I have had a very interesting morning, being used as an “expert” by the BBC on a circuit of Local Radio stations commenting on today’s news that the number of parents being taken to court over the unauthorised absence of their children from school is rising fast. 16,430 people in England were prosecuted for failing to ensure that a child went to school in 2014, up a quarter on 2013 when 13,128 people were taken to court.

My main sympathy is with the schools who have to police an increasingly difficult situation, but the reverse side of the coin is that the number of cases of persistent absence appears to be on the decline thank to the new tougher measures. The latest, I have been able to find show that in 2012-13, there was a sharp fall in persistent absence in that year from 433,130 to 300,895, down nearly a third after the regulations were tightened up.

The current rules are now quite explicit - You have to get permission from the headteacher if you want to take your child out of school during term time. You can only do this if: you make an application to the headteacher in advance and there are exceptional circumstances. The last of course begs the question “what are exceptional circumstances?”…..

 Controversial Ebbsfleet Academy Principal Alison Colwell has been asked, according to KentOnline,  to attend another meeting with Schools Minister Nick Gibb, as one of ten "behaviour experts" nationally to discuss the school's "zero tolerance" behaviour policy and how this approach can be used to drive up standards in schools. This follows an article in the Sunday Times Magazine in July 2014, which explained "how it had turned around its reputation as one of the country’s worst performing schools". Puzzlingly, the predecessor Swan Valley School had no such reputation and this statement is completely untrue. The Ofsted Report of January 2011 recorded that "Students’ attainment has risen significantly at Swan Valley over the last few years as a result of improvements in the quality of teaching and learning and careful tracking and intervention, particularly in Key Stage 4. Challenging targets have been set and exceeded. The proportion of students achieving 5A* to C grades at GCSE last year was the school’s best ever result at 63%. When mathematics and English are included, the number gaining 5A* to C grades was 34% in 2010, also a record for Swan Valley ". For 2011 GCSE performance, this figure rose further to 35%. Strangely, in spite of this significant progress the then headteacher (OFSTED: "The headteacher, passionate about obtaining the best for his students") was suddenly removed later in the year and replaced  by Ms Colwell who had been seconded to the school to assist him a few months earlier. Further controversy followed, as explained here, and here.

For 2012 and 2013, under the new management, GCSE performance had slumped to second worst in the county in both years, at 24% and 28% respectively. Overall over the past three years there has been a fractional improvement in GCSE results as the 2014 GCSE pass rate has inched up from the 35% of 2011, just before the putsch, to 36%, hardly endorsing the claim in the Sunday Times article of turning around its reputation. However, what is more notable is that the popularity of the school has fallen sharply in the same period, the most recent figures for admission in September 2015 showing that there were just 47 first choices for the 150 places, with 52 places, or over a third of those available, being taken up by Local Authority allocations of children who hadn't even applied for Ebbsfleet Academy. This is the third highest proportion in the county, the Marlowe Academy being first having now been closed through lack of demand.

Oddly, although I was also interviewed by the Sunday Times reporter, none of these factual statements were mentioned in the article!......

A senior member of staff at a Chatham Primary School is reported to have been suspended by the Academy Trust running the school, after alleged cheating in SATs this year was reported to the Trust. This followed an inquiry by the Chief Executive of the Trust who made a comprehensive report to the national Standards and Teaching Agency (STA), which then took the decision to annul all 90 Year 6 results. The Phoenix Junior Academy is run by the Fort Pitt Thomas Aveling Academies Trust, which has clearly behaved very responsibly and professionally in the matter. Rightly, the Trust has issued a statement explaining the situation to parents, noting that no class teacher was involved in the maladministration of the SATs and is now reportedly engaged in a confidential employment process so understandably unable to comment further.

How different from the situation at Whitehill Primary School in Gravesend….

Congratulations to all at Gravesend Grammar School for what I believe is one of the most glowing “Outstanding” OFSTED Inspection Reports I have ever read. You will find this superb report on an outstanding school here.

The whole Report is carefully shaped around the school motto and opens: “The school’s motto of ‘consule cunctis’ meaning care for all permeates all aspects of the school’s work. It fuels the powerful drive for excellence of the executive headteacher and the governors and is understood and shared by all members of the school community”.

Unusually for a grammar school, it next highlights students’ exceptional behaviour and outstanding relationships within the school. It continues with the challenging curriculum, the outstanding teaching, and high standards. The excellent progress of students which culminate in an excellent preparation in the sixth form for student’s next steps in life as they value highly the opportunities for academic study and the exceptional quality of the experiences they are offered for leadership and enrichment, are other highlights of the report. “Safeguarding and child protection arrangements are exemplary”.

And yet…….

The Daily Mail has published an article claiming that the proposed Sevenoaks Annex is being blocked because of legal issues.

The article asserts that the legal problems are such that, even if the Secretary of State were to approve the scheme, it would be overturned by a legal challenge in the courts. Fear of a Judicial Review was likely to put a stop to the proposal going ahead.

The current scheme is the fourth to be proposed  since the satellite grammar school was first proposed three and a half years ago, planning permission for the new annex has been granted, and builders are waiting to move in. Meanwhile on the same site, the new buildings for the Trinity Free School are already in progress.

The article gives no clue as to what the legal obstacles might be and, whilst they were evident in each of the three previous schemes, it is harder to see what is now suggested to be blocking the proposal.

Whatever, we are left wondering if this is just another of the myriad of rumours that have swirled around this project from the start, as confirmed by any internet search for "Sevenoaks Annex". In particular (updating five days after the original Daily Mail article) it is curious that no other media outlet has picked up the story, or is it just they have been burned before....

Fleetdown in Dartford: In its newsletter dated 26^th June, the Headteacher announced that she and her governors may take away the place of any child who goes away on holiday in term-time and offer it to the next child on the waiting list. This is of course illegal, as the only way the place can be removed is by permanent exclusion. As the absence results from the parents' decision not that of the child there are no grounds to exclude because of serious misbehaviour the main criterion for permanent exclusion. The illegality is then compounded by the creation of a panel of governors to rule on whether the child can be offered a new place, a procedure which has no basis in law.

Hempstead Junior in Gillingham: as confirmed by the Medway Messenger, five of the eleven school governors have resigned “with the utmost reluctance” as it was “the only viable option left open” to them. In a letter to the school which I have seen, the governors said: “Despite our considerable efforts over the course of many months, we no longer believe we can work with the current head teacher to deliver sustainable progress for the school in general and, most importantly, for the children”. The clerk to the governors appears also to have resigned. Cabinet Member for Education, Mike O’Brien, is reported to have said “The decision by some of the governors is entirely a matter for them.” – Obviously no concerns there then!

Second Update on Hempstead: There is a comment below by the recent vice-chairman of Governors; another by the last but one chairman of governors; and a third, moving statement by teachers at the head's previous school. This is building up to be a strong indictment of current management and makes Medway Council's position look even  more precarious.

Continued……

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the abdication of responsibility for the Bishop of Rochester Academy in Chatham, as the Diocese of Rochester, the previous main sponsor, decided to abandon its attempts to improve the standards and popularity of the school. The Academy has now been passed on to the Thinking Schools Academy Trust, headed up by The Rochester Grammar School, incorporating Chatham Grammar School for Boys and several primary schools.

Now comes news of a surprising merger between two more Medway Academy Trusts, an agreement having been reached to merge The Thomas Aveling Academy Trust (TA) with the Fort Pitt Grammar School Academy Trust (FP), under the catchy title of Fort Pitt Thomas Aveling Academy Trust. 

What is notable in a Local Authority whose academy chains are currently dominated by grammar schools (the third chain being the Sir Joseph Williamson’s Academy Trust), is that this time the non-selective school appears to be at least equal in status.

Parents of children at Bishop of Rochester Academy in Chatham learned on 10th March that the school was to pass from lead sponsorship by the Anglican Rochester Diocesan Board of Education to the Thinking Schools Academy Trust (TSAT), headed up by The Rochester Grammar School and All Faiths Community Primary School and that the Principal had already left the school. The other two sponsors, Canterbury Christ Church University and Medway Council, will also have withdrawn from Bishop of Rochester as it becomes a TSAT Academy this month.

Meanwhile, TSAT has withdrawn from its intense campaign to secure Twydall Primary School as a Sponsored Academy.....

Updated 6th April, following the Conference 

On 1st April 2015, I spoke at The 11 Plus Conference , about the effects of coaching on the Kent Test. The aims of the Conference were: “Bringing together teachers, head teachers, examiners and education industry experts in the area of the 11 plus preparation; Providing a platform for discussion and debate in the future of the 11 plus; and raising money for the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust”. The Memorial Trust has been set up to work with young people suffering from depression. You will find a transcript of my talk here.  The Conference now plans to put on a separate meeting targeted at the Kent Test in June.

I have frequently covered the failings of the three Maidstone primary academies run by the Academies Enterprise Trust on the pages of this website. At last there are signs of relief for the poor families whose children are forced to attend one of Molehill Primary Academy, Oaks Primary Academy and Tree Tops Primary Academy as they are taken away from AET control and transferred to the Leigh Academy Trust, currently Kent’s most successful academy chain, on 1st March.

All three schools have been failed by OFSTED in the past few years, an article I wrote in January 2014 being entitled: “Is this the worst school in the country, run by the worst academy chain? - Tree Tops Academy”. An update on the fate of the three schools followed in September. AET, the largest Academy chain in the country, is currently banned from taking on any new academies and received a highly critical letter from OFSTED, following the focused inspection of 12 of its 71 schools (OFSTED is currently not allowed to inspect academy chains directly), in September.……

Congratulations to Sue Rogers who was Kent County Council's Director of Education Quality and Standards until Christmas, when she left to take up another post. I have today learned that this is as Managing Director of the Lilac Sky Academies Trust, which has developed a strong presence in Kent over the past two years. 

One of her first actions must have been the difficult one to become involved with the controversial proposed closure of Furness Special School in Hextable, which has been managed by Lilac Sky since mid 2012, but has now collapsed with debts of £1,631,520 over that period.......

CONSIDERABLY UPDATED WITH CORRECTIONS ARISING FROM FEEDBACK: 10TH FEBRUARY

Kent County Council has announced a Consultation on the closure of Furness School in Hextable. This is a scandal at the conclusion of four years of mismanagement by KCC, ending with a consultation that is a classic in misdirection.  I wrote a previous article in 2012 entitled “Is this the most damning Kent OFSTED Report ever? Furness School”, which has set the scene for this denouement three years later. 

Much of KCC’s argument for closure is false, based on two false premises, firstly that pupil numbers are low and getting lower, and secondly that education standards are low and not improving, as evidenced by the poor OFSTED Reports.

The school was redesignated to provide for high functioning Autistic Spectrum Disorder children (ASD) last September, replacing Behavioural, Emotional and Social Disorder (BESD). This year, ASD numbers are already 22 including an unspecified number of high functioning children (rather an important detail I would have thought), with BESD just 8, and new admissions discouraged or prohibited for much of the second half of 2012 for two years. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the trend in ASD is upwards, whilst BESD numbers would soon become insignificant.

I find it difficult to know where to start to pick my way through the complexities that have led to the KCC decision to close the school, but the article that follows attempts to cast the story in a historical perspective……

East Kent College is opening a Technical School at its Broadstairs campus in September 2015, in just eight months time, catering for students aged 14-19. 

There is a copy of its full press release lower down this page, released today. 

The press release describes an unusual situation, where a new school, run by a high attaining college, can be set up apparently without permissions unlike the current University Technical College (UTC) in Dartford and the proposed one in Medway that have had to jump through very public hoops to get approval. Neither can i find details of any consultation with the local community.

Class sizes will be limited to 20, and the curriculum will focus on English, mathematics and science along with 'one of two vocational pathways - either Catering and Hospitality or Early Years and Childcare', aiming for 9 GCSEs or equivalent. 

It is surely not a coincidence that the press release has been produced on the same day as GCSE results have been published, which has placed the Thanet non-selectives in the spotlight for disappointing results, as explained in my article below. Clearly the College is looking to benefit from their difficulties and will certainly look an attractive option to many young people in underperforming schools. For example, those in the Marlowe Academy, which prides itself on its vocational provision, will be very tempted to jump ship from a school which is already struggling badly with numbers, as also explained below.  I can't see how the academy will survive this latest blow.....

The Anti Academies Alliance is reporting increased resistance to enforced academisation, as typified by Twydall Primary School in Gillingham. The school was placed in Special Measures by OFSTED back in March and has had two critical OFSTED Monitoring Reports since then, although Key Stage 2 results in the summer were good. The headteacher resigned shortly after the second Monitoring Inspection, the Chairman of Governors having resigned earlier, both actions appearing to free up governors to take positive actions to improve the school in their efforts to take it out of Special Measures.

The Governing Body has since been the centre of much activity, as Medway Council is attempting to impose the Thinking Schools Academy Trust (TSAT), headed up by The Rochester Grammar School and All Faiths Children’s Community Primary school, as sponsors. It appears that governors are not unhappy with the concept of becoming a sponsored academy, but are increasingly resistant to this being TSAT. Allegations that two members of the Governing Body who have now resigned, had conflicts of interest with TSATs involvement, the replacement Chairman also facing controversy over his role, have not helped.

The arrival of an Interim Headteacher, Mrs Ann Pratt, with an excellent record and clear ideas for turning the school round appears to have had a very positive effect on the school, along with a more united and focused governance, which is now very open with parents about its activities, including a full written consultation, about academisation. The Governing Body section of the school website is a model of its kind, including copies of GB Minutes, and indeed the whole website now projects a very transparent and positive image of the school.  A Facebook page about the consultation contains some very frank comments about perceptions of TSAT……

I was interviewed on ITV Good Morning Britain this morning about the pressures on primary school places. The issue was precipitated by a paper from the Local Government Association attacking government lack of provision and planning for school places, and I contributed to the debate continuing on Radio Kent through the day.

The claim may well be true but, the timing of this paper was extremely insensitive (deliberately so?), just two days before the national closing date for primary school admission and guaranteed to worry many parents whose applications for school places have already been submitted.  The government response referred to ‘scaremongering’, and whilst I disagree with much of the rest of their case, sadly I think this word is correct.

Yes there are and will be problems ahead for many local families,  and the main problem areas for 2014 entry in Kent and Medway were described previously in these pages. However, the fact remains that in Kent in 2014, a high 85% of children were allocated their first choice school and just 5% were offered none of their choices. Medway’s figures were very similar at 86% and 5%. However, Kent anticipates an additional 15,000 school places will be needed over the next five years, and it is not yet clear where all these will come from.  

The politics of education are getting more unpleasant as we head towards the General Election,....