Meanwhile a letter this week in KOS from the headteacher of one of the academies named, is unapologetic about about the high number of children in his school he deems worthy of exclusion, which should be a last resort. Meanwhile Westlands School, the first new style academy in Kent continues to expand its business, with a proposed merger with Sittingbourne Community College, a school with its own very good reputation, just two miles away and also in Sittingbourne, to form the Swale Academies Trust, along with Westlands Primary School and Regis Manor Primary, already in Federation with Westlands. The Federation is to be headed up by Jon Whitcombe, current head of Westlands. You will find further details in the East Kent Gazette, which also reveals the two schools are bidding for extensive funds for capital development. This opportunity is clearly another powerful inducement to become an academy, as local authority schools have seen almost all capital funding for new buildings dry up. Menwhile, the Sittingbourne Messenger focuses on the financial benefits of becoming an academy, the Executive Head suggesting the grouping should bring an extra £1.3 million (per annum?) into the four schools.

Meanwhile, Mr Gove has proposed two new initiatives aimed at raising standards in schools. First up was a proposal to require all schools to achieve 5 GCSEs A-C, including English and maths, an especially challenging target for Kent non selective schools, who already lose the ablest quarter of their potential intake to local grammar schools. This follows last year's surprise introduction of the English Baccalaureate as a new measure, requiring 5 GCSE's in 'academic' subjects, leading many schools to change their curriculum to suit this. One head went very public on the response to the latest initiative, by announcing he would go over to a programme focusing on BTECS - his solution to the challenge, and one which will be copied by many others as they chase targets rather than put the quality of education first. Next Mr Gove announced that he would put pressure on the bottom 200 primary schools to improve their performance at KS2, or risk being taken over by other more successful schools, a particular problem in Kent which has 10% of all such schools in the country. No doubt we shall see many more conglomerates along the Westlands model.

Kent County Council announced its controversial plans for abolishing nearly all discretionary school travel arrangements, following an extensive campaign against the proposal. Details here. This is to be approved at KCC Cabinet on Monday.

For myself it has also been particularly hectic, being my busiest week in preparing clients for appeal hearings, in what is proving to be my most successful year ever in supporting clients to success at appeal in both seelctive and non selective schools. Concerns about the quality of some hearings has lead to a number of fresh Ombudsman cases and, for the first time, complaints to the Department of Education about appeal hearings managed by academies. Expect a further newsworthy development by the end of this week! Not surprisingly, website updates have taken a back seat.