priority for admission to the highest-scoring candidates are using test results from Kent’s process further to filter their intake. In doing so they set a different standard for admission for their school and change the pattern of their intake in a way which can work to the disadvantage of the community in the area they serve. This makes it harder for the LA to fulfil its role as a planner and provider of school places, and undermines its efforts to ensure that able children who may have difficulty with a test-based assessment have fair access to grammar school education".

Ombudsman

I am pleased to report that the first four complaints I have made this season on behalf of clients to the Ombudsman that have been settled, have all gone in their favour with fresh admission appeals being awarded. A number of others are still ongoing.

New Academy Project Approvals (6th August)

Two of the delayed Kent Academy projects, and all three of the Medway projects have been given approval to go ahead with their building programmes in full. They are: Brompton Academy (Gillingham); The Bishop of Rochester Academy (Chatham); Isle of Sheppey Academy; Skinners Kent Academy (Tunbridge Wells); Strood Academy.

About half of the 150 Academies put on hold have now been approved, most of these being in socially deprived urban areas - based on the original concept for Academies. It has been suggested that others are in interesting political constituencies and there has certainly been considerable public and behind the scenes lobbying. I have also been reliably informed that the list on the DofE website contains at least one mistake and another project was approved after publication of the original list! This follows a series of mistakes by the Department on the first list, so perhaps we should not take this as final, especially as a number of legal challenges to the decisions are reported as being prepared.

The remaining six Kent Academy projects have been put on hold until the Autumn Comprehensive Spending Review, which will decide whether the projects can go ahead, probably on a reduced budget. These are: Dover Christ Church Academy incl Aspen Special School (Archers Court Maths and Computing College); St Augustine Academy (The Astor of Hever Community School, Maidstone); The Duke of York's Royal Military School Academy (Dover); The John Wallis C of E Academy (Ashford Christ Church CE Maths and Computer College); The Knole Academy (The Bradbourne and The Wildernesse School, Sevenoaks); Wilmington Enterprise College.

Radio Kent

Earlier this week I have been on GMTV and Radio Kent discussing fraudulent school admissions, following the Tribunal case in Poole.

Federation of Ramsgate Grammar Schools

Following the controversy at Chatham House last year, when it selected boys on high scores, the Federation with Clarendon House has reverted to a more traditional set of oversubscription criteria for admission in September 2011. This gives priority, after siblings, to eligible students who live within Thanet, Broomfield, Chestfield, Herne, Herne Bay, Reculver, Swalecliffe and Whitstable areas (defined by a map), those living closest to the school having priority.

Astor of Hever School, Maidstone. Shortly to become Saint Augustine Academy sponsored by the Woodard Foundation. Congratulations to all concerned as this school has raised its standards from OFSTED 'Notice to Improve' last year to "Good School" in July. A leap this great and this fast is exceptional. Interestingly, of course the school was moved on to the Academy list precisely because of the Notice to Improve!

Academies

News is coming on a regular basis with the new Academy programme going through in haste. You will find my latest update here, including lists of those schools applying or having been accepted as Academies. For those "old" Academies whose building programmes have been delayed along with the halting of the BSF programme (see below), decision day was Monday last. However, the news has been delayed, I suspect becuase of the amount of lobbying by MPs and others going on to save particular projects.

Building Schools for the Future Debacle

I have written an article for which was published in Kent on Sunday last weekend. You will find it on this website with details of all the schools and Academies involved, here.

In Year Admissions (previously called Casual Admissions)

For parents applying for any school in Kent or Medway outside the normal admission round, there is a new process for admissions starting in September 2010. You will not be able to approach individual schools directly to apply, although you are of course to be encouraged to talk to them in advance of an application. You will find further details here.

Chatham Grammar School for Boys Appeals
My best wishes to all families who have been dragged through the appeals process twice and are meeting the fresh panel on Wednesday onwards this week. The first set of appeals was aborted in mid June following reports that one Panel member was considered to have a potential conflict of interest. Many parents appealing for the school already had additional stress because of the complex rules surrounding the Review process, which means they have to prove the Review unfair before their academic case can be considered. The consequences of this annulment are considerable as parents still do not know the destinations of their sons in September, and boys have needed to prepare for their alternative schools in case the appeal is unsuccessful.

Appeals News

The Ombudsman has recommended that 6 unsuccessful appeals at TWGGS are to be reheard. There were 13 successful appeals at TGS (very similar to last year) out of 31, 7 at Maidstone Grammar, 6 at Oakwood Park. There were just 18 appeals at MGS including boys who had not passed the eleven plus. Oakwood Park appears to have been much more sought after this year. There were 6 successful appeals at Oakwood Park. Several boys were found to be of grammar school standard, yet the Panel turned the appeals down on grounds of prejudice. There were 26 successful appeals at Weald Of Kent, from the total of 66, which were split half and half between oversubscription and assessment. 10 of the 50 appeals at TWGGS were successful - I believe a number of these were susceptible to a complaint regarding malaldministration. There were 70 appeals at Folkestone School for Girls - unusually the appeals take place over a period of over a month.There are 20 appeals at Gravesend Grammar School, 48 at Invicta, 35 at Manwoods, 36 at Tonbridge Grammar, 52 at Wilmington Grammar, and 60 at Barton Court.

St John Fisher Comprehensive School, Chatham

The school has been given notice to improve by OFSTED (almost but not quite being placed in Special Measures). The full Report is at OFSTED. A summary of findings is here.

Primary Admissions

Slightly late in the day, I have details of the most oversubscribed primary/infant schools in Kent for Reception age children, by first choices. Highest was St John's CofE Primary - Tunbridge Wells, followed in order by Callis Grange Infants - Broadstairs, West Hill - Dartford, Priory Infants - Ramsgate, Riverhead Infants- Sevenoaks, Sandgate Primary - Folkestone, Oaks Infant School - Sittingbourne, Great Chart Primary - Ashford, Shears Green Infants - Norrthfleet, Slade Primary - Tonbridge, St Peter's Methodist - Canterbury, Tunbury Primary - Walderslade, St Botolph's CofE - Northfleet. All these schools turned away more than 25 first choices in March, although there has of course been movement since then and many children have now been offered higher choices than they were originally allocated.

Maidstone Grammar School

Now that MGS is gving priority to boys scoring more than 390 in the Kent tests, the impact of this can clearly be seen. Places were offered to high scorers living up to a distance of 14.30 miles away from the school (101 boys). Other boys who passed the test and in previous years would have been offered a place, had to live within 4.99 miles of the school (50 boys). The remaining places were offered to siblings. There were just 18 appeals at MGS. Clearly many eligible parents took other options - Oakwood had many more appeals on oversubscription grounds.

Appeal Percentages

I am delighted to report that after successful Weald of Kent appeals, my success rate has risen to 84% across selective and non selective schools in Kent and Medway. This does of course come with the caveat that I do not take on cases if I cannot see how I can add to the chances of success in an appeal.

Reminder to contributors to eleven plus website forum

If you are going to recycle information from this website onto the forum, it is courteous to provide an indirect acknowledgement. I accept the administrators will delete any direct reference to the information I freely provided here in the belief that all parents should have as much information as possible - part of my philosophy. You must ask them the reasons for this.

SEN Units (updated 26 June)

KCC has recently issued an important letter to all Headteachers in the SEN Review pilot areas which will have an impact on a number of families caught up in the controversy. Further details are here.

BBC South East

I was on BBC SE recently commenting on a difficult primary school admission case in Medway, arising from the closure of St John's Primary School in Chatham.

Fort Pitt Grammar

There were 35 appeals at Fort Pitt which has reduced its admission number from 180 to 120 over the past three years without taking accommodation out of use, thus achieving oversubscription for 2010 for the first time. 14 of the appeals were from children who had passed the Medway tests. The school opposed all reported appeals vigorously and I consider there were numerous faults in the appeal process. Several parents have contacted me about their unhappiness with the process and I have not yet heard of a successful appeal (although there may be some). The problem was exacerbated by mistakes in the admission process, so that astonishingly an additional five children were wrongly offered places before the appeals began - was that down to Medway Council or the school? A number of parents are unhappy that the same appeal panel administrator organised and clerked all appeals for Rainham Mark Grammar School, Rochester Grammar School and Fort Pitt, especially when they had appealed to more than one of these schools and were asked (quite inappropriately) in what order they placed them - the clerk having heard answers to this question and others previously elswhere

Special Education Needs Units (updated 1 June)

Kent County Council has at last come clean about the confusion surrounding the Special Units attached to mainstream schools. The good news is that they are all to remain open, although KCC has been telling parents for the past four months that they are to close. For further information, or if you are affected by these issues please go to Units.

Ombudsman

As always there are concerns being expressed about some appeal processes (often the 'usual suspects'!). I am happy to advise on whether there is a possibility of a successful complaint and whether I can assist you. Remember, there has to be fault in the process, its not just that you disagree with the Panel's findings.

Congratulations to Valley Park School, Maidstone on being found Outstanding by OFSTED. Not surprisingly, parents identified this before OFSTED did, and it is the second most oversubscribed school in Kent this year.

School Appeals

To clarify: after appeals, if the school is oversubscribed, no child will be admitted to the school off the waiting list until the number of children falls back to the Planned Admission Number (PAN). For example: if the PAN is 175 and there are five successful appeals bringing the total to 180, no further children will be admitted off the waiting list until the number falls back to 174. It will not then rise above 175 unless there are further successful late appeals. This all assumes that schools follow the rules - a few don't!

It is reported that a new Headteacher of Dover Grammar School for Boys has been appointed and that Mrs Carlisle headteacher of Dover Grammar School for Girls has been appointed to a new post as head of an independent school. Further details welcomed.

Fort Pitt Grammar School appeals have provided great interest as the school has reduced its Planned Admission Number from 180 to 120 in recent years without taking accommodation out of place, and has fought strongly in the hearings to avoid admitting additional pupils. Several of the issues raised by the Panel and the school suggest that if the Appeal Panel rstricts numbers there are grounds to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman.

There are 20 appeals at Gravesend Grammar School, 40 at Mascalls (all three of my clients were succcessful), 48 at Tonbridge Girls Grammar, 72 at TWGGS, 68 at Weald of Kent, 52 at Wilmington Boys.

Tonbridge Grammar School has just postponed its appeals to the week commencing 28th June, because of the hospitalisation of one of those involved.

There is clearly significant movement around on secondary admission waiting lists, Tonbridge Grammar has already offered 14 in area places, bringing the scores of Out of Area Applicants to 407, and In Area applicants to 401.

Simon Langton Panel upheld the regular eight appeals from the 19 heard. From those I have had contact with, it appears they went mainly for those who said they had no other grammar school offer, or high scorers. Mascalls School has 40 appeals.TWGGS has 72 appeals, Weald of Kent 80.

Rochester Grammar School decided that the Review process was fair, Chatham Grammar School for Girls that it was unfair.

I have indicated the level of oversubscription on 2nd March on the Individual Schools Pages.

Much more news when I have time to enter it.

There is considerable information below on individual schools. It is broadly in date order, newest first, so you may need to scroll down to find all information on a particular issue. You may also wish to visit Individual School Information or Academies. Any additional news welcome.

I now have information on the level of oversubscription of Kent schools (Medway below). I measure this by the number of first choice applications not offered a place at their preferred school on 1st March. There can be no definitive list, because of the way the system works, with parents having four choices, but I have published this list over the past three years and believe it is the best measure possible (but see below).

Most oversubscribed school in Kent for the third consecutive year is the Leigh Academy in Dartford, turning away 218 first choices. This is followed for non -selective schools by, in order: Valley Park School- 112, Homewood School - 110, North School Ashford - 96, Fulston Manor School - 83, Westlands School - 78, Bennett Memorial Diocesan School and Folkestone Academy - 64, Brockhill Park School - 60, Sandwich Technology College - 57, Mascalls School - 55, Charles Dickens School - 53, and Hayesbrook School - 50. All others are less than 50.

Newcomers to the list are: Brockhill Park (up from 17), Sandwich Technology (up from 48), and Hayesbrook (up from 29). Out go: Aylesford (down from 68 to 15), Maplesdon Noakes (55 to27 ), St Simon Stock (53 to 11) and Cornwallis (50 to 30 )

For grammar schools most first choices turned away - Skinners School with 115 (up from 92 but see below); then Judd School- 88 (in top two for past two years); Tonbridge Grammar School - 77 (top last year); Weald of Kent Grammar School - 50; Dartford Grammar School for Girls - 47; Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Girls - 39; Maidstone Grammar School - 36; Dartford Grammar School - 35; Queen Elizabeth's Grammar SChool - 34; Simon Langton Grammmar School for Boys - 34; Sir Roger Manwoods School - 33; and Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys 32. All others had fewer than 30.

The caution with regard to Skinners is that many parents put them second to Judd and this year in particular the figures are skewed with Skinners offering places to 73 first choices, 39 second choices and 3 third choices (St Olave's is often the third school in this triangle)). Over at Judd there were 120 first choices and 2 second choices offered places so I would argue that Judd is the more oversubscribed – the vagaries of the system!

The Judd School has offered 16 places off the waiting list on 31st March. Clearly this will have a corresponding knock on figure for The Skinners School who initially offered 6 further places.

Also of note are Longfield Academy up 72 first preferences from 64 to 136 (turning away 22 of these), Oakwood Park Grammar School up 54 (turning away 15 of these) , Chaucer Technology College up 45, Swan Valley Community School up 43.

For all the above schools, waiting lists and appeals will see numbers of the children turned away eventually offered places at their first choice school.

Two new Academies have been approved by Government. Dover Christ Church Academy, as it will be known, will replace Archer's Court Maths and Computing College and will open in September. Specialising in maths and computing, and music, the co-educational school will tutor 950 11 to 18 year olds as well as around 40 students with profound severe and complex special needs Also announced today is funding for the Brompton Academy in Medway to specialise in Science and the Arts, which also opens this September. It's sponsored by the University of Kent and Medway Council. A feasibility study will be carried out recreating Wilmington Enterprise College as an Academy. There is more information on Academies. Much individual school news is lower down on this page.

Once again I am getting reports of childen who have been rejected by church voluntary controlled primary schools, because they failed to tick the "I want my child to be educated in a church school" box. This is a nonsense piece of bureaurcracy by the Church of England and should be abolished, as there is no requirement for parents to have a church alliegance. All parents can do is to resubmit their application as a late application for the 28th April with the box ticked when, depending on distance, they will go to the top of the waiting list. An appeal is unlikely to be successful because of Infant Class Legislation, see Primary page.

Infant class allocations are now out. The pattern countywide is almost identical to 2009, with 96% of all children being offered a school on there form and 88% being offered their first choice. although of course there may be regional variations. Further details are on the Primary School admissions page.

More Medway schools news: The removal of over 200 secondary school places in Medway to cater for falling rolls has really had an effect this year on the more popular schools as the number of children failing to get their first preferences has increased by 20%. Most popular school is Sir Thomas Aveling, as it has been for several years, with 86 first choices turned away, up from 40 in 2009. The Brompton Academy has leapt into second place turning away 50 first choices, forcing Rochester Grammar into third place being 48 oversubscribed (25 offers going to Kent children!). Fort Pitt Grammar School, after reducing its intake by 30, has now turned away 27 first choices - appeals there look interesting! What we are seeing here is an example of what can happen when school places are removed because of falling rolls - children end up being forced into less popular schools.

There were just 5 Medway schools with vacancies before Medway Council reallocated children who had been given none of their choices. After reallocation, Bishop of Rochester Academy and St John Fisher RC were full, whilst Hundred of Hoo, Chatham Grammar Boys and Chatham Grammar Girls still have spare places. 151 places were taken up by Kent children nearly every school accepting some; with 116 Medway children going the other way into Kent - nearly half of these to Holmesdale. 68 out of the 298 children entered for Medway Reviews were successful.

The following grammar schools each had more than ten vacancies on March 1st: Borden, Clarendon House, Dover Grammar Boys, Folkestone Girls, Harvey, Highworth (heavily oversubscribed with first choices last year!), Invicta. The following grammar schools have four or fewer vacancies (none between four and ten!): Gravesend Boys (heavily oversubscribed with first choices last year!), Gravesend Girls, Wilmington Boys, Wilmington Girls. All other Kent grammar schools were full on National Offer Day.

Non selective schools with vacancies, that were full last year: Hextable, Meopham, Northfleet Girls, St Edmunds Dover, St George's Gravesend, St John's Gravesend, Walmer, Wilmington Enterprise.

Non selective schools full that had vacancies last year: Castle Community, Longfield Academy.

Please note that even though a school is full according to the Planned Admission Number, appeals can and will be successful in some cases. An Independent Appeal Panel has the right to instruct schools to take additional children. Last year the number of successful appeals at oversubscribed schools in Kent ranged from nil to 38. Further, where a grammar school has vacancies, the appeal panel is under no obligation to fill these and won't if there are insufficient children of a 'grammar school standard'.

Five Kent schools had over half their places empty before the Local Authority allocated children, who had not been offered any of their choices, to them.

I am sorry, but I am not able currently to provide more details on the above information, which is offered to guide families still looking for appropriate schools for their children.

Kent County Council has released information on secondary school transfer, which you can find on the statistics page.

Good news is that the number of first choices offered is up by 2% to 80% possibly showing that parents have made more realistic choices this year. The number of children to get none of their choices has fallen by 153 to 620, but each of these is a very disappointed family. The number of offers to families from outside Kent is 532, which will be nearly all grammar school children, the majority going to North West Kent. KCC has changed its policy of allocating grammar school children who have been given none of their choices. Last year they were offered the nearest grammar school which meant West Kent children were given Folkestone and Sittingbourne. This year it is the nearest wide ability school or Academy with vacancies, which suggests the majority will have been offered Skinners Academy in Tunbridge Wells.

Most popular school for first choices was Homewood in Tenterden, unsurprising as with an intake of 360, it is one of only two Kent schools admitting more than 300 pupils. The order then goes: Leigh Technology Academy (Dartford) - regularly the most oversubscribed school in the county, Westlands School (Sittingbourne), North School (Ashford), Isle of Sheppey Academy (Kent's largest school), Herne Bay High School, Valley Park School (smallest school on the list suggesting there will be considerable problems in South Maidstone again), Sandwich Technology School, Mascalls School (Paddock Wood) and Bennett Memorial School (Tunbridge Wells).

Radio and televsion interviews in March: BBC South East (three times); Radio Kent (four times); Radio Five Live. Back to a 'normal' life now the media excitement is over.

116 Kent children were assessed suitable for grammar school but could not be allocated a place at one of the schools parents had applied for.

Children who had applied for non-selective school as back up and were allocated this are not included in the above.

Whilst the vast majority of these were from West Kent, 15 children were from East Kent, including 6 from Canterbury and 5 from Whitstable/Herne Bay area .

Some of the following is derived straight from parents and my sources are reliable in my terms but not authorised. I don't quote second hand from other parental websites. Skinners cut off is 410, but with some 409s included (three up on last year at this stage). Tonbridge Grammar inners are down to 405 (at least two down on last year), and for outers the cut off is 407 (down five on 2009). Judd has offered places to some boys on 415, but not all (up on last year). Dartford Grammar School has come in lower than I expected at 395 a fall from last year's 401. Rochester Grammar is 534 (with a Medway pass mark of 521). Rainham Mark pass mark is 526. The new super selective - Chatham House in Ramsgate has a cut off above the 360 basic pass mark (lowest score yet to be confirmed). As I forecast last year, there are grammar school standard children in Herne Bay and Whitstable, who have not been offered grammar school places because of reductions in places in Thanet and oversubscription in Faversham and Canterbury. Dartford Grammar School for Girls requires 404 for its 10% out of area girls. Last year Gravesend Grammar School was heavily oversubscribed - for 2010 entry all qualified applicants in the priority areas have been offered places.

Cut off distances for the following schools are: Barton Court, 6.24 miles; Mascalls 4.66 miles; Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, 5.92 miles; Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School, 7.35 miles;TWGGS 1.8 miles; Weald 8.95 miles (Sevenoaks district - none offered in lower categories); Valley Park -1.09 miles.

Any fresh information on decisions gratefully received to help complete the picture.

Special Education Needs Unit Review

Hot off the press (27 Feb). KCC has sent out a letter stating explicitly that there are no plans to phase out ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) Special Units, rather that there are plans to increase the number of Unit places provided for children with an ASD during 2010/11. This is a sudden and complete reversal of the previous proposals for such childrne and will be widely welcomed. It completely pre-empts the the Special Education Needs Unit Review for these children that planned to phase out all Special Needs Units in Kent which was due ot be finalised in the Autumn. The pilot scheme operating in Dartford, Gravesham, Swanley, Shepway and Ashford was due to take effect this September. An article appeared in Kent on Sunday this week (page 3) setting out some of the issues and implying that KCC was delaying statements of affected children. A more detailed comment is on the SEN page of this website, although this is now out of date.

The letter only refers to ASD children and it is unclear how this relates to the proposed phasing out of other Units. Needless to say, the addition of children with increased and varying categories of Special Education Need would place additional pressures on teachers in mainstream classes and is likely to affect learning outcomes. I also believe that an outcome of this will be a rise in the number of Statemented children being permanently excluded. KCC had earlier sent out out a generic email response to concerns about the issues. Sadly not only does it not explain the rationale behind the phasing out of Sprecial Units, it doesn't even mention it, although this is the predominant concern of such parents.

The proposition to set up Lead Schools to support children displaced form Units was to be financed from the phasing out of the Units. It remains to be seen what is to happen with these at a time when KCC is under severe financial pressure.

School Exclusions

I have now received through the Freedom of information act, data on Kent school exclusions for the year 2008-9, which contain some worrying details. In 2007-8 Kent had the second highest proportion of permanently excluded (expelled) children in the South of England outside London. Whilst this this has now fallen for 2008-9 (comparative national figures are not available) there were still 253 children permanently excluded from mainstream schools and Academies in the County.Worryingly, 20% of these were children with Statements of Special Education Need, and a further 24% on SEN School Action Plus. This is in spite of the Government imperative that states: “Other than in the most exceptional circumstances, schools should avoid permanently excluding pupils with statements”. Indeed the figure for statmented children rises to 54% (20 out of 34) for primary schools. These shocking figures for the exclusion of statemented children are likely to rise with the phasing out of Special Units (see below).

One school, the New Line Learning Academy had 25 permanent exclusions in the past school year, and another four since September, more than twice as many as any other school in the county.

Individual School Information

I have now completed an initial survey of all oversubscribed Kent and Medway secondary schools, all grammar schools and all fourteen operational and planned Academies. It is my intention to add to these sections as new information (not opinion on quality) arrives and I have time. Please feel free to provide me with this or prompt me to add it.

Kent Review of Admission Arrangements

KCC revealed on 15 January that it is to ask for an Independent Review of Kent's Secondary School Admission Arrangements. Details are here. The exact terms of reference of the Review are still being developed but it is evident from Page 7 of the document that it will target the issues of pressure on grammar school places in West and North West Kent. However, I consider the Review is potentially political dynamite, and will open a Pandora's Box of issues, including the whole debate on the existence of grammar schools. It is likely I will be interviewed on BBC SE for this on Monday evening. The story continues to build. See Kent Messenger for more details.

KCC has already removed 800 places from Gravesham secondary schools through the Building Schools for the Future project in an attempt to cater for projected falling rolls. I outlined this in more detail in Kent on Sunday last May, although I understand (but have not had it confirmed) that the proposed cuts in the Gravesend grammar schools may have been reversed.

The scheme has now seen some 300 places removed from Thanet grammar schools because of falling rolls in Thanet, although I remain very concerned about places for Whitstable and Herne Bay families.

Now it is Dover and Folkestone's turn. Kent's Strategic Plan for the Provision of Secondary Places makes clear that there is a forecast decline in secondary numbers of 21% in Dover over the decade and therefore there will have to be cuts in both non selective and grammar provision, so the County idea of cutting grammar school places in the East can hardly have come as a surprise. Nevertheless, both grammar schools still take in a full complement of children each year (partly as a result of the special Dover Grammar School Test) and in the case of Dover Grammar Girls provide one of the highest achieving grammar schools in the County. Moving on to Folkestone, again the Strategic Plan indicates the removal of places, but does not cover the issue of overflow from the growing town of Ashford, which is already evident. In short, there may well be a case for the removal of some school places (not just in selective schools) in parts of East Kent, but where grammar schools are concerned, the area as a whole needs to be looked at, not just individual towns.

In North West Kent we have a very interesting model. Dartford Grammar School for Girls gives priority to Kent children, and there are sufficient places for girls across Dartford and Gravesham. Dartford Grammar School gives priority to boys living in Dartford town, but otherwise goes for high scorers. Both Wilmington Grammar school are close to the county boundary and take in a high proportion of out of county children on distance grounds. There is a considerable shortage of grammar school places for boys across the area with Wilmington Boys Grammar having 108 appelas last year, the highest number in Kent!

In West Kent the twin issues of the two boys' super selective schools and to a lesser extent Tonbridge Grammar School (for girls), together with the associated fierce private coaching culture, combine to produce intense pressure on grammar school places. Last year this was partially resolved by 33 extra children being admitted to Tunbridge Wells Boys Grammar School on appeal, but I doubt that will be repeated as the school is now even more 'full' if that is possible. The big question here is, if extra places were to be provided would they simply attract more out of county entrants?

By definition an increased proportion of children being found selective in West Kent sees a reduced proportion in East Kent and this is evident in the statistics, thus skewing the figures even more and challenging the demographic issue. In short, this is a far more complicated situation than simply 'transferring places from East to West' although if East Kent is to lose places for demographic reasons then, for a selective authority not allowed to introduce additional grammar school places, this may be a legal way to ease some of its problems.

Wilmington Enterprise College

This failing Kent school is being fast tracked to Academy status for September 2010, the main sponsor being the Leigh Academy Trust. Further details on the Academies page.

School Oversubscription Criteria

The Kent proposals for 2011 entry to secondary schools are starting to appear here. Last year Judd School, Skinners School and Dartford Girls Grammar were amongst those challenged, with changes to Dartford being made, but the Schools Adjudicator ruling no change for Judd or Skinners. However, he stated that they and KCC should agree a way forward for the future, with KCC clearly seeking priority for Kent children to aid the pressure in West Kent. Further information here. This year's proposals contain no changes, but parents can initially respond to each school by their published date. West Kent parents of potential grammar school pupils (including Tonbridge Grammar) may find KCC or the adjudicator receptive to challenges.

Secondary School League Tables

These have now been published and you will find them here (you need to choose the Local Authority option and pick Kent or Medway for each set of tables). As ever they contain misleading elements with, for example, schools following an accelerated curriculum and taking AS levels early enjoying double counting for a number of their examination successes. The Baccalaureate is included in the A Level tables by a mysterious conversion. A number of non selective schools see their 5 A-C passes boosted by vocational multi certificate courses. As always, Kent gets slammed by certain politicians for a higher than average number of schools achiving less than 30% GCSE passes. I wrote an article for Kent On Sunday on this last year and it is still valid. In summary, as Kent's grammar schools take a quarter of Kent's children who should all achieve 5 GCSEs, the non selective schools should have a lower barrier to pass. What should be headline news is that Kent remains an above average Authority nationally. Congratulations to Dover Grammar Girls for once again achieving such a high place with none of the advantages of many of the other high fliers.

Bexley Grammar Schools

Bexley clearly has pressure on Grammar School places of a similar nature to West and North West Kent. As a result it is carrying out a review of current policies and procedures. It follows complaints from parents about the number of selective places being awarded to children from outside the borough and from independent schools at the expense of pupils at Bexley’s primary schools. This comes about because the top 180 scorers in the Bexley tests have priority for places no matter where they live. Parents claim bright borough children from ordinary schools are now being pushed out of Bexley’s grammar schools in favour of children from independent and out-of-borough schools who have been extensively coached (Coaching is discouraged in Bexley Primary schools).

For 2010 entry, 4,690 children took the test with 1,270 (27 per cent) being found selective. There are just 754 grammar school places in Bexley, but many children take up Kent grammar school places easing the pressure for the Borough, but aggravating it for Kent. Of the top 180 scores, 115 lived outside Bexley Borough.

For 2009 entry, 553 of the 1,294 children deemed selective were from Bexley primary schools. In addition, 79 children from Bexley’s independent schools took the test and 54 were put in the selective band. So only 35% of children in the selective band were Bexley primary school children and just 62% of Bexley Grammar school places went to Bexley children,

Grammar School Tests 2010, for entry 2011

Kent and Medway Councils are currently consulting on dates for grammar school testing. The dates are unlikely to change. For Kent they are 14th and 15th September 2010 for pupils in Kent primary schools, and September 18th for out of county pupils. Medway Council is proposing to bring the date of the Medway Test forward to 25th September 2010, from its current pattern of an October date, more in line with the Kent tests. The consultation documents are available at Kent Consultation and Medway Consultation.

Medway Test information for 2010 entry

(Kent Test information has been moved to the Admission statistics page)

The total number of Year Six Medway children was 3149 (Interestingly, in spite of publicity about falling rolls in Medway, this is 140 more than last year).

	Candidates	Successes	% Success	% of cohort
Medway	1759	727	41	23
Kent	314	222	71
Out County	16	12	75

With a further 4 Kent children passing on Review, this gives a total of 222 Kent children being found selective in Medway, 33 up on last year. The higher pass rate for Kent children merely reflects the higher ability of those likely to submit to an additonal set of tests.

The outside Kent and Medway figures are almost identical to last year. It is likely that most of this group just took the tests for practice with no intention of taking up a Medway Grammar school place. None of these Kent or out of county figures are used to determine the pass score which, as can be seen is fixed to allow 23% of Medway children.

Following the test results, parents of children who have not passed are invited to submit them for a review, which is designed to admit an additional 2% of Medway children. Review numbers for the Medway tests are as follows:

	Candidates	Successes	% Success	% of cohort
Medway	270	63	23	2
Kent	26	4	15
Total	296	67	23

There were no candidates for review outside Medway and Kent.

The Maidstone edition of the Kent Messenger has again published statistics for the Kent test for individual Maidstone and Weald primary schools, together with just two independent schools in the area. Whilst of some interest, they should be read with great care. In particular, as Weald schools are not in the catchment of grammar schools, the number of pupils taking the Kent tests will be lower than the norm in selective areas. I remain unclear why most independent schools in the area are ignored, some of whom exist to support entry to grammar schools, whilst others actively discourage the 11 plus. Shernold School, one of those supplied, achieved notoriety early in the year, when all its 11 plus results were nullified because of irregularities, and pupils' standards assessed through work submitted. I am only in possession of the Maidstone edition and am not aware this is repeated in other areas. If so, I would be grateful for the information.

The Valley Park saga, outlined on other pages, continues. The Ombudsman recently recommended that four complainants about the appeal process at the Maidstone school should have fresh appeals. Although KCC denied there had been any fault in the process they agreed to fresh appeals and these have all been upheld; so the children involved will start at Valley Park this week.
Bishops Down Primary School in Tunbridge Wells, with a planned admission number of 28, used a Governors Committee to fill the remaining places up until 2009 entry. Following a complaint by me to the Ombudsman relating to the maladministration of appeals at the school, Bishops Down has had its admission number raised to 30 to remove this irregularity.
Paul Carter, Leader of Kent County Council has opened up a controversial debate with an article in the Independent newspaper proposing an increase in the number of West Kent grammar school places by reducing those in the East. He and I discussed this on Radio Kent. You will find further information and my comments here. You will also find further comment at 11 plus exams mainly expressing out of county positions. The forum includes information taken from this website, although any mention of kentadvice.co.uk or me is banned there!
Dartford Grammar School for Girls - The Schools Adjudicator ruled in October on the oversubscription criteria for Dartford Grammar School for Girls for 2010 entry, after a long debate, and it is good news for Kent families. Details here.
I remain unhappy at the number of secondary schools still advising parents they need to put the school in first place on the SCAF, if they are to receive an offer. This is not only completely untrue as schools are not told where you have put them on the form, it would be illegal. Put schools in the order in which you want them, it is as simple as that; you will not be the loser for it. If you want a second opinion on this make a call to Kent County Council Choice Advisers on 01622 694073. They specialise in offering free advice on school admissions, but are not allowed to go into some matters where I can assist.

2009 was my most successful ever for appeals. Currently I am running at 86% of those settled, although a number of those in the balance have now been referred to the Ombudsman, with every chance of success to further increase the rate.
With the collapse of the legal case in Harrow against a parent accused of a fraudulent application for school admission, I had a further round of media interviews on relevant issues. I was interviewed on BBC World at One and subsequently quoted by Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.
Details of 2009 admission and appeals decisions have now been moved to the relevant pages.

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