Whilst this is good news for parents seeking places at the school, it is creating a 'churning' effect in Sittingbourne and Sheppey as parents move from school to school to fill up the places left vacant. Sheppey Academy, at the bottom of the pile, is now likely to be left with many more empty spaces than the 30 it had on March 1st. This was after 40 children who had not applied there were allocated places by the Local Authority. Presumably all these will have been seeking places off the island through appeals to other schools many of which will not now be necessary because of the Westlands action. All this churning might have been avoided of course if Westlands had gone through one of the laid down procedures for increasing numbers. If an Academy  wishes to increase its numbers by up to 26 for a single year, it can apply directly to the DofE for permission, without reference to the Local Authority. If it wanted to increase its PAN on a regular basis, then there is a Consultation process to allow it to do so. Either of these could have been activated earlier in the year so that when allocations were made on 1st March, they could take this into account and avoid the unnecessary disruption currently taking place in the area.