Oakwood Park Grammar School.  Became an Academy in 2011. OFSTED February 2019 - Good.  Filled on allocation for the first time in some years for 2020, the number of successful appeals falling sharply as a result. It loses some boys to Maidstone Grammar after the appeal process but census data shows it has finished up around its PAN figure of 160 in each of the past four years.  2018 GCSE sound, and Ofsted 2019 found 16-19 programme Outstanding. For 2020, there was a 74% staying on rate into the Sixth Form, Oakwood picked up another 59 students from other schools, one of the largest numbers across the county, including 20 girls from Maidstone Girls and 11 from Invicta Grammar Schools. 

Further Information here

 GCSE performance at 5 A*-Cs dipped in 2016 and 2017.  

At A Level in 2019, a very low proportion of A Level candidates for a grammar school took three A Levels - 93 out of 155. However, 150 took three A Levels or two plus 'an equivalent qualification', that equivalent being the Cambridge Pre-U Global Perspectives and Independent Research which I understand the school no longer offers. 

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Oasis Academy Hextable.  Now closed.

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Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey.  Chequered life for as long as I can remember. That is, back to 1983 when I was headhunted to run the then 13-19 school, but did not apply in the end after I had explored it! Became an Academy in 2009, sponsored by Dulwich College who failed to make it a success. In September 2009 after years of controversy over the change of age and ways to convert, it changed from 13-18 to become a two site 11-18 school with 18 forms of entry, the largest school in the country at that time.  After yet another Principal was removed, the highly respected David Day was appointed just before OFSTED in 2011  which failed it with Notice to Improve although finding it now had capacity to improve. In February 2013, new buildings were opened on both sites. OFSTED a month later found it considerably improved, although classifying it as Requires Improvement. This was not enough and Dulwich College gave up the task it had proved inadequate for and the academy was handed over to the Oasis Group. Mr Day was of course removed in spite of the improvements he was making. OFSTED returned in March 2015, and again found it Requires Improvement, the main criticisms being the achievement of students and the quality of teaching. I have updated the story several times in news items, including here, with back links, revealing a worrying level of criticism including high off-rolling of students pre-GCSE.  Although the headteacher had clearly failed as performance declined, he was promoted on the back of it to become Executive Principal of Leigh Academy Trust's Crown Woods Academy. Looks as if he was moved on from there after less than two years. Well done Oasis!  New head appointed Easter 2017 previously Deputy Head, introduced highly controversial new disciplinary process as school become one of Kent's three Tough Love Academies. introduced March 2017 by new Headteacher. May 2017: Major concerns developing overlarge number of Year 11 pupils leaving to attend Swale Pupil Referral Unit, and high proportion of others leaving for Elective Home Education. This head lasted just a year before being moved on. Next headteacher was again previously Deputy Head, after schools looked hard and failed to find an external candidate for the second time.  No change of Tough Love Policy, indeed probably an intensification. 

School has been bedevilled by running two equivalent schools on the two sites (excellent for moving difficult or vulnerable children from site to site). 2018 saw a radical new plan announced to run one site as an academic school, the other as vocational. This was rapidly scrapped as the school realised that because of falling rolls it could contain all its main school pupils on one site, with Sixth Form and disciplinary cases on the other. 

2017-18: Highest number and second highest proportion of Home Education and second highest number and proportion of Fixed Term Exclusions in Kent. 2018-19 highest number and proportion of Fixed Term Exclusions in Kent, at 1025, over 500 more than the second placed school in Kent.  Fell sharply for 2019-20 (did my article have an effect?) to 425, still the highest number, but fourth highest percentage. 

For September 2020, the school acted to strengthen its leadership team, bringing in an Executive Principal to oversee the work of Principal Tina Lee, rather then remove her as has been past practice.  The link leads to an extensive analysis of the current situation, although by January 2021, the senior leadership team had swollen to the largest I have ever seen for a single school. As well as the Executive Principal and the Principal, the next in the hierarchy are the two Associate Principals (one of whom is on his fourth job in six years and now doubles as an Education Consultant). Then come the Vice Principal and a further eight Assistant Principals, in a section on the website called 'Meet the Staff', although no others are mentioned. All this from a teaching staff of under 60 full time. Updated here, 2021. 

Further information here. 

2016 -2021 all first preferences offered and no appeals for school admission.

The school always has vacancies and for 2017 to 2019 was in the highest four vacancy rates in the county. The October 2020 census reported there were 251 pupils in Year Seven, with 139 vacancies as pupils found alternative schools in Sittingbourne, or took Elective Home Education. 

One of lowest performing schools in Kent for 2016 GCSE. Slumped 2018 second lowest in both Progress 8 and Attainment 8. 2019 some improvement in GCSE relative to other Kent schools.  

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Orchards Academy, Swanley.  Became an academy in 2010. Coincidentally the second school I was headhunted for back around 1983 when it was known as Swanley Technology College, but refused! At that time it had some 1500 students but has been shrinking ever since under mixed leadership, recently losing out to the more popular Knole Academy in Sevenoaks. Starting to improve in recent years, it has received a real fillip with the closure of the Oasis Academy Hextable (above). A member of the Kemnal Academies Trust. First choices well up for 2019 but down again for 2020 as Knole recovers. 

2014 - 2021 no appeals for school admission.

One of highest performing non-selective schools in Kent for Progress 8, in 2016. Not regarded as a fashionable school perhaps because of history, but clearly on the up since 2015, aided by the closure of Oasis Academy Hextable.  

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Pent Valley Technology College, Folkestone. Now closed.

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Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham. Became an academy in 2012. One of four mixed grammar schools in Kent. OFSTED March 2015 - Outstanding.  The first grammar school in the country to expand its PAN in 2012, from 120 to 140. This leaves around 15 places for successful appeals each year.

Further information here. 

 Regularly oversubscribed, numbers soared for 2017 and 2018, possibly as Simon Langton Girls in Canterbury less popular following controversy.  

 Appeals are arranged by a private administrator. In 2020 and 2021 they were paper-based.

GCSE Progress 8 lowest grammar in the county for 2018. A Level progress, best in county! But 13% of pupils left half way through A Level course, 2017-18, highest in Kent. Second highest at 8% in 2019. Highest in 2020 at 6%. This starts to look like a policy. 

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Royal Harbour Academy, Ramsgate. Opened in September 2015. Ofsted Special Measures June 2018, Requires Improvement January 2020. Based on previous successful Ellington and Hereson (PFI) schools which subsequently combined together with failed Marlowe Academy which was closed in July 2015. The Marlowe premises are now used for the lower school which has not proved popular with E&H parents.  The school became part of the Coastal Academies Trust, headed up by Dane Court Grammar and King Ethelbert School on 1st April 2014, although it is not an academy itself, because of the PFI issue, although it did apply. Ellington and Hereson had been very popular for years, pressure brought about by parents trying to avoid Marlowe!  Royal Harbour has become one of the two Thanet schools to avoid, along with Hartsdown (2019), as demonstrated by the high number of Local Authority Allocations (below). Second lowest GCSE Progress 8 and Attainment 8 in Kent for 2019. Controversial plan to open a new secondary school in Thanet in 2019, vetoed at the last moment which would have seriously damaged RHA intake. Unfortunately for the school, this has been reinstated raising concerns about Royal Harbour's viablity.

For 2014 entry, there were 5 first choices turned away, and 25 for 2015, before the takeover of Marlowe was announced, which created sufficient spaces to accommodate all who wanted to go there. The new school is still struggling badly to establish itself with parents. There must have been considerable KCC pressure to admit extra pupils in 2019 and 2020, because of lack of spaces in all Thanet schools, but surely the school would have been wiser to resist and focus on improving standards. 

Academically, Marlowe was a disaster throughout, its 6% 5 A*-Cs in 2015 being one of the lowest percentages of success in the country. Ellington slipped over its last three years, from 43% in 2013, to a very worrying 23% in 2015. Along with nearby Hartsdown Academy shared the county's lowest GCSE Attainment 8 and Performance 8 results in 2016. Improvement for 2018. Second lowest Progress 8 and Attainment 8 nationally for GCSE in 2019.

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