Newspaper articles report that some two dozen girls living on the Isle of Sheppey, who passed the eleven plus, have no grammar school to go to. This is because their nearest grammar, Highsted Grammar School, is full as is Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Faversham. Highsted became an Academy in October, and so is independent of Kent County Council. It is reported to be coming under pressure to make contingency arrangements for an extra form of entry if the Independent Appeal Panel holds up appeals from these girls. The Cabinet Member for Education stated on Radio Kent this morning that the school had been able and was still able to apply for additional places for this exceptional case. In fact, the same situation has arisen before three times in the last twelve years and on each occasion the school has negotiated the provision of extra places with KCC before the need for any appeals.
Radio Kent covered this story this morning (Monday) and it will be on BBC SE this evening, with comments from me...........
In a separate development, The Isle of Sheppey Academy, where most of these girls would go if their appeals were unsuccessful, has had a monitoring visit from OFSTED. The main conclusions were that: "While the academy has demonstrated capacity to improve recently it has made inadequate progress since opening. This monitoring inspection has raised serious concerns about the standard of education provided by the academy and I am recommending a further monitoring inspection". If this had been a full Inspection, the Academy would have failed. You will find the Visit Report here. Sheppey Academy is significantly undersubscribed this year for, although there were just 30 vacant spaces at allocation on 1st March, the true number is masked by the 40 children allocated there who did not apply for the school. This may explain Local Authority reluctance to help ease the pressure on Highsted.