For more detail on each of these items, see below.
News and Comments
The latest news posted by Peter J Read; just click on a news item below to read it in full. Feel free to subscribe to the news via the email link to the right or the RSS Feed at the bottom of the page. Please note that the over 1500 regular subscribers who receive each news item directly are not included in the number of readers recorded below the item, who have gone beyond the headlines to look at the full article. If you have a view on any item posted, please leave a comment.
Some more specific items appear in Peter's Blog, so its also worth checking there.
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Back to School
May I send my very best wishes to everyone involved with next week’s national return to school, which will start on Monday for some children, but is staggered through the week for others.
Medway Secondary School Allocations for September 2021: Initial Information and Advice
This article is triggered by the Medway Council Press Release on secondary school Allocations, which as usual contains an absolute minimum of information. In summary: Of the 3,431 Medway children offered places, more than 96 per cent have been awarded a place at one of their preferred secondary schools. 4,459 secondary school applications were processed, including 1,028 children from outside Medway.
The major change in admission patterns this year is also referred to in the Press Release. This is the opening of the new eight form entry Leigh Academy Rainham for September, offering 240 places from 514 applicants, and well above its Planned Admission Number of 180, which will have a major impact on other schools situated in the eastern part of Medway, and explored below.
The other piece of information I have obtained recently is the performance of Pupil Premium children in the Medway Test, below, showing a fall of over a quarter in the number passing, which will follow through into grammar school allocations. You will find the parallel article about Kent secondary allocations here.
Rochester Independent College: Advertising Article
ADVERTISING ARTICLE
A personal View by Leighton Bright Head of Lower School
Non-selective & high performing Rochester Independent College offers a truly unique Secondary School experience for students from Year 7 upwards. We welcome students at any point of their educational journey and offer a variety of different educational pathways to suit each individual.
The last 12 months have been some of the toughest I can remember as a teacher. At Rochester Independent College we have now twice seamlessly moved to our ‘RIC Without Walls’ provision, by which students have been able to enjoy their full timetable, taught face-to-face by our specialist teachers online. All of our students have adapted extremely well to this new way of working and are continuing to demonstrate their dedication, curiosity and love of learning. Our teachers have also developed a number of new skills and trialled new digital programmes in order to make their lessons as engaging and inspiring as possible, which has been great to see.
Kent Secondary School Allocations for September 2021: Initial Information and Advice
Update: You will now find most Super-Selective school cut off levels below.
Kent parents who applied online for secondary school places for their children are scheduled to receive decisions for 5 p.m. on Monday but, because of the large numbers, some usually come through an hour or more earlier, other families hear by post on Tuesday
As with so many aspects of education in this extraordinary year, the data for Kent secondary school allocations, out today, presents a different picture from previous years after Kent County Council chose not to delay the closing date for applications until after the deferred Kent Test results were released. Instead, they increased the number of choices on the application form from four to six. The major effect was that the number of children being offered their first choice school fell sharply from 14,095 to 12,736, or 10% of the total, reflecting the large number who placed a grammar school in first place but were then found non-selective. There was an increase of just 120 Kent pupils applying for secondary places out of a total of 18,273, with 845 being awarded none of their choices, although many of these did not use up all six.
The number of out of county applicants offered places in Kent schools rose to 859, an increase of 5% over 2020 and the first significant increase for five years, although until I receive further data, I don’t at present know the reason for this. You will find the KCC Press Release here, along with much more information below, including a look at some of the likely pressure points, updated as they become apparent. You will also find required scores for super-selective schools inserted as I receive them (all information welcomed).
There is initial advice at the foot of this article on what to do if you have not been offered the school of your choice. This begins as always with my Corporal Jones mantra, do NOTHING in panic! You may regret it. Although there is no quick fix, up to a thousand more families will secure a preferred school over the next five months, through reallocation, appeals and late applications, also considered in a recent article here.
School Admission Appeals and late Applications to Secondary School for September 2021 entry
Update 25th February: I have added some 'secret' information regarding late applications to Medway grammar schools here.
The government has extended last year’s temporary and amended arrangements for school admission appeals again, to run until 30th September 2021.
My sense is that these arrangements worked well in 2020, with all sides appearing happy with the new procedures in the great majority of cases. There was a total of 3424 appeals heard for admission to Kent and Medway primary and secondary schools last year, of which just 751, or 22% were upheld, compared to 26% in 2019 for a similar number of appeals. You will find that my extensive report on the 2020 appeals process and outcomes looks closely at the way the new arrangements worked.
As well as looking at appeals for admission to secondary schools in 2021, I also look below at late applications, both for families moving into the area and for those changing their direction, including for grammar schools.
I will be reporting on the initial allocation of secondary school places in Kent and Medway, as usual, in a week's time. This will be followed within the next couple of weeks on a detailed breakdown of allocations, in what is regularly a group of the most visited articles on the site and which will provide a further indication on the chances of a successful appeal or late application.
Academy and Free School News, February 2021 (Part One)
Six new Free Schools have opened in Kent and Medway since my previous Academy and Free School article in August: Bearsted Primary Academy, Ebbsfleet Green Primary School, School of Science and Technology Maidstone and Springhead Park Primary School; together with two Special Schools, Aspire School and Snowfields Academy. Folkestone Primary separated from the senior part of Folkestone Academy, as a new Sponsored Academy. The DfE has approved a new school, Chapelfield Primary in Maidstone, along with two more new schools in principle, the Gravesend Central School and Coningbrook Cof E Primary in Ashford.
New Converter Academies were: Eastchurch CofE Primary School, Sheppey; Holy Trinity CofE Primary School, Gravesham; Kingsdown & Ringwould CofE Primary, Marden Primary Academy, Maidstone; and Oaklands School, Medway along with the North West Kent Alternative Provision Service which is also a Sponsored Academy, all discussed in the August article.
Applications by Chartham Primary, St Stephen’s Infants and Worth Primary to convert have all been approved, with Fleetdown Primary in Dartford, Mundella in Folkestone and Sandwich Infants also having made applications. There is no current movement in Medway Schools. Whilst Holmesdale School and The North School appear to have cleared all obstacles to becoming Sponsored and Converter Academies respectively as part of Swale Academies Trust, there appears to be some form of blockage to the process.
The SE and South London Headteacher Board acting on behalf of the Regional Schools Commissioner has very surprisingly rejected an application by Fairview Community Primary School in Gillingham to join the Westbrook Trust.
Leigh Academy Rainham is opening in Medway in September 2021. The school will be a mixed 11-18 comprehensive on the edge of Rainham in Medway.
Fairview Primary Parents Exceptionally Win Battle Against Academisation
Update below (17th February): The Plot Thickens. I have made minor revisions to the article as a result.
The governors of Fairview Community Primary School in Gillingham, Medway, have scored a massive own goal by ignoring the wishes of parents, in their drive to academise the school within the Westbrook Trust. It is an unfortunate coincidence that the previous Chair of Governors, Kate Allen, is married to the CEO of the Westbrook Trust. After an earlier crisis at Fairview which saw the headteacher leave mid- term in 2018, and covered previously here, Medway Council brought in the Compass Partnership of Schools to provide leadership to the school, from January 2019. This proved an excellent and popular decision so, when Fairview governors decided to convert the school to become an academy, parents expected them to choose Compass, with its five primary schools, a strong record, and an Executive Headteacher who had restored confidence and stability to the school. Instead, they chose the Westbrook Trust.
In a highly unusual move, the Regional Schools Commissioner’s Headteacher Board has now turned down the governors’ application to convert the school, citing concerns that they were at odds with the school community and that Medway Council had formally raised concerns surrounding the governing body’s decision making, specifically around transparency and community engagement. Up until now, the pattern across the country has been for the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) to override such concerns in a drive to increase the number of academies, often very publicly and controversially, so this decision is very significant. It is quite clear that if governors had chosen the Compass Partnership which had restored the school’s morale and reputation, most parents would have been more than happy.
The Conversion of the PFI Holmesdale and The North Schools to Academy Status for September 2021 (?)
Updated here, 8th Feb, drawing on a KCC Education Committee Report
I have covered disputes over the proposed conversion of Kent schools built under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to become academies for many years. These first surfaced around 2011, my initial article being here, with the schools involved including Holmesdale Technology College and The North School.
Ten years later, these two schools are still at the heart of the issue and I have chronicled their misfortunes under Kent County Council (KCC) control over the years, although up to another eight PFI schools may well be looking on with their own plans to convert. Both of the two schools are now managed for Kent County Council by Swale Academy Trust, whose plan, alongside improving them, has always been to secure academy status for both. I have received correspondence from FOI requests over the past two years which confirms the difficulties encountered in attempting to achieve this, but now shows that all obstacles appear to have been removed. A letter from KCC to Swale, of 11th September 2020, concludes ‘I see no reason why these conversions should not proceed with little contention between ourselves‘. This is quite explicit although, despite the view that ‘We are both working to the same objective, the swift, smooth transition of the schools into the Trust’, it appears that KCC has been stalling on implementing the conversions for a further five months, having possibly only taken the single step of appointing solicitors to oversee the conversions. As a result, the agreed conversion date of 1st September 2021 appears very much at risk, in which case Swale Academies Trust could decide to pull out completely and hand the schools back to KCC, whose record is one of having led them both into Special Measures.
This article explores the issues, including KCC's role, more closely and widens them out to consider the situation relating to the other PFI schools still under KCC control, notably Royal Harbour Academy.
More...
Kent Test and Headteacher Assessment for Entry in September 2021: Further Analysis
Kent Test Results by Birth Month 2018-20: Sharp Decline through the Year
Children born in the first quarter of the school year 1 September 2009 and 31 August 2010, have performed much better in the 2020 Kent selection procedure than those born in the fourth quarter between June and August.
It is some years since I previously analysed Kent Test results by the month of birth of children sitting the Test and found little difference at that time between performance across different ages. Given the built-in disadvantages for some children brought about by the Coronavirus crisis this year, the decline in the pass rate was no great surprise, except that the difference was almost the same in 2018. The reason for the fall in performance is therefore not to do with Coronavirus as I initially suspected, but appears to be caused by inherent problems with the Kent Test age standardisation, which is surely neither fair nor acceptable.
Sevenoaks School: Unlawful Selection Testing in School on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The lockdown has forced schools to make radical changes in their procedures and activities, but some are subject to looser rules than others. For example, the private Sevenoaks School has received approval from the government to continue setting its admission examinations for eleven-year-olds over this week and the next, inviting candidates into school. However, I believe this is not just bending the rules it is unlawful!
A letter to parents indicates that even the school was astonished to be allowed to go ahead. It begins: ‘Unbelievably, we have just received notification from the Department for Education that we can continue to administer admissions tests for entry this September!’. What on earth are state schools supposed to make of this special treatment?
The law is clear. The relevant part states: You must not leave, or be outside of your home except where necessary. You may leave the home to:………attend education or childcare - for those eligible.
In my opinion, testing for selection is not education in any sense, nor do children and families in most cases even fit the criteria for eligibility to attend education if it were. The responsibility for this flagrant breach of the law lies with the government who have chosen to make this an exception and override their own legislation, not Sevenoaks School who were originally prepared to cancel the exams in line with lockdown.
Website Review of 2020
Unsurprisingly the story of education locally in this extraordinary and memorable year has been dominated by Coronavirus, although I have focused in my coverage on events unfolding in Kent and Medway, leaving the national picture to others.
Whilst this article reviews some of the many news items I have published in the past year, I have not considered last week’s lockdown nor the litany of failed and crumbling promises in education matters, even as recently as last week, offered by Boris Johnson and national government including the quagmire of U-Turns and storm of decisive impossibilities laid down by Gavin Williamson and the Department for Education, all of which have been ruthlessly demolished elsewhere.
The most read news story on this site over the past year is, surprisingly to me, the events leading up to the dismissal of the Headteacher of St Thomas’ Catholic Primary and the departure of the CEO of the Kent Catholic Schools Trust (See update below). Otherwise, and unsurprisingly, news items about the Kent Test and grammar schools dominate both my list of most-read articles and also the further set of information articles. Each of these is updated annually and headed up by the 2020 version of Kent Grammar School Applications. That article has now been read by 374,859 browsers over the past ten years, not including my 2250 subscribers. All information articles are listed in the right-hand column of this page.
Just before the end of the year, I received census figures for Kent schools, some of which I have incorporated in the items below, a fuller article to come as it reveals some interesting facts about Kent and Medway schools as usual.
Coronavirus Jottings
23rd December: I tried to write an article speculating what would happen to schools in January, but have given it up as an impossible task. Happy Christmas and my sincere best wishes for 2021 to all who are responsible for delivering an education to Kent and Medway children.
The BBC has an excellent description of the chaos that is following the latest government knee jerk reactions to the beginning of a surge in Coronavirus cases. This particular U-Turn totally wipes out any rationale for the threats this week of legal action against schools and Local Authorities for closing schools early, and the issuing of fines to parents for keeping their children at home either through fear or to do their best to keep coronavirus free for Christmas. I cannot imagine what school leaders are going through as they grapple with the consequences over the 'holiday' (18/12).
Mass testing updates below (17/12, 18/12).
By the time you read this, it will be out of date, as headteachers and Local Authorities grapple with a rapidly changing situation in wider society and their own schools. Large numbers of staff and pupils are often absent for periods sometimes repeatedly, either with covid itself or self-isolating. Decisions are made in the spotlight with parts of society, including government, very ready to blame schools for decisions at variance with their own ideas, and now controlling media.
The Secretary of State for Education, in spite of his failures during the year, seeks ever tighter control of schools and has introduced new coronavirus related legislation, including the Temporary Continuity Direction. This enables him to force schools to remain open, yet another potential breakdown in relationships and trust and has enabled him to require Greenwich Council to backtrack on its decision to advise all local schools to close for the last four days of term. Islington and Waltham Forest councils have also told schools to move to remote learning and have been sent warning letters from the Department for Education, with the TCD to follow if they do not comply.
Quite understandably the government is concerned about the effect of a fractured attendance pattern on children’s education and mental health, over the past nine months and into the indeterminate future. Unfortunately, it has forgotten three important lessons which should have been learned. Firstly that local situations are usually best delegated to local people, secondly that in a rapidly changing scene, rigid policies can be heavily wrongfooted, and thirdly that the Education Department has a track record of getting it wrong.
The latest attendance figures released by the Department of Education show a frightening decline in attendance figures for last week, with just 55% of secondary aged pupils in Kent and 53% in Medway attending school according to the BBC, with primary attendance around 75%. An increasing number of schools have been forced to close through lack of staff able to attend. Whilst a major part of the absence is likely to be a direct consequence of coronavirus, many families are frightened whilst others are sensibly withdrawing their children from school early to give them a chance of a Covid free Christmas, some of whom have then been threatened with fines for non-attendance. There is nothing like goodwill at Christmas!
Medway Review 2020 and Out of County Data for the Medway Test
To no one’s surprise, the Medway Review process has once again failed the children of Medway for 2021 grammar school admissions. Instead of selecting the target figure of 70 Medway state school children, or 2% of the total cohort, who should have been successful at Review, there were just 12 children picked, which is 0.34% of the cohort. The rules for the procedure make absolutely no concessions for children whose education has suffered because of the coronavirus pandemic raging over the previous eight months, underlined by this being by the second-lowest percentage for many years. The additional penalty for many of the 127 Medway children who were unsuccessful at review is that, apart from at Chatham Grammar, the rules do not allow grammar school Appeal Panels to uphold their cases unless there is a fault in process, which there almost never is. Very few (less than five) of the 33 Review requests for children from outside Medway were successful.
I have little new to say about this situation as I have been writing about the reasons why the Medway Test and Review process are unfit for the purpose for many years, most recently here. Sadly, I have not generated any response whatsoever from Medway politicians about why they are content to let this travesty continue unreformed. However, I do explore further details of outcomes below and examine the sharp rise in Out of County passes.
This article follows on from my initial analysis of Medway Test results here, which also highlights the scandal of the gross imbalance between opportunities for girls and boys at Medway grammar schools once again.
Sixth Form Courses in Kent and Medway Schools
Three years ago I surveyed the movement of students between some schools to take up 6th Form courses and was surprised how often it happened. There appears limited advice to Year 11 students on what the options are so I have carried out a more extensive analysis this year, looking at all 38 grammar schools across Kent and Medway and those 37 non-selective (N/S) schools running 6th Forms with an intake of over eighty students in 2019. Somewhat to my surprise, I have discovered that over a quarter of 6th form students in both grammar and N/S schools were in different schools for Year 11, with a healthy 15% of the total 6th Form numbers in grammars having transferred from N/S schools. There is no co-ordinated admission system for 6th Form admission, so students can apply for as many schools as they wish. Whilst the number of external students to be admitted is theoretically capped, individual schools interpret this limitation in different ways, with many never reaching the limit.
I believe this study is unique but is intended to encourage more young people to reflect and make a decision about what is best for them, rather than just carry on in the same school without making a positive decsion, although this will still be right for most.
The school with by some way the largest 6th Form intake from outside is the non-selective (N/S) Canterbury Academy admitting 294 students from other schools, including 46 from grammar and private schools and 63 from abroad. It is followed in percentage terms by Simon Langton Boys Grammar, also in Canterbury with 160 external students including 86 from other grammar schools.
I look at some of the issues below, including a look across the county by District, what I have long maintained are unlawful conditional offers for entry to school 6th Forms, and the sadly most newsworthy school of all, the debacle at The Rochester Grammar School.
Kent Test 2020: Initial Results and Comment
Update 28th January: Kent Test and Headteacher Assessment for Entry in September 2021: Further Analysis now published.
Update: 8th December: For those interested in estimating the cut-off scores for super-selective schools, go to here. The actual results will not be known until allocation in March.
I was interviewed on Radio Kent on Friday morning, followed by the KCC Education Cabinet Member, Richard Long who provided some additional data reproduced below. You can find the interview here, 1 hour 37 minutes in.
The Kent Test results have produced a pass mark with an aggregate score of 332, slightly higher than last year, with an additional requirement to score 108 on each of the three sections - English, mathematics, and reasoning. This is slightly lower than 2019’s requirement for 110 on each paper. The level of pass marks is no indication of difficulty in the Test, rather a complex standardisation of raw scores against a national sample of children, comparing like ages with each other. The intention is to select 21% of the Kent cohort by this method for automatic selection along with another four per cent by Headteacher Assessment, as explained here, making up a target of 25%. In the event this year, 25.4% of the cohort, comprising all of Kent’s Year six cohort in primary schools, added to all Kent private school pupils who took the Test, were found selective, down from last year’s 26.6%.
Although there was a fall of 522 in the number of children taking the Test overall this year, 194 additional children were found selective over the 2019 figure. This is purely due to an increase in the number of out of county passes, with 74 fewer Kent children found selective, details in the table below. In addition, there was a worrying fall of 12% in the number of children being found selective by the HTA, with the great majority of HTA children coming from Kent.
The Test, taken a month later than planned because of the Coronavirus pandemic, will certainly have seen a slightly different profile of children passing, as explained in previous articles here, most recently here. However, until I get more detailed data on outcomes later this year it will not be clear how different. The KCC Press Release describing the Test carefully focuses on the view of Richard Long, Cabinet Member for Education that: ‘Kent has done everything in its power to ensure that families were given a fair and safe way to apply for Kent Secondary schools this year’ referring to this fact twice, but without mentioning what KCC had done if anything to make the Kent Test as fair as possible, the subject matter of the article. In his interview, Mr Long gave data showing that, unsurprisingly, the number of children passing the test from private schools rose by 12% to 862. Also, the proportion of children on Free School Meals who took part in the Kent Test assessed as suitable for Grammar School this year rose slightly to 23% compared to 22.8% last year. However, without knowing the numbers of children in both years, this doesn't yet add anything to the picture.
'Needless' School Closures and Coronavirus
Written 18th November, closures update 11th December: A full list of school closures I know about below, latest in blue.
Matt Dunkley, Corporate Director, Education and Young People's Services for Kent County Council, has managed to upset a wide range of Kent headteachers, with a comment as politically insensitive as Boris Johnson’s recent crass remark on Scottish devolution.
He has told headteachers in a lengthy and somewhat patronising letter to make sure they understand coronavirus guidelines so pupils and staff are not sent home "needlessly". "While it remains the case that decision making on the running for your schools is for you to take with your governing bodies and Trusts, it is becoming clear that there are considerable differences in decision making at a locality level, and that does cause some problems at community level, and for some families. Quite simply, it is perceived that some schools are closing when other local schools facing similar or the same challenges are not."
It is an unfortunate coincidence that whilst part of his focus appeared aimed at Fulston Manor School, as reported in Kent Online, the school is in Swale which last evening was named as third most infected areas in England, and I am informed that other local schools may shortly follow suit in closing. I doubt this letter will discourage them. Other secondary schools which closed for fourteen days, but many of which will now have re-opened include: Dartford Science and Technology College; Greenacre; Howard, Hundred of Hoo, Rainham Girls, Robert Napier; Sandwich Technology School; St George's CofE Comprehensive, Gravesend; Sir Roger Manwood's School, Sandwich; and Strood Academy; along with Special Schools - Bower Grove, Maidstone; Meadowfield Special School; and Orchard, Canterbury; together with primary schools - Cobham Primary, Hampton Primary; Iwade Primary, Meopham Community Academy, Queenborough School, Sholden CofE Primary, Temple Hill Primary; Thistle Hill Academy; Kings School, Rochester (private). New closures: Gravesend Grammar, Herne Bay High. The multiple Year Group closures are too many to list.
Dismissal of Kent Headteacher for Gross Misconduct
Update 11th January. Father Aquilina is now leaving his post. See here.
Update 28th November: To few people's surprise surely, Mrs Aquilina's actions have led to a proposal for the KCSP to bring St Thomas Catholic Primary School into a cluster of West Kent schools. See below for details.
It was announced today that the Headteacher of St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School in Sevenoaks, Mrs Claudia Aquilina, has been dismissed for gross misconduct by her employers, the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership. This follows her suspension from the post earlier this year on June 17th. The decision to suspend was highly controversial amongst some Catholic parents as she had a loyal following who thought her wonderful. The record 89 comments attached to my initial article, which with its predecessor has now been read over thirty thousand times, indicate the depth of feeling she aroused, both positive and negative.
Over the many years I have been commenting on Kent and Medway education matters, I have seen a number of headteachers removed from their posts, but cannot recall any dismissed as bluntly as this, indicating the seriousness of the case.
School Appeals: Kent and Medway 2020
This article looks at Year Seven and primary school admission appeals in Kent and Medway. 2020 has seen a very different way of conducting appeals because of coronavirus, which I have explored in several previous articles most recently here. In the event, the large majority were conducted in a paper hearing, without direct parental involvement. The number of appeals for both grammar and non-selective schools were very similar to 2019, although the success rates for both in Kent schools fell, grammar from 29% to 22%, non-selective from 24% to 19%. The number of complaints against appeals has fallen, suggesting a level of acceptance about the different process.
There is no pattern with Medway schools, Chatham Grammar upholding an astonishing 94% of appeals, Sir Joseph Williamson's 10%. Rochester Grammar's appeal numbers have fallen sharply with its popualrity this year. Rainham School for Girls putting all 37 appellants through after a group hearing, and Strood Academy upholding just 4%.
The most difficult area to win a grammar school appeal is once again in North West Kent, although the two Thanet grammar schools have been very difficult this year. Highest success rates were as usual at Simon Langton Girls with 71% and Maidstone Girls with 69%. Not one of the 64 appeals at Wilmington Girls' Grammar was upheld. For non-selective schools, success rates range from 0% at Bennett Memorial, Brockhill, Leigh Academy, Maplesden Noakes, St Augustine Academy, St Simon Stock, the new Maidstone School of Science and Technology, and Wye through to 100% at Skinners Kent Academy, Valley Park and Whitstable. Many appellants for non-selective schools are offered places before the appeal, usually as successes at grammar school appeals reduce numbers. This year 66 children were offered places at Valley Park in this way.
You will find further details below, including primary appeals heard by Local Authority Panels. There is appeal panel data (along with other information) for each secondary school in Kent and Medway here (currently being updated; please let me know if you need the information for a particular school).
Medway Test 2020: Initial results and analysis
The scandal of the gross imbalance between opportunities for girls and boys at Medway grammar schools has reached its greatest height so far this year. It is created by a much higher proportion of girls passing in the Medway Test, a hundred unnecessary extra places provided for girls in the past three years, a useless Review process and a massively discriminatory appeals process also in favour of girls. In short, the admission process for Medway grammar schools is not fit for purpose.
The pass mark in the Medway Test for admission to grammar school in 2021 is an aggregate score of 483, with 23.06% of Medway state school educated pupils found to be of selective ability against a target of 23.0%. 812 Medway pupils passed the test, just four more than in 2019. However, the proportion of boys being found selective at 20.7% is well down on previous years, balanced by 25.6% of girls.
The number of out of county children (ooc) passing the test has risen sharply by 146 to 1126. Last year there were 248 ooc children offered places in Medway grammar schools, nearly 20% of the total, with plenty of spaces to accommodate any excess if they are girls.
The council press statement on the Medway Test contains no mention of the inevitable effect of coronavirus on performance, which will have given a greater advantage than ever before to children from private schools and those whose families have invested heavily in private tuition, at the expense of 'ordinary' children and those attracting Pupil Premium.
The 2019 Review outcomes and 2020 appeal results reveal once again the negligible opportunities for boys in securing grammar school places this year if they had not secured automatic passes in the Medway Test. Meanwhile, the astonishing 94% success rate in appeals at Chatham Grammar underlines the large surplus of selective places for girls.
There is further analysis below, including a look at Review, Appeals and the situation for individual Medway grammar schools.
What’s Happening at The Rochester Grammar School?
A few years ago, The Rochester Grammar School was one of the most oversubscribed grammar schools across Kent and Medway, with a strong sixth form and proud of its Thinking Schools philosophy. It has been the only Medway or Kent grammar school to be awarded generous government funds of some £3 million in the past two years through the Grammar School Expansion Fund in spite of a large number of other local applicants. In order to secure this funding, used primarily to expand its numbers, the school completely changed its entry requirements to give priority to girls attracting Pupil Premium and local girls. You will find here a full analysis of the scheme I wrote two years ago, but which is still valid today, as the school appears not to have addressed the issues I identified. The school has scrapped A-levels completely in favour of the International Baccalaureate this year.
Kent and Medway Councils and Free School Meals
Update: 30th October: To leave no doubt as to KCC's position, the Council has issued a progress report on its FSM Voucher Scheme, reproduced below.
KCC has just released the excellent news that the families of all Kent children on Free School Meals will receive £15 of vouchers per child during school holidays. You will find a copy of the Media Release below.
Thanks to an initiative by Medway Council and Citizens Advice Medway, free school meal children will be supplied with meals over the half-term holidays
KCC has 65 Conservative Councillors out of a total of 81, so one might expect it to follow government policy which appears to be to resist pressure to follow the Marcus Rashford route. However, the announcement comes after KCC Leader Roger Gough pledged that 'no child should ever go hungry during school holidays, or at any time'. Regular browsers of this site will know that I have been highly critical of KCC recently over policy aspects in the coronavirus pandemic, but I am delighted to welcome this decision for the sake of our disadvantaged children. The Conservative majority in the House of Commons voted against extending free school meals for pupils over the school holidays, up to Easter 2021. This included 14 Kent Conservative MPs, apart from Sir Roger Gale, who have a different view to KCC. The only Kent MP who voted in favour was Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield (Lab).
Medway Council has 32 Conservative Councillors out of 55, so again could have been tempted by government policy. Leader of Medway Council, Cllr Alan Jarrett, said: 'We are committed to supporting Medway’s most vulnerable children, especially during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which has caused further financial pressures for some families. We are therefore pleased to be working with Citizens Advice Medway to ensure no child goes hungry this half-term'. Two of the three Medway Conservative MPs voted against the proposal, including Kelly Tolhurst who was previously an Education Cabinet Member for Medway Council.
There are certainly arguments for and against the policy, but the government decision not to support it is clearly against the popular and growing mood, with an increasing number of Local Authorities adding to the pressure.
This must be the most impressive goal scored by an England footballer ever, and an example to others.
Changes in the Secondary Admission Application Procedures: Kent and Medway
The Kent Test was delayed for a month this year because of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, as explained here. Along with this change, Kent County Council increased the number of choices on the secondary school application form from four to six, to cater for families not knowing the test result before the closing date. KCC has also made another unpublicised change to its secondary school admission rules for September 2021. The new arrangement is as follows.
The closing date for applications is Monday 2nd November. This is a deadline that is set in legislation, however KCC allows parents to make changes to their application up until Friday 11th December. That means even with Kent Test results being available later this year parents still have the opportunity to change their preferences. |
In previous years, this option was only allowable in exceptional circumstances such as house moves. KCC has now removed these conditions and made it a positive opportunity for all, so there appears no restriction on parents making any late change for 2021 entry. However, I can’t at present envisage situations where any sensible ordering of the six choices of school available in this very different year would need to be revised after the results of the Kent Test, due out on 26th November, are known. Decisions to make changes to the preference scheme should not be taken lightly as removing a school from your list also removes the right to appeal later for a place at that school.
Meanwhile, in Medway where the Test and Review outcomes will also be known by 26th November, the Council has simply put back the closing date for submitting all applications to 1st December. This gives relevant Medway residents a clear advantage as they will know the results of both Medway and Kent Tests before needing to submit their applications.
Exclusions in Kent Schools, 2019-20: Astonishment and Predictability.
Unsurprisingly, the total number of secondary school fixed-term exclusions for 2019-20 has fallen from the previous year’s record 8816, partly because they have only been open for around two-thirds of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, this year's total of 4778 is much lower proportionally, so this is a genuine fall with Folkestone and Hartsdown accounting for nearly a quarter of the difference between them.
Permanent exclusions continue at a very low level compared with national data, there being 12 from primary schools, 11 from secondary schools and one from a Special School in the same period of 2019-20.
Ofsted Inspections Taking Place in Kent Primary Schools on Kent Test Day today.
Back in the summer Amanda Spielman, the Chief Inspector of Schools, informed schools that Ofsted would carry out visits through the Autumn Term ‘to get some insight on how schools and other providers are bringing children back into formal education after such a long time away’. She made clear explicitly that these visits were not inspections. Subsequently, following a challenge from the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) on the threat of legal action, NAHT reported that “While Ofsted has sought to play down the nature of these visits publicly, this statement makes it clear that they are indeed a form of inspection and should therefore be approached as such.”
Such dishonesty is hardly likely to build any form of trust regarding these inspections, and reports back clearly identify that some are indeed conducted as such, not simply visits. It is reliably reported that at least 20 such inspections of Kent schools have taken place this term.
However, astonishingly any insensitivity over the dishonesty has not stopped there. Today, Thursday 15th October is the day of the Kent Test when primary school leaders up and down the county are fully focused on ensuring their pupils will be able to take the test under the best possible conditions, especially given the additional pressures brought about by Coronavirus. Several Kent primary headteachers will, however, have their minds elsewhere as Ofsted has chosen to carry out inspections in their schools this day!
Sir Paul Carter, CBE, was appointed Knight Bachelor in Birthday Honours List
Sir Paul Carter’s well-deserved honour is mainly in appreciation of his 14 years as Leader of Kent County Council for services to Local Government, but I have known him for over 20 years in the field of education, where his passion, strong beliefs and understanding of what needs to be done to deliver the best for all the children of Kent has made a powerful impact on shaping the service. He and I first met when Paul was KCC Cabinet Member for Education before he became Leader, during which role he exhibited the same qualities. Although interested in all aspects of schooling, Paul’s main interests were in vocational and special education in both of which he has made a very strong mark.
Paul was often controversial, never afraid to pick up an issue, a true leader taking others with him, and a successful businessman in his own right. This appreciation will itself be controversial, for he has certainly made enemies in his determination to battle for the benefit of the people of Kent, and it could be argued that this award is long overdue, perhaps because he often took the fight for the people of Kent to government. You will find the KCC tribute to Sir Paul here, describing many of his other achievements.
Elective Home Education & Children Missing from Education in Kent 2019-20
Overall, 749 Kent children left school to take up what is known as Elective Home Education (EHE) in the whole of 2019-20, well down from the record 1310 children the previous year and bringing to a halt the sharp annual rise which saw the total increase by 70% over the previous four years. Another 544 children simply went missing from Kent schools, compared with 830 in 2017-18.
The Chief Inspector of Schools, Amanda Spielman, ascribed some of this term’s increase to ‘Anxious parents taking their children out of school to home-educate them, as widespread misinformation on social media fuels fears over the risks of Covid’. This was determined from a pilot study of 130 schools earlier this term. I suspect a greater factor is that families who made that decision from March onwards had no need to follow it through until September.
Complaints to the EFA and Ombudsman about School Admission Appeals
Updated 11th November with Kent and Medway data added,
It is three years since I last published an article on this subject. It began: I am regularly asked regarding possible complaints about Admission Appeals to academies and Free Schools, and respond that it is rare such complaints succeed.
That view remains and is also true of the Ombudsman complaints procedure for maintained schools. Last year I attempted Freedom of Information Requests to update the figures for Academy complaints, but these were rejected on the grounds that the Department for Education/ Education Funding Agency did not hold the data in the correct form and it was too difficult to extract. However, I tried again last month for the local and national data and have now received it without difficulty as reproduced below. This shows a national decrease from 234 complaints in 2016-17 to 104 this year, Kent from 21 to 16, and Medway from four to zero. Whilst the success rate has risen significantly from six successes nationally it is still very low, with just nine cases nationally found to have seen maladministration that may have led to injustice, and on in Kent and Medway. The norm after such outcomes is for the DfE to order a re-hearing, which may, of course, result in the same outcome, but will certainly use up considerable time in a child's education.
With the increased academisation of secondary schools, the work of the ombudsman has decreased sharply in this area, and there were just six complaints in Kent last year, all following failed appeals to grammar schools, and all unsuccessful, explored further below. There were no complaints in Medway.
Lilac Sky Schools Academy Trust and SchoolsCompany: Why is the Government resisting publication of Investigations?
The appalling stories of these two Academy Trusts, eventually closed down by the government, both demonstrated shocking management practices, with a great deal of money vanishing along the way. Both have both been the subject of government investigations which began over two years ago and are still not completed. In September 2019 we learned that the Lilac Sky Schools Academy Trust (LSSAT) investigation was finished but that publication was held up for ‘fact-checking' which is apparently continuing a year later, suggesting an awful lot of facts! For SchoolsCompany, I am told that ‘due process is ongoing with regard to this investigation’, two years after it started! You will find copies of two recent letters from the DfE to me here confirming what are surely unacceptable delays given the amount of money mislaid.
I have written extensively about both Academy Trusts previously and it is clear that government failure to act when their failings first came to light has played a significant part in both the appalling standards which children endured in the Trusts' schools and the large financial rewards accruing to those in charge. Perhaps this disgraceful delay in releasing the facts of the financial finagling is so that the whole thing can be swept under the carpet and the millions of pounds which were lost through wrongly pumping them into the two companies forgotten. No one will ever be held to account for the dodgy dealings of the companies behind both Trusts and the appalling treatment of children under their care, especially at SchoolsCompany. Meanwhile, the Trust leaders have gone on their way rejoicing without even an acknowledgement of regret.
Resignation of Clive Webster, CEO of Kent Catholic Schools Partnership
After a period of some five months of being ‘unexpectedly away from his duties’, Clive Webster CEO of the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership (KCSP) has resigned with effect from 23rd September, according to Companies House, although a news item on the Trust website states that ‘he has decided to step down at the end of December 2020’. His name has been expunged from any mention on the Trust website apart from his resignation statement and replaced as the lead introduction, which is now fronted by Mike Powis, Chair of the Trust Board.
I previously wrote a lengthy news article about the Trust in June, analysing the key issues that may have led to his gardening leave or suspension from duties at the time, and there has been no further information about the situation forthcoming since then. Understandably, the Trust has remained very well-disciplined and tight-lipped about the matter, which may well have covered some delicate negotiations. The nature of the resignation statement below suggests it is a departure on agreed terms.
Kent Test: KCC Fails in its Commitment to do 'All That is Practical and Possible to Address all Forms of Disadvantage'
Kent County Council has now released further details to primary schools about the Kent Test taken in local schools on Thursday 15th October. As I feared and explained in a previous article, there are no contingency plans set out in case the pandemic increases in severity over the next three weeks before the test, and the Cabinet Member’s Report to the KCC Children’s Young People and Education Committee on 22nd September completely evaded related issues apart from pinning their hopes on the Test delay. In the Minutes of the previous July meeting he had ‘reassured Committee Members that Kent County Council would do all that was practical and possible to address all forms of disadvantage’. However, in the same meeting, he referred to the delayed Kent Test assessment until 15th October (and) considered (this) to be the most effective change which could be made’, which was certainly not the case and not even sufficient to meet government advice, as I have discussed previously. There is a vague reference to the Headteacher Assessment process in this context, but this would need a total redefinition of the process to have any effect, as I have previously suggested and appears not to be under consideration by KCC.
Instructions to schools issued this week include what to do if children fall ill during the Test, how to tackle self-isolation including the possibility of testing over half-term and issues relating the scrapping of external monitoring of test procedures in schools as explained below, along with other relevant issues.
School Leaders in Kent and Medway on salaries of over £150,000, and others
Updates: The entries on the third page, Other Trusts, are still being updated and extended, following enquiries, as this article is attracting considerable interest (from headteachers?). I am now surveying all single academy Trust non-selective and primary academies, with further details below.
The website Education Uncovered has identified the full list of 183 English Academy Trust leaders receiving (earning?) more than £150,000 in salary for the school year 2018-19. This includes eight leaders who were working in Trusts running mainly Kent schools, including the scandalous increase of 33% for one leader up from £150,000 to £200,000 in twelve months and who then took early retirement at the end of the year. The Trusts are Aletheia Anglican Academies Trust, The John Wallis Church of England Academy; Kent Catholic Schools' Partnership; Leigh Academies Trust; Swale Academy Trust (2); Valley Invicta Trust (2).
I also look below at staff in five other Trusts which have academies in Kent or Medway, and several other Trusts of interest, including cases where well-paid leaders have now retired.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency has been sending letters to academy trusts who have an executive salary above £150,000 or multiple salaries between £100,000 and £150,000 since 2017, asking them for justification of these payments. The website Schools Week has found few signs of any practical response to this attempt to hold pay back, certainly not amongst the Kent Trusts listed below.
Browsers can decide, from the descriptions below, whether the school leaders concerned provide value for money for their schools.
Turner Schools: Update
For the last three and a half years, Turner Schools has been one of my most prolific themes for articles on this website, aided and abetted by its CEO and founder Dr Jo Saxton, whose passion for promoting the Trust (named after her grandmother) and making fantastical claims for its performance and future prospects was simply breathtaking. She departed the Trust in March, after just three years, to become a Political Adviser to Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, whose subsequent gaffe ridden career is well documented, but presumably is coincidental.
The EKC Group, which runs Folkestone College, has sensed an expansion opportunity and has opened the Folkestone Junior College this month. This offers a full-time alternative to the Turner Schools monopoly of non-selective education in Folkestone, in Years 10 and 11, surely a major challenge to the Trust.
The New No Win Park Crescent Academy, Thanet
See Update Article with Statement by KCC.
Kent County Council has now applied for Planning Permission for the controversial new secondary school in Thanet, exposing further problems with the project.
The background to the new school briefly is that, first of all, KCC overestimated the number of secondary aged children coming through the system in Thanet to justify commissioning a new school. The Council then backtracked, with the 2020-2024 Kent Schools Commissioning Plan explaining (p137) how they could comfortably manage the small long term pupil number deficit by expanding two of the District’s six non-selective schools.
The real problem is that two of the Thanet schools are so unpopular with some families to the extent that 189 children were allocated to them in March who never applied to either. Others were offered places in Sandwich and Deal schools, some miles away. The full background to the controversy is explained here. When the new school opens, with a planned intake of 180 children, at least one of these schools is likely to become unviable. As a result, KCC’s introduction to the Planning Permission Consultation is quite simply dishonest, as explained below.
One of the problems with the new school, now to be called Park Crescent Academy after one of the adjacent roads, is that the site on which it is to be built is very cramped as can be seen from the projection above, and explained below. The new academy will replace the residential Royal School for the Deaf which was closed down in 2015, see below. One of the consequences of the limited space, set out below, is that the school will have no sixth form.
Further Trauma at St Thomas' Catholic Primary School
Update 16th November: Article Re Mrs Aquina's dismissal.
The Chair of the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership wrote to parents of St Thomas Catholic Primary School on 17th June to inform them that the headteacher, Mrs Aquilina, was being given ‘special leave until the end of the academic year’. This followed a safeguarding incident which created considerable concern and debate, the absence being widely and reasonably assumed to be a formal suspension from her responsibilities because of the safeguarding issue.
On July 25th, at the end of the summer term, he wrote again ‘We have now reached the end of the academic year and can confirm that Mrs Aquilina will be returning to her role of Headteacher at St Thomas’ Primary on 1 September 2020…. A meeting with parents and carers of St Thomas’ will be held at the start of the new academic year’
Yesterday, 1st September, Mr Powis, the Chair of KCSP, wrote again to parents, to inform them that Mrs Aquilina will now be ‘on special leave for the foreseeable future’. The letter unsurprisingly contains no further explanation of the change of direction and no mention of the meeting for parents promised in the previous letter. This may be because of legal issues.
Coronavirus and School Transport in Kent and Medway: Part Three
Update: It has been suggested that the fall in take-up for the Kent Travel Pass is partly due to some families deciding not to send their children back to school at this time. It will soon become clear if this is a factor.
Following on from the TUI holiday flight incident and the failure of passengers to follow rules, it is relevant to note the following
Government statement: 'We do not expect drivers to police pupil behaviour. Their role is to focus on driving the vehicle safely' whilst KCC considers that 'Children travelling on these services will be required to wear face coverings for those over 11 and without an exemption'. But from Stagecoach, one of the largest school contractors in Kent: ‘Our drivers will not refuse travel or apply any enforcement measures, but we appeal to students and parents to ensure that this is taken seriously and that a face-covering is worn at all times when on the bus’. |
It is not surprising that, partly as a result of this and partly through matters relating to social distancing, parental caution has seen the number of applications for the Kent travel passes fall by over half for September. Those for age 11-16 are down from around 24,000 normally to just 12,557 for September, with 16+ passes down from around 7,000 to 2,280. Most of the missing families will now be driving their children to school by car, swelling the road traffic considerably across the county at the two peak school times.
There is likely as a consequence to be travel chaos at peak periods particularly in areas where there are several secondary schools close together. Three towns spring to mind: Canterbury, Sittingbourne and Tunbridge Wells, but I am sure there are others. One can also add in schools served by narrow roads as explained in a previous article entitled The Coronavirus Effect on the 'School Run' in Kent, Part 2 which I wrote two weeks ago, and looks at the developing problems of getting children to school.
I also look below at transport matters contained in new advice published by the government on Friday around 5.30 p.m. This sets fresh expectations for schools from the start of the new term, for many just five days in advance, including a weekend and a bank holiday. It contains 18 pages of advice, some wise and helpful, some very belated, some trivial and some patronising. Finally, a look at Brockhill Park and Ebbsfleet Green Primary Schools.
Academy and Free School News August 2020
There are just five schools that have converted to become academies in 2020, including the four which came together to be the EKC (East Kent Trust) in March. These are: Briary Primary, Herne Bay; Bysingwood Primary, Faversham; Holywell Primary, Upchurch; and Queenborough School, Isle of Sheppey. I have written extensively about the new Trust here. The month before, the failed Sunny Bank Primary in Sittingbourne became a sponsored academy with The Island Learning Trust on the Isle of Sheppey. Background here.
I also look below at the new applications to become academies of: Marden Primary, near Tonbridge; Eastchurch Primary, Isle of Sheppey; Holy Trinity VA Primary, Gravesend; Worth Primary, Deal; and Fairview Primary and Oaklands School in Gillingham, two schools converting to become part of the Westbrook Trust. The re-brokering of the failed Delce Academy to the Inspire Partnership Academy Trust has also taken place. Update: 4/9/20. The conversions of Marden, Eastchurch and Oaklands have now taken place.
There are six new free schools opening in Kent in September including one new secondary school, Maidstone School of Science and Technology. There are three new primary schools: Bearsted Primary Academy in Maidstone; Ebbsfleet Green Primary in Dartford; Springhead Park Primary in Gravesham; and two Special Schools, Aspire School in Sittingbourne and Snowfields Academy in Maidstone.
I look at other decisions of the South East and South London Headteacher Board of the Regional Schools Commissioner, relating to the Barnsole Trust, Folkestone Academy and Holmesdale School, along with an item relating to the North West Kent Alternative Provision Service.
Griffin Schools Trust: A Danger for Pupils?
I have followed the misfortunes of the Griffin Schools Trust for many years since it took over four primary schools as academies in Medway, then having Wayfield Primary taken away from it in 2016, following a catastrophic Ofsted Report that highlighted 'Pupils’ safety and well-being are at risk; Staff manage pupils’ behaviour poorly; Normal discipline has broken down; On occasion, staff lose control of pupils, who are then at risk of being harmed' a theme echoed in the most recent Ofsted report on a Griffin school: 'Many pupils do not feel safe attending this school. They feel intimidated by others’ conduct. Pupils are right to be concerned. Leaders have not been effective in managing pupils’ behaviour. It is increasingly rowdy and sometimes dangerous', this time about Stantonbury International, a school which had been the largest in the country when they took it over, although unsurprising it now has numbers falling sharply. Two recent articles in Education Uncovered focus on the Trust, its failures and its control by a small coterie of four individuals, three of whom have run it since its foundation in 2013.
One is left in bewilderment as to why the Education Funding Agency awarded Stantonbury to the Griffin Schools Trust in the first place, with their limited experience of running just one other secondary school, which it has now brought down to Ofsted 'Requires Improvement' and why it has not now closed the Trust down. This is what eventually happened with two other notorious Academy Trusts which also operated in Kent
Coronavirus: 2020 GCSE Fiasco outcomes and Kent and Medway Sixth Form Courses
Update 24th August: I am hearing of various schools and at least one FE College which is trying to bounce qualified students off sixth form and vocational courses. One device is to place them on a 'reserve' list. For schools, there should be clear oversubscription rules to decide how places are allocated. If these are broken, then an appeal will have to be upheld, but you will need to work out how to challenge them. I am having difficulty working out the rules for colleges which are not my normal area of interest. Can anyone please advise me?
Update evening of 20th August: Cancellation of those BTec results which have been published and those which haven't even been released. See below in blue.
First of all, my congratulations to all young people who have achieved the GCSE outcomes they desired and have worked for in this most difficult of years.
The GCSE results for 2020, out on Thursday, were based on the same formula as the A-Level outcomes finally agreed after several U-Turns. The official GCSE grade is now the highest of the algorithm calculation and the teacher grade estimate for each pupil, but with outcomes now far too dependent on the inevitable variation in the reliability of that teacher estimate. Schools that have worked hard to ensure their estimates are as fair and rigorous as possible will have seen their pupils penalised, as against those which were generous, perhaps acting for the best for their pupils, or else influenced by the nature of their intake. Once again, I fear that when we see the statistical outcome of the new process, disadvantaged pupils will have been penalised and many from the private sector will have benefited as schools responded to the expectations of their paying customers.
A major consequence of all this is that the considerable improvement in GCSE and BTec grade levels will lead to extra pressure on school sixth form places, and I explore the consequences of this below, including options for students and the pattern of A-Level entry in Kent’s non-selective schools.
We have now had the inevitable cancellation of the BTec results. Level Three results needed to be lifted so that results are again compatible with A-Level grades. See the previous article for consequences. In the same way, BTec Level Two results will now count as before to be equivalent to GCSE grades for admission to the A-Level Sixth Forms of many schools, producing more students qualified for them. All the places at some schools will already have been awarded first time round and cannot be removed, so there is a big capacity issue here, as explained below, whilst for other schools they simply add to the pressure on existing places. This is surely all now spiralling out of control and one can only speculate what happens next. See the next sentence for one outcome that should happen without delay.
I believe that in any decent society Gavin Williamson, the Secretary of State for Education, and Nick Gibbs the Schools Minster, would and should have resigned without delay. Have they no shame?
You will find my 'Information and Advice' article on school Sixth Forms here, containing considerable additional material. Several years ago I wrote an article entitled Transfer to Grammar Schools in the Sixth Form which surveyed the considerable movement from non-selective schools to Kent grammar school Sixth Forms. I have no reason to think the situation was any different last year, but with the inflated GCSE grades of 2020, the pressure on places will now be considerably greater. I have also carried out a Review of Kent and Medway school 2019 A-Level performance which may be of guidance to students exploring options.
The Coronavirus Effect on the 'School Run' in Kent, Part 2
The A-Level and GCSE exams fiascos are already highlighting considerable incompetence at the Department for Education. The same department is exacerbating the transport issues by having too many vague, unrealistic and unexamined ideas being pumped out at short notice for others to implement, in an attempt to head off the crisis. This latest government document shows that the load and responsibility on school leaders to deliver all they are required to do is out of all proportion to the resources they have available, although I am sure they will give it their best shot. The large majority of parents whose children need to travel on school transport will be dismayed to see the inevitable gap between government pipe dreams and practice. My previous article referred to the knock-on traffic problems of a large increase in car journeys as families switch away from public transport, but the proposal for ‘implementing ‘safe streets’ policies outside schools’, whilst welcome to many, is surely fraught with difficulties if introduced in time for the start of term.
At the other end of the scale: ‘At a national level, at least 50% of journeys to school of 2 miles or less, and which are currently undertaken by public bus, need to switch to cycling and walking in order to make capacity available for those with longer journeys’, which arrives from the ivory tower without any clues as to how the obligation is to be achieved.
The A Level and GCSE Assessment Fiascos, Summer 2020
Update evening of 20th August: Cancellation of those BTec results which have been published and those which haven't even been released. See below in blue.
It had not been my intention to comment on the A-Level chaos this year, because I had nothing extra to say given the complete dominance of this story across the media since last Thursday, but it is now quite simply too big to ignore. Like many others, I have listened and watched with amazement as the Department for Education twisted and turned in its feeble and unsuccessful attempts to correct the initial blunder. This was caused, I believe, because the algorithm used to allocate results had not been properly tested, if at all, in the months leading up to their publication. As a result, the large scale anomalies which have featured in so many news stories and distressed and angered so many young people were not picked up. This is not the first such revolt by young people in this country bringing about change (Greta Thunberg, Black Lives Matter) but the first to be directly brought about by the incompetence shown by government. And make no mistake, it is this which has brought about the U-Turn. I suspect that, as a direct result of the government's ineptitude, it will not be the last such insurrection.
We now have the inevitable cancellation of the BTec results, Level three of which needs to be upgraded so that results are compatible with A Level grades. When these are revised they will produce more students qualified for University places, although the places on many of the courses for which they are entitled to places will now be full. This is surely now spiralling out of control and one can only speculate what happens next. See next sentence for what should happen.
I believe that in any decent society Gavin Williamson, the Secretary of State for Education, and Nick Gibbs the Schools Minister, would and should have resigned without delay. Have they no shame?
Kent and Medway 'School Run' Coronavirus Crisis
Further article here following new Advice from the Government.
Updated again 14th August, looking at the provision of bus services for 'The School Run' - and probably more to come in a fast-changing situation.
Government Policy
'It is our plan that all pupils, in all year groups, will return to school full-time from the beginning of the autumn term'. |
Government Advice
'We expect that public transport capacity will continue to be constrained in the autumn term. Its use by pupils, particularly in peak times, should be kept to an absolute minimum'.
' I am asking every staff member and student to plan now how they will get to school or college. If it is possible to walk or cycle, please do' (Secretary of State for Education)
|
I wholeheartedly support the government policy principle of encouraging all pupils to return to school in September, and those schools are working incredibly hard to deliver it. However, one of the many intractable Covid-19 related challenges facing some secondary schools and families when re-opening in September is that of pupil transport. Many Kent schools are especially vulnerable, for the county is rural in places with pupils having to travel long distances to their nearest school, and faith and grammar schools will also have pupils who travel considerable distance by public transport. Most readers will have seen or encountered the publicly accessible double-decker buses packed with pupils on their way to and from school in the past, but this won’t be the situation in September. For social distancing rules reduce the number of passengers on each bus by up to two thirds and there are not the spare buses at peak school times to compensate by increasing numbers.
We are now just three weeks away from the start of term and there is no sign of a solution to the potential transport chaos from too few buses and too many cars on the road at peak times. The government has recently released two documents covering the challenges, but with few solutions apart from £40 million in new (?) money mainly to enable students to use unidentified alternatives to public transport (answers on a postcard please!), and keeping fit by cycling, walking or using a scooter. KCC considers that: ‘the financial impact on bus services and operators has been significant so it could be that more services than usual are subject to change or cancellation. In addition, at the moment, operators are only able to let about half of the usual numbers of passengers on their buses and if this remains the case, then providing enough space for all passengers could (!) be a problem, and so students that can travel in a different way should do so at the moment’. This will inevitably have major knock-on effects, with a sharp increase in private traffic on the roads at key times. I have looked at several possible flashpoints below.
There is no doubt that unless there are considerable improvements to what is currently on offer, too many pupils will regularly miss large parts of the school day, with some not being able to make school at all. It is difficult to see what they can do in the face of government threats to fine families whose children do not attend. However, they will not be alone as others will be in quarantine, or come from families simply frightened of the consequences of children mixing with others during the pandemic, which can of course peak again by then perhaps in local clusters.
Comprehensive Future Knowingly Re-Publishes False Data about Grammar Schools and Pupil Premium
Two years ago, Comprehensive Future published as a fact that: When asked how many pupils were admitted through these priority policies 80 schools responded, revealing that just 574 disadvantaged pupils were offered admission out of their 12,431 available places...… there were 22 selective schools who responded to say they had failed to admit a single disadvantaged pupil through their policies’. This claim was picked up by the media including the BBC. Unfortunately, this is twice completely false, as I demonstrated in an article last month after the organisation publicly attacked me for querying the data, repeating it in the process. False firstly, because the organisation had quoted completely the wrong data column from their own database, and secondly because the whole database is self-evidently rubbish, see below. As I wrote then, a prime example of the ICT mantra Garbage in, garbage out.
I have now been informed by CF’s Chairman, Nuala Burgess, that CF is not prepared to discuss the matter further, the bogus claims remain on their website and that of the BBC and so this must cast doubt on any other claims made by CF on data they have harvested to forward their aims.
The Kent Test 2020: Throwing down the gauntlet
Update: 26th September: To no one's surprise, KCC completely ignored the challenge. In July, the Cabinet Member for Education reassured Committee Members that Kent County Council would do all that was practical and possible to address all forms of disadvantage’, but at the same time, 'he referred to the delayed Kent Test assessment until 15th October (and) considered (this) to be the most effective change which could be made’. See September article here.
I had an extended interview on Radio Kent last week about the unfairness created towards ‘children of ordinary families’ in the Kent Test for this extraordinary year. At the conclusion, Julia George who was interviewing asked me to ‘throw down the gauntlet’ with KCC over my deep concerns, repeated several times over recent months. I did this by simply challenging the Council to respond to the recently published Government Guidance to Admission Authorities, Kent County Council being one of the largest in the country. KCC’s response to the BBC over the challenge wrongly dismisses the guidance because it ‘will cover individual schools and consortia which test far fewer children’. More importantly, it completely ignores the main part of the guidance and my concern, which focused on the unfairness created for lower-income families in Kent, as explained below.
At about the same time, Matt Dunkley, Corporate Director for Children, Young People and Education at KCC replied to a letter from Adam Holloway, MP for Gravesham, which echoed my concerns. This response covers somewhat different territory, but again completely ignores any strategy for promoting fairness for disadvantaged families as laid down by the government advice. Moreover, he dismissed my idea for creating flexibility in these increasingly uncertain times and of supporting ordinary families, or any alternative, having set up a false description of it to dismantle!
The Struggling Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey Appoints its Fourth Leader in Seven Years.
Oasis Community Learning is trying once again to reverse the inexorable decline in the fortunes of Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey (OAIOS) by bringing in a new Executive Principal over the head of Tina Lee, the current Principal.
Ian Simpson, currently Principal of Oasis Academy Lister Park in Bradford, makes the eighth leader since the school became an academy in 2009. Most of his predecessors have been moved on after failing to turn the school round. Both of the previous two post holders were appointed from within the school only after the Trust failed to attract anyone from outside, despite extensive advertising. Both have been a disappointment. It is not clear if the role of Executive Head is permanent or just a short term firefighting job.
All this is taking place in the context of a forecast crisis in the provision of non-selective places in Sittingbourne and Sheppey, which will come to a head in 2021, if it has not already arrived.
Government 'Expectation' on Managing Selection Test Arrangements in Kent and Medway
Hot on the heels of Kent County Council's confirmed arrangements for the Kent Test, as reported in my previous article, the government has now released its formal advice on assessment processes for selective school admissions. This is quoted extensively below in blue and italics. It greatly expands the frameworks set out by KCC and Medway Councils, urging admission authorities to look closely at minimising disadvantage for protected groups, socially and economically disadvantaged children and children who are unable to attend the test centre, as I had hoped KCC itself would. The current KCC proposal heavily discriminates against lower-income families who can't afford private education or extensive private tutoring. It remains my conviction that, if KCC were to adopt a model such as the one I have proposed before, it would go a considerable way towards meeting the requirement to minimise this acknowledged disadvantage in the current circumstances which has not yet been addressed. However, there is still the flexibility to do so. Medway Council has a more structured procedure for assessing children, but no apparent will to change it as this document advises, so I have little hope that greater fairness will emerge there.
Several pieces of government advice, considered further below, relate to ‘the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers which is likely to be magnified by their absence from school during the coronavirus outbreak’. In particular, ‘we therefore strongly advise that tests for grammar and partially selective schools are moved back into late October or to November if local admission co-ordination processes allow’. Along with the other recommendations below which now need addressing, this is considerably more radical than the KCC and Medway decisions which place the revised test dates in the first half of October and offer no further mitigation of disadvantage.
The immense logistical problems faced by KCC and, to a lesser extent by Medway Council, in providing facilities to test some 5,000 out of county candidates are also explored further below.
Education, Health and Care Plans in Kent
Update: You will find an article exploring the government's announcement of 35 new Free Special Schools to be set up here.
Further Update: KCC and government have announced the opening of a new secondary special school on the Isle of Sheppey for September 2022.
This article looks back at provision for children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) for the year 2018-19 across Kent, success rates for those appealing against decisions, along with other related matters. The data shows a sharp rise of 80% in EHCPs awarded in under three years, with a corresponding increase in budget putting enormous pressure on KCC education finances.
The data below shows that for nearly half of families requesting a statutory assessment of SEN this is not followed through for some reason, often lack of support from the school which may be for good reason. However, for most who get that far, the overwhelming majority were awarded an EHCP, so it is worthwhile persevering. I imagine that the difficulties of securing an EHCP over the past six months have been immense. Those unsuccessful in securing an EHCP or one that is adequate for the purpose have the right to appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal, although large numbers starting down this route did not follow through, often where KCC decided their cases were not worth defending and concede the EHCP, as suggested by the data.
The article also looks at placements of children with EHCPs, with 40% of primary and 30% of secondary pupils remaining in mainstream schools, along with the number of children being with EHCPs being de-registered from school for Elective Home Education, together with a brief look at the powerful performance of Medway Special Schools. I also look back at a damning Inspection of Kent’s ineffectiveness in implementing the disability and special educational needs reforms as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014 which took place in the middle of this period; consider the current situation and the financial pressures imposed by the increase in EHCPs; and the number of families taking up places in private schools, funded by KCC often after Tribunal. These include one which charges more than twice as much as Eton College.
Kent Test Arrangements Confirmed for October
Richard Long, KCC Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, has now decided on the timing and arrangements for the Kent Test this year. A letter to schools sets out as expected that the Kent Test will be delayed by around one month as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on schools and pupils. The test will now take place on 15 October for pupils who attend a Kent school and 17 October for all other students. Kent parents will also be offered two additional preferences on their child’s Secondary school application this year, an increase from four to six, to account for the later release of Kent Test results.
The most interesting part of his letter reads: ‘while the delay in testing will provide an opportunity for children to settle back into a more normal school environment, we appreciate that children will have missed around four months of schooling. Fortunately, the Kent Test process is already designed to ensure that a child’s wider circumstances can be considered before their assessment is finalised. We will be providing guidance for schools in light of the differing educational opportunities that children will have received over the last few months, and more generally on implementing the approved plans’. This flexibility leaves open alternative approaches to minimising the gross unfairness I have written about previously, which would discriminate against ‘ordinary’ families and those attracting Pupil Premium who have none of the advantages of children attending private schools or whose parents have arranged extensive private tuition for the six months leading up to the Test.
The question remains as to whether Kent County Council has the desire and the commitment to be as fair as possible to all Kent children looking to a grammar school place.
Missed Registration for the Kent and Medway Test; and Illness at the Time of the Test
Updated annually, most recently July 2020
Unfortunately, neither Kent nor Medway Authorities will consider late applications for registration for Testing in September. In such a case, in Kent, you can only be arranged for your child to be tested after March 2021. The one exception is if you have moved into the Local Authority area after the deadlines, in which case you should contact the Local Authority for advice. In Medway there is, disgracefully, no facility for late testing.
Further details below.
Kent School Admission Appeals under Lock-down, Including Two Very Different Experiences
News Update: I have been contacted by a number of Thanet families whose children were found selective but not offered grammar school places because they live too far away and the grammar schools are full. They were placed on waiting lists, but have been shocked to be moved further down the list. This is because, at the recent admission appeals, several non-selective children were found to be of grammar school ability. The rules require that they are also added to the waiting list and if they live closer go ahead of those already on it! I have previously looked at the dire situation in Thanet here, with several of these families being offered one of the county's least popular schools. Sadly I have nothing positive to suggest.
I am starting to receive some feedback on school admission appeals for Kent families, decided on the basis of written submissions only, although most are happening very late in the year and many have not yet happened. This method is likely to have been the norm for both KCC Panels and other organisations running appeals where there are multiple appeals for a school. It is in my view the only practical way forward for grammar school and probably other multiple appeals as I identified here back in April. However, it is a variation breaking with the hopelessly impractical model outlined by the government, which I described as 'a chink of light in the regulations'. The use of written submissions only was put forward as one of three possible options, the other two being telephone and video conferencing.
Most appellants appear content with this process whatever the outcome, it being far less stressful than the 'normal' appeals of previous years, especially in the view of families who have past experience of these. Others are looking to challenge the outcome on grounds that it was very different from the model laid down by the government, as explained here. However, as I concluded in that article, the model is not obligatory, so such a challenge is unlikely to succeed.
I have not yet heard of the experience of local families encountering telephone or video conferencing for multiple appeals, although KCC appears to be using the former for some individual appeals and I look below at one such in-year hearing. I will update this article as and if I receive further reports of different experiences.
Off-Rolling in Kent and Medway Schools before GCSE Registration and in the Sixth Form
OFSTED DEFINITION OF OFF-ROLLING
Off-rolling is the practice of removing a pupil from the school roll without using a permanent exclusion when the removal is primarily in the best interests of the school, rather than the best interests of the pupil. This includes pressuring a parent to remove their child from the school roll.
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It can happen in any type of school, as I demonstrated a few years ago when I exposed the Invicta Grammar Sixth Form scandal which went national and resulted in the government being forced to clarify the existing law although I suspect it still continues in a few cases, notably Holcombe Grammar, below.
A major pointer to off-rolling taking place is a large percentage fall in pupil numbers for a school between the start of Year 10 and January of Year 11 along with, or alternatively, high Elective Home Education numbers (EHE). The importance of the January date is that after this, pupils leaving the school will have their GCSE performance (or absence) counted in official outcomes even with the new Coronavirus arrangements. I have no proof that off-rolling is the key reason for the sharp falls in pupil numbers identified below, but it is a reasonable suspicion.
Twelve Kent and two Medway schools lost from 7% to 13% of their cohort in this way this year, five of them for at least two years running.
I have also given figures for the change between Year Seven and Year Eleven for these schools, which, in some cases should certainly be raising questions, as was the case a few years ago with Holmesdale School then under KCC control. This signposted a school falling apart at the seams, although KCC failed to notice, and I am delighted that it now appears on the way back again under different control. Although Ofsted now has responsibility for identifying schools where off-rolling occurs, I have as yet seen no evidence of this in relevant Reports locally.
Kent's Plan for Grammar School Selection 2020
Registration for the Kent Test in October closed on 1st July. Sadly, I have already been contacted by a number of families who omitted to complete the procedure, confused or overwhelmed by Coronavirus. Unfortunately, unless KCC chooses to make an exception in this unique year, you cannot be considered for late Registration and will need to proceed as explained here. I am so sorry.
Kent County Council ‘has been contingency planning ever since schools were forced to close on March 20th, to see what adjustments might be needed to the Kent Test process in different situations as the coronavirus pandemic unfolded’. As a result of all this planning, it has decided simply to postpone the test by five weeks, subject to approval by the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills after 20th July. If matters develop then KCC will think of something else. You will find full details here.
Unfortunately, the current plan will heavily penalise all those children whose families cannot afford or otherwise arrange for extensive private tuition to make up for the absence of school curriculum time over the second half of this school year, and bar those who miss the Test in the case of a second wave of the pandemic, or for other connected reasons, such as being placed in quarantine or simply through fear. Private schools with a focus on securing places at grammar school for their pupils will now be able to concentrate on preparing their pupils for the Kent Test over the five or six weeks of the autumn term preceding it. Kent state schools are forbidden to do this.
This all makes a mockery of the statement by the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, that: "We’re going to be looking at working with local authorities who have grammar school systems in their area as to how best we can ensure that children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are not disadvantaged as they look at taking the 11-plus in the future.”
St Thomas Catholic Primary School, Sevenoaks - Headteacher on 'Special Leave'
Update 16th November: Article Re Mrs Aquina's dismissal.
Update 1st September: Article on Further Trauma at St Thomas
Update 25th July: I have now been sent a copy of a letter sent to parents and carers at the school informing them that Mrs Aquina is to return to her post in September. See below.
Last month (14th June), all I knew about St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School in Sevenoaks, was that it had an Outstanding Ofsted Report dating back to 2014, was an averagely performing school in terms of Progress levels, usually had one of the highest proportion of pupils in the county passing the Kent Test (dipping in 2019), and just about filled in most years. I then published an article about the travails of the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership (KCSP) and the ‘unexpected absence’ of its Chief Executive. Leading on from this I was informed about the crisis at the school, a member of the Partnership. The headteacher, Mrs Aquilina, had been placed on Special Leave until the end of the academic year as the Partnership’s ‘Immediate priority as a Trust must be the children and staff of St Thomas’. This is now a major revision of the article I wrote to follow up the Pandora’s Box of outcomes that emerged followed this revelation, including the ‘voluntary absence’ of her husband, Father Aquilina, from his parish.
Between them, the two articles have now clocked up over 22,000 visitors in less than a month, an unprecedented number over the 15 years this site has been in existence. The host of comments at the foot amplify a number of the issues. I have reorganised the comments posted after the two articles to the one most appropriate for the content and have indicated where this has happened, although they are no longer in full date order. Items specific to the Partnership are now being transferred to the original article for clarity.
The St Thomas’ story continues below. I also look at the intriguing story of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, which appears to have played a significant part in the background, although not of direct relevance to the absence of Mrs Aquilina.
If you have safeguarding concerns affecting a child at any school, contact Social Services here.
Kent and Medway Tests 2020: Delay to October Likely. Pupil Premium Children Betrayed
Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education has said: "We’re going to be looking at working with local authorities who have grammar school systems in their area as to how best we can ensure that children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are not disadvantaged as they look at taking the 11-plus in the future.” There is no sign whatever of any intervention or even awareness of this pledge in the Kent consultation or Medway decision. This is an abject failure by both Authorities to honour this pledge.
Grammar Schools and Pupil Premium Children
Kent Catholic Schools Partnership: An Unholy Row in Holy Quarters

A letter from the Partnership to me (4th June) states: ‘Thank you for contacting Kent Catholic Schools' Partnership. I am able to confirm that Mr Webster is unexpectedly away from his duties at present but has not left KCSP and remains an employee of the Trust’. School governors are unable to get any further information and some are naturally very unhappy about this, approaching me on the subject of his departure. This is very surprising as KCSP is normally a highly disciplined organisation. Secrecy about the matter is unlikely to be helpful to anyone, unless discussions about Mr Webster's future are taking place.
Clive Webster created a national controversy and unhappiness amongst many of the Trust’s primary schools last October when he instructed them not to host the Kent Test for grammar school entrance from this year onward. This decision appears to have been his own initiative and a subsequent letter from the then Archbishop of Southwark publicly reversed it, following an unholy row in the Trust. The depth of the public row over the decision to ban Trust schools from hosting the Kent Test cannot be understated. The Archbishop’s predecessor had earlier publicly blocked another unpopular policy personally championed by Mr Webster, reorganising the Trust structure, including leadership of the individual schools.
More drama at Turner Schools
Dr Saxton has now moved on to advise Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education in March this year (see below) and Seamus Murphy, her successor as CEO, is wasting no time in making his mark on Turner Schools. Having arrived in April 2019, he is now on his fourth role in the Trust.
One of his early actions on taking on full responsibility has continued the Turner Schools tradition of creating a high turnover of senior staff, with the Executive Principal of the two Trust primary schools departing at very short notice on Friday last, after just one week of Term Six. Monday’s letter informing parents of the decision can be found by a link on Facebook but is well hidden. It is also very short on detail about Mrs Sowden-Mehta who has been at the school for three years, having been promoted twice. In spite of this success, she has very suddenly ‘decided to leave Turner Schools to pursue new opportunities’, a time-honoured phrase used to cover leaders who have been forced out of their schools. The previous Principal of Folkestone Academy has also recently vanished after first being demoted.
Update July: Jo Swash, Vice Principal has left Folkestone Academy suddenly, my correspondent says'mysteriously'. When I checked this recently here, he was present in the photographs but has now gone, but is still present on the list of all staff, below.
Lilac Sky Academy Trust: Further Financial Malpractice Exposed
The government began an enquiry into financial malpractice at Lilac Sky Schools Academy Trust (LSSAT) in 2016 which it closed down the same year, transferring its its five Kent primary schools to other Trusts. The enquiry was completed in 2019, but is still not published eight months later. A troubling Liquidator’s Report into Henriette Le Forestier Schools, a direct successor company to Lilac Sky, has now been published, as reported in SchoolsWeek, after it ran up £928,000 in debts in less than a year.
I first came across the Lilac Sky profit making empire in 2012, when I discovered the large sums of money it was extracting from Kent County Council through its management of the struggling Furness Special School, using expensive consultants brought in for brief periods, along with other profit making wheezes, eventually leaving this small school with a deficit of £1.63 million. It set up LSSAT in the same year, having been a ‘school improvement’ firm since 2009. The organisation then proceeded to cream off considerable funds from the Trust. By the time LSSAT was closed down by government in 2016 with debts of nearly £2 million, it was running nine primary schools in Kent and Sussex and still being strongly championed by KCC in the face of my exposure of extensive malpractice. Lilac Sky morphed through nine different limited companies and finally vanished after the final four of these were eventually declared insolvent, as explained here.
I have reported on as much of this disturbing and complex story as is appropriate through a series of articles listed below (necessarily omitting some of the spicier parts), revealing multiple and apparently highly successful money making schemes, and looking at some of the schools whose children were failed on the way.
Kent Primary Schools: Oversubscription & Vacancies 2020
There has been a small increase for the third year running in the number of pupils being allocated places in Kent Primary Reception Classes . Places for the additional 163 children were met by three new schools opening in September along with creating 67 more permanent and temporary places in current schools. Two of the new schools are in the Ebbsfleet area of North Kent: Ebbsfleet Green Primary opening for 30 pupils in each of Years R, One and Two; and Springhead Park Primary, in Northfleet, admitting 60 pupils in Year R, and unusually also accepting pupils for Years One to Four (see below for possible reason). Bearsted Primary Academy in Maidstone is opening for 60 Year R children. None of these schools are currently part of the Kent Coordinated Admission Procedure, as all three accept applications directly, as is usual with new schools.
The tightest part of the county is again West Dartford with just nine spaces in two of its 12 schools, closely followed by urban Sevenoaks, with eight spaces in one school out of six. The most oversubscribed primary school is St John’s CofE in Maidstone, turning away 55 first choices (up from 37 in 2019); The Brent, Dartford, 44 (last year’s most popular school, disappointing 86 families); followed by: Riverhead Infants, Sevenoaks (40); Great Chart, Ashford (39); Sussex Road, Tonbridge (37) and Wentworth, also West Dartford (33). The last three named are newcomers to the most oversubscribed list along with Chilton, Ramsgate,all having leapt in popularity this year.
Special mention must go to two schools that have both travelled from high vacancy rates to being full, following Ofsted Special Measures to being Good. Brenzett CofE Primary, Ashford, has shot from having the highest percentage vacancy rate in Kent of 75% in 2019, to being full for its 21 places in 2020. Kings Farm Primary, Gravesend is oversubscribed for the first time ever after gaining the sixth best KS2 progress grades in the county.
Eight schools have 60% or more of their places empty. One school accounted for 10% of the 457 Local Authority Allocations in Kent, up by 10 on 2019.
I look at the issues in more detail below, including a survey of each separate District and also allocations for Junior Schools. You will find advice on what to do if you do not have the school or your choice below, here, and the reality of primary school appeals here.
Coronavirus: Kent and Medway Primary Schools Partial Re-Opening
Regular updates in progress. Most recent 8 p.m. 5th June.
The government encouraged all primary schools to re-open on 1st June for Nursery, Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils. I sent a survey to Kent and Medway primary schools on Sunday asking their plans and have now (Tuesday 2nd) had responses from more than 15% of schools surveyed, as set out in the table below.
This has now been partially overtaken by data from the 360 primary schools that have responded to KCC's own enquiry. This reports 118 primaries opening to all three school years on Monday 1st June, and 58 more opening to one or two of the year groups. Another 78 are opening Tuesday or Wednesday, the delay being due to an Inset Day, Deep Cleaning or other reason. Eight are on a second week of half term, leaving 98 who are not open (possibly doing so later on, some next week, or else unable to, or unwilling). That is a figure much larger than I was expecting. Of the 95 schools that have chosen not to reply, some may be from large uncooperative Academy Trusts. This is not incompatible with my own findings, although these expand the information, and it would be good to receive further results directly. KCC has now issued a general statement about re-opening.
I look below at some of the key elements that have emerged, although it is important to recognise that the schools which have replied are self-selecting and so may not be typical.
The Kent 11 Plus and Coronavirus: Part Two
- The date for the Kent Test is still currently set for September. To change it would require government approval. KCC is in discussion with government about an aspect of the Kent Test, presumably about a possible postponement.
- There is no guarantee that any change of date would see the county free of Coronavirus, or schools operating normally.
- There are no arrangements in place for children who are: unable to take the Kent Test because their schools are not open, or cannot provide facilities; or whose parents or schools judge it is unsafe to participate; or who are ill in large numbers.
- The School Admissions Code of Practice requires Admission Authorities to ‘take all reasonable steps to inform parents of the outcome of selection tests before the closing date for secondary applications on 2nd November so as to allow parents time to make an informed choice of school’.
- The five thousand out of county children who normally take the Kent Test each year still need somewhere to sit it where it can be independently invigilated. In the past this has taken place in obliging Kent schools.
Kent & Medway Primary School Ofsted Outcomes to March 2020
This article looks at Kent and Medway primary school Ofsted outcomes for the current school year. The headline news is the strong improvement in Academy levels in the past few years, both in Kent and Medway, whereas at best Kent County Council Local Authority (KCC) schools are standing still, with 22% of those inspected seeing a drop in level since September.
Just one local school, Ightham Primary in Sevenoaks District, has been classified as Outstanding since September and none found Inadequate.
I look at all the changes in primary school Ofsted assessments across Kent and Medway below, along with the performance of The Education People, responsible for performance in Kent Local Authority schools. .
Coronavirus and School Appeals in Kent and Medway: Part Five
Update on Kent Appeals 13th May, here.
Letter from Kent Primary Head on Consequences of Schools Re-Opening here
Some issues relating to the Emergency Regulations for School Appeals are now resolving, but the large majority of Local Authorities appear still to be struggling to come to a view. My previous article concluded that these proposals are unworkable in most cases, especially where there are large numbers of appeals or grammar school appeals. This is now the fifth article exploring the situation as it has developed, looking at how it has been interpreted, the previous four all containing considerable detail, along with advice for appellants. I propose to update it as I receive more information, the dates of the latest update being recorded at the top of the article.
I continue with my view that the Government emergency regulations appear to be solely for the benefit of bureaucrats and show little interest in the challenges faced by families, panellists, clerks or schools. A parallel set of rules published by the Welsh Office was in complete contrast to this and placed families first, but the relevant section appears to have mysteriously vanished, see below!
There are three approaches allowed for hearing remote appeals. These are: video conference, telephone conference, and written submission of cases and evidence. There is no indication that these different types of hearing can be mixed for a single school’s appeals, but no specific ban, and I have already been told of several schools that are planning to go this way.
In my previous article, written nearly two weeks ago, I described a ‘chink of light’ in an omission by the regulations to be prescriptive about the written submission process. I was delighted to learn yesterday that KCC has just sent out appeal invitations to grammar school appellants using this to the full. I don't know yet if it will be applied to non-selective schools, but anticipate this. Some Kent appeals for other types of school are being heard by audio-conferencing, with clerks establishing whether appellants can manage this. If not there is a fall back to a written submission hearing.
Further details on all these matters below, including some Local Authorities which have now made decisions (please feel free to add to these).
Oversubscription and Vacancies Medway Primary Schools: 2020
Overall, there has been little change in Medway primary school admission data since my 2019 article, with an extra 94 children offered local schools bringing the total to 3447, and 45 additional places created. The proportion of Medway children offered one of their choices in a Medway primary school has remained at 97.4%, coincidentally the same percentage as two out of the last three years. Overall, 12% of places are unfilled, down from 13% in 2019.
Cliffe Woods Primary has shot up in popularity to become the most oversubscribed school, turning away 50 first choices, edging out last year's leader Barnsole Primary with 49 disappointed first choices. They are followed at some distance by the Academy of Woodlands and All Saints CofE. Barnsole, along with Swingate are the only two of the ten most oversubscribed schools to feature in each of the past three years. There are eight schools with 15 or more first choices turned away (down from 10 last year), spread across the Authority, and listed in the table below. The most remarkable difference is for St Margaret's Infant School in Rainham, which has turned away 24 first choices for this September, but did not quite fill in 2019.
I have explored the changes at Greenvale Infant School and Phoenix Junior Academy below , as they have both become all through primary schools, giving an increase between them of 15 places for September. In Chatham, Walderslade and Wayfield primaries have seen their intake double from 30 to 60 places, Two other schools have minor changes in their intakes.
I look more closely at each Medway area separately, below, links as follows: Chatham; Gillingham; Hoo Peninsula; Rainham; Rochester; Strood, together with the situation for Junior Schools, here.
If there are sections or individual school details that need amplification, please let me know…….
Coronavirus: Kent Test, Grammar School Admission and Appeals 2020
This article looks at three communications from Kent County Council to headteachers, addressing issues about grammar school admissions and appeals at this time of Coronavirus.
The first is a letter sent to schools regarding the timing of the 2020 Kent Test for grammar school suitability in 2021, currently planned for September.
I also look at two separate items relating to grammar school places for this September for some children. The first of these is about problems at appeal regarding unsuccessful Headteacher Assessments caused through the crisis; the second looks at late applications and testing.
New Thanet Skies Academy approved by Government overturning KCC Veto
Update 7th September: I have now posted a new article looking at considerable problems with the site of the new school.
Rather belatedly, this article looks at the government decision to overturn Paul Carter’s veto on a new secondary school in Thanet, originally explored here. This decision was received by KCC in a letter on February 13th.
As a result, the new school, provisionally called Thanet Skies Academy, will built on the somewhat restricted site of the old Royal School for the Deaf in East Margate. It is planned to open in September 2022 as a six form entry 11-16 Free School, sponsored by the Howard Trust based in Medway.
Kent and Medway Primary Allocations 2020: Initial News and Comment
You will find much more detail about oversubscription and vacancies in Kent primary school allocations here, Medway primary school allocations for 2019 here.
There is good news for most Kent families applying for reception class places in primary schools this year although, with 88.3% of families offered their first choice school, this is the lowest proportion since 2016. However, 97.4% of families have been offered one of their three choices, coincidentally the same percentage as in 2019 and 2017. Sadly, that still leaves 457 children with no school of their choice. Altogether, the number of Kent pupils offered places through the scheme is 17,411, up by 125, but less than 1% on the 2019 figure. These details are contained in the Press Release.
In Medway, more than 88% of children have again been offered their first choice school, with 97.9% being offered a school on their application form, both figures similar to 2019. 74 children were offered no school of their choice, again, almost the same as in 2019, when there were 75. In total there was an increase of 78 pupils offered places from 2019, with a total of 3491. Most of these details are contained in the Press Release.
This year is of course very different from any other because of Coronavirus, with all schools currently closed. As a result you will probably not be able to contact them directly to raise concerns over admissions. Nevertheless, you should still accept the school you have been offered. It can do you no damage if you then pursue places elsewhere. Then follow as normal the advice below on what to do if you have not received a school or any school of your choice and wish to be reconsidered at one or more of these.
You will also find information and advice on appeals below and here. In summary, if your school is one of the overwhelming majority where Infant Class Legislation applies, I am afraid that chances of success are negligible.
Oversubscription & Vacancies Kent Grammar Schools 2020
Note on Coronavirus: There are various references to school admission appeals in this article, based on normal expectations . At the time of writing there is no information about the procedure to be adopted this year, except that it has to be very different from normal, as explained here.
The number of Kent grammar school places available for Year Seven pupils has risen by 70 places overall since last year, to 5,540, with a total increase of 610 over the past five years. The main changes are 30 additional places at each of three North West Kent grammars, Gravesend and Wilmington Boys & Girls grammars, together with a reduction of 30 places at Tunbridge Wells Boys (but may well be reversed at appeal time). The number of places offered before appeals is 5,417, up by 195 from 5,212 in 2019. A major cause for this is an increase in the total pass rate for grammar selection from 25.7% in 2019 to 26.6% for 2020 entry.
Around 400 of the Kent grammar school places offered, or 7% (down from 8% in 2019) of the total, went to pupils from outside of the county (ooc), with 154 Kent pupils (down from 223) going to out of county grammars, mainly in Medway. 150 ooc pupils coming in were offered places at the two Dartford Grammar schools with the pressure on places at these two schools continuing to rise inexorably. Dartford Grammar School had an astonishing 409 grammar qualified first choices turned down for its 180 places, up from 336 in 2019. The next most popular schools were unsurprisingly Dartford Girls, The Judd School, Skinners, Tonbridge Grammar, and Wilmington Boys, in the same order as 2019. The number of vacancies has fallen sharply from 217 in 2019 to 123 this year across six schools.
Thanet is a surprising black spot for grammar school applications, with Dane Court and Chatham & Clarendon turning down 79 grammar qualified first choices between them. At least 47 of these had no alternative local grammar school to meet their needs. This follows a sharp raise in the proportion of Thanet children being assessed selective from 19% in 2018, to 23% this year.
I look below at the outcomes by area in more detail, including levels of oversubscription and vacancies. you will find full details of the 2019 Kent selection process here.
Oversubscription & Vacancies Kent Non-Selective Secondary Schools 2020
This article looks in some detail at the allocation of secondary school places in Kent for September 2020. Particular themes are: the pressure on places in Ashford, Canterbury, Gravesham, Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells; the increased polarisation of choices, especially in Dover, Sittingbourne and Thanet; and the provision or otherwise of new schools to meet rising pupil numbers. For unexplained reasons, Kent County Council is no longer taking planned housing into account when considering future provision. This decision will inevitably create further pressures in years to come.
The four most oversubscribed schools are the same as in the two previous years, again led by Valley Park, Maidstone, which turned down 172 first choices. It is followed by King Ethelbert and St George’s CofE in Thanet, then Fulston Manor in Sittingbourne. There are 494 vacancies across 17 schools, over half of which are in just four, headed up by Folkestone Academy with 86, way ahead of Oasis Isle of Sheppey (66); Astor College (63); and High Weald Academy (54). There were 938 Local Authority Allocations (LAA) which refer to Kent children offered schools they did not apply for. Royal Harbour and Oasis Isle of Sheppey academies each had over a hundred LAAs. Three schools have seen their number of first choices increase by more than 50, headed by two Swale Academy Trust Schools: Whitstable with 86 & Sittingbourne 55, followed by Knole Academy with 51. Going the other way were: St George's Broadstairs losing 62 first choices (but still third most oversubscribed school in Kent); Mascalls (59) and Trinity (50)
I look more closely below at the situation in each District, along with the most oversubscribed schools and those with most vacancies, together with the impact of out of county offers.
Medway Non-Selective Allocations for September 2020
The major news is that Medway non-selective schools have rallied round to support local children by offering an additional 135 places for September, for one year only, to meet exceptional demand. This was needed because the opening of two new schools, originally planned to come on stream for September 2020, have both been delayed until 2021. As a result 2527 places have been offered in total, 122 more than the 2019 figure. There were just 36 places left vacant at one school. The background is explained in more detail in my introductory article on secondary allocations, which should be read in conjunction with this one. Because of the additional places, 83% of pupils placing a non-selective school first on their admission application form were awarded their first choice. This is up from 80% in 2019. Sadly, another 6.1% of pupils were offered none of their choices, although this is down from 9.3% in 2019. You will find a table showing the allocation details for each school below.
The most oversubscribed school is once again Brompton Academy, setting a record for any non-selective school in Kent or Medway by turning away 249 first choices, over half of those who put the school in first place. It is followed by Thomas Aveling with 56 children disappointed.
Holmesdale Debacle Re-Emerges as KCC Director of Planning and Access Post Deleted
Kent County Council has recently carried out an external led inquiry into events at and around Holmesdale School in 2018, which I have written about in two previous articles. The first of my articles was in March 2018 after the school had plunged from Ofsted Good to Special Measures in four years under KCC control, although I produced evidence throughout this period that it was going downhill rapidly. The second was in January 2019 based on a series of email exchanges that had been sent me under FOI. These contained serious allegations about KCC actions that amongst other matters left the school without support for much of the previous year, and also attempted to block the appointment of a new headteacher and staff.
Swale Academies Trust has now been running the school since November 2018 and it is greatly improved as a consequence, as explained below, offering a decent education to its children. Those whose education and life chances suffered under KCC control will not be compensated in any way.
KCC has proposed an organisational restructure in the Children, Young People and Education Directorate, following its failures in SEND provision as identified in a highly critical Ofsted Report in January 2019. The post of KCC Director of Director of Education Planning and Access will be deleted, and replaced by two new Directorships. As a result Keith Abbott, the current Director, is being made redundant and leaving his post at Easter. Although Mr Abbott was heavily involved in the Holmesdale debacle, I have been asked by a KCC spokesman to make clear that there is no connection between the two events described in this article. In practice there looks to be no real change in structure, with the new Director - Education taking over Mr Abbott's role and the Assistant Director Disabled Children & Young People Services role being simply upgraded to full Director, in spite of the damning failures in Kent services for children with special needs and disabilities fo which he presumably took some responsibility.
Dr Jo Saxton Leaves Turner Schools to be Government Policy Advisor for the School System
Update 11 April: If you wish to apply for the vacant post of Head of School at Folkestone Academy, you will find details here. The 84 point Job Description defining the post-holder's responsibilities shows that Turner Schools has not lost its touch for covering all the bases.
Update: To add to Dr Saxton's Achievements, below, the number of families putting Folkestone Academy as their first choice school for 2020 has fallen yet again, from 153 in 2019 to 127 in 2020. 23 children, probably all from Folkestone, were allocated to the school, refusing to put it on their application form.
Dr Jo Saxton is leaving her post as co- founder and Chief Executive of Turner Schools, the small Academy Trust in Folkestone, but being paid one of the largest salaries in the country for a Trust of this size. Her departure comes after just three tumultuous and underachieving years and a big vision, along with a huge number of unfulfilled promises including for the two Folkestone secondary schools the fantasy claim: ‘both schools will outperform all schools in the south of England – excluding grammars - and provide “success without selection’.
She had already effectively thrown in the towel a year ago, when she appointed a new Deputy Chief Executive, now her successor, so that 'she could focus on curriculum matters, being the original reason she took on the Turner Schools post’, although I can find no other mention of this focus anywhere else.
The news of Dr Saxton's departure was contained in Kent Live published earlier today, 11th March. I have never before received so many emails in half a day informing me of a news item in such a small time. None of them regret her departure.
Allocations to Medway Grammar Schools 2020
Only one grammar school has vacancies on allocation - Chatham Grammar (previously Chatham Grammar School for Girls). 206 children living outside Medway have been offered local grammar school places out of 1071 in total. This amounts to 19%, or nearly a fifth of all the places offered. An additional 60 new places have been created, all at The Rochester Grammar School.
There were an additional 44 grammar qualified Medway children after the Medway selection process this year: boys up from 374 to 381; girls up from 405 to 438, continuing the annual bias towards girls being found selective. In total there are 585 places for girls but only 355 for boys available in the five single sex schools. This is on top of the 235 at Rainham Mark Grammar, a co-educational school. There are places for every Medway grammar qualified pupil who applied to appropriate grammar schools, but, as last year, chances at appeal for boys are likely to be very low.
The Rochester Grammar School’s transformation from super-selective to a school giving local children priority, is looked at in more detail below. The combination of this change and the increase in the grammar cohort size has resulted in another 68 Medway first preferences being accommodated in local grammar schools. It leaves Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School (The Math) by a long way the most oversubscribed grammar school in Medway, with 105 grammar qualified first choice boys turned away.
I look in more detail at the outcomes, including problems with grammar school process and applications, together with the situation for each grammar school individually, below.
Medway Secondary School Allocations 2020: Initial Information and Advice.
Update: You will find up to date articles on Medway non-selective schools here and grammar schools here. The Individual Schools section provides much data on each Medway secondary school, although the commentary for each school is in the progress of updating.
Medway Council has invested an additional £3 million this year to meet a potential shortage of secondary school places for September. This was caused by an increase in numbers, combined with a delay in the building of a new school - opening delayed until 2021. The investment, along with the support of local schools, has created an additional 185 new non-selective places on top of those available in 2019. The Rochester Grammar School intake has increased by 60 places since 2019, thanks to funding from the Grammar School Expansion Fund. The school’s new commitment to local girls has also reduced the number of London pupils it has offered places to, down by 55 since last year. Overall, there was a fall in offers of Medway school places to out of county children from 287 to 262.
The excellent news is that the extra places have enabled more of the 3480 Medway children to secure schools of their choice, with 91.1% being offered their first or second preference. The proportion offered no school of their choice has more than halved, down to 154, or 4.4% of the total.
Families will also find initial advice below on what to do next if you don’t have the school of your choice. I shall publish two further articles shortly looking at the outcomes for individual grammar and non-selective schools
Kent Secondary School Allocations for September 2020: Initial Information and Advice
The annual increase in out of county applications to Kent schools over years has thankfully come to a halt this year, at 3,517 up just three on last year, but a third more than in 2016. The number of OOC offers at 817, is one fewer than in 2019 and little different from 2016 when there were 803. As always this will have been partially balanced by around 500 children offered places at schools outside Kent.
You will find more information below, including a look at some of the likely pressure points updated as they become apparent. These will inevitably include North West Kent for both selective and non-selective places, and non-selective Swale, Thanet and Tunbridge Wells. You will also find required scores for super-selective schools inserted as I receive them (all information on both situations welcomed).
There is initial advice at the foot of this article on what to do if you have not been offered the school of your choice. This begins as always with my Corporal Jones mantra, do NOTHING in panic! You may regret it. There is no quick fix. I regret that I no longer offer individual advice, although there is plenty below in this article, with links to multiple relevant articles.
Later in the month I will provide more specific information and advice as KCC comes through with further details.
Kent Test for Entry in September 2020: Further Analysis
You will find the parallel Medway Test article here.
This article follows on from my previous: Kent Test 2019; Initial Results and Comment, published in October. The main change since last year is that that the marks required for a pass in the Test have been raised, requiring candidates to score 110 marks on each of the three sections - English, mathematics, and reasoning – along with an aggregate score across the three sections of at least 330 . Please note that the change remains as always to simply aim for 21% of the age cohort in Kent schools to be successful. In no way does it suggest the Test was more difficult so any attempt to argue this at an appeal for a grammar school place will be unsuccessful.
- The proportion of passes for Kent school children has risen from 25.7% to 26.6%, made up of 20.1% automatic passes with a further 6.5% Head Teacher Assessment (almost a quarter of the total).
- Boys are well ahead on automatic test passes for the first time since the Test was changed in 2014, at 21.3% passes for boys to 18.9% for girls, and also in total.
- Girls are well ahead in Head Teacher Assessments, (HTA)s, with 7.3% of all girls being found selective by this route, as against 5.8% of boys.
- Unsurprisingly, Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks have the highest proportion of passes, followed this year by Dartford and then Canterbury.
- As in previous years, the highest proportion of HTA success is in Canterbury, with 10% of the cohort for both boys and girls bring found selective, along with girls in Swale. but going on last year’s pattern, only around 15% of whom will apply and be offered places in Kent grammars.
- For the first time in many years there is a fall in the number of out of county Children taking the Kent Test, and a parallel fall of 8.5% in the number being found selective, to 2,768.:
Challenge to Kent Local Tests Backfires
58 out of 140 complaints to The Office of the Schools Adjudicator for the School Year 2018-19 related to the Admission Procedures of 36 grammar schools across the country.
Seven were about local grammar schools. Decisions in six complaints against the Kent grammar schools that offer Local Selection Tests for Admission were carried over into the current school year, being published in December. These are: Dover Boys & Girls; Folkestone School for Girls; Harvey, also in Folkestone; Highsted, Sittingbourne; and Mayfield, Gravesend. All six complaints were made by the same person, strongly opposed to selection. However, the complaints backfired as all six were completely rejected, with long term consequences of principle which could encourage other local grammars to set Local Tests, and which also yet again established the legitimacy of the Kent Head Teacher Assessment. The seventh, yet another complaint about Holcombe Grammar, amounted to minor faults which were required to be corrected, but then went on to challenge the school's failure to implement required changes from a previous complaint of mine which was upheld.
Also, and perhaps more significantly, the Adjudicator chose to look at the arrangements for the Local Tests (not part of the complaints) and ruled that they should not just be held on a single Saturday, but more opportunities to sit the Test are required to be made available, enabling more candidates to take part in the process, surely directly opposite to the intentions of the complainant(s).
You will find the School Adjudicators Annual Report here, with a summary of grammar school issues below.
Complete Retirement from Advisory Service
I regret to confirm that I have retired completely from my individual advisory service for Kent and Medway families after sixteen years. I continue to be asked if I can make an exception by previous clients, professionals, friends and others across Kent and Medway and further afield, but I am afraid my decision is final.
Please note that much of my work depends on information sent in by parents and professionals who also highlight areas where website pages need updating,. Please keep this coming.
Over that time I have supported over a thousand clients on a professional basis in various ways, who are seeking individual advice and support on school admissions and appeals, along with Special Education Needs, school exclusions, complaints and other matters. In addition, I have provided a large number of free services of the same nature for families without the resources to engage me on a paid basis, and also worked with governors, teachers and parents with problems at individual schools, many of which have eventually featured on these pages.
I will continue to run the nationally unique www.kentadvice.co.uk website, currently with over a thousand pages of advice and information for Kent and Medway families, along with news and comment on matters of relevant concern and interest,as I believe it meets an important need. As you can imagine, this takes a vast amount of time to keep up to date, my most recent offering being a unique analysis of the recent Kent Test. I am currently preparing for the what will still be the busiest time of the year, publishing outcomes and analysis of the secondary transfer decisions due out on 1st March.
The most time consuming section of the website is the Individual Schools Section, including a profile of each individual secondary school in Kent and Medway, along with a variety of data which is up to date at the time of writing. I expect to post details here of individual secondary school allocations for September 2020, around the middle of March. The Website Panel on the right hand side of this article will lead you to a host of information and advice articles on matters such as school admissions, grammar school admissions, school appeals, Special Education (needs considerable re-writing and updating), academies and academy groups, etc.
Please continue to assist by highlighting areas where information needs updating, and by feeding me information about matters of concern.
Apart from several advertisements that subsidise the cost of running the website, it produces no other income. Can I therefore encourage you to make a small donation of £15 towards the running costs, payable here. Also, feel free to contact me if you would like to advertise your school, tutoring or other educational service on a site that has some 200,000 visitors annually, with presumably the overwhelming majority having an interest in Kent and Medway education matters on every one of those 1,000 pages. The cost is surprisingly low.
Selective School Expansion Fund: Kent Decisions
Government has announced the six grammar schools offered £14.3 million funding from the second round of the Government Grammar School Expansion Fund, out of the 25 that applied. None of the eight Kent and two Medway grammar schools which applied were successful. The successful schools were: King Edward VI Handsworth School, Birmingham; Ribston Hall High School, Gloucestershire; Haberdashers’ Adams and Newport Girls’ High School Academy, both Telford and Wrekin; Altrincham Grammar School for Girls; and Stretford Grammar School, both in Trafford.
The Kent grammar schools which applied were: Barton Court, Canterbury and Queen Elizabeth's, Faversham, both bidding for a new Annexe in Herne Bay/Whitstable; Cranbrook; Highsted, Sittingbourne; Highworth, Ashford; Skinners, Tunbridge Wells; and Wilmington Boys and Wilmington Girls, jointly, budding for a new Sixth Form complex. Also Chatham (previously called Chatham Grammar School for Girls) and Fort Pitt Grammar Schools in Medway.
Annual School Report for Turner Schools: Serious Weaknesses
The Turner Schools Annual Report to Companies House, posted on the final due date, 31st January 2020 suggesting some difficulties in completion, continues the saga of well rewarded underperformance. CEO Dr Jo Saxton whose recent main focus has been on Curriculum across the four Turner Schools, was paid a salary of £149,783, conveniently just below the £150,000 level at which government looks askance. The salary is in return for running a small, struggling Academy Trust and is highest of the Kent Trusts I have found so far, excepting four which are large and successful. The Report works hard, as is usual for Turner Schools, on blaming its problems at Folkestone Academy on legacy issues despite the evidence that standards have only declined since it took over. Amongst other own goals: it also manages to excuse the failure of the two Turner primary schools to attract pupils, including Morehall with the highest vacancy rate in Kent; has run up a loan repayable to government of £1.3 million; and has two of its four schools running at a sizeable deficit.
In other news, Government has at last released a Free School Impact Assessment for Turner Free School carried out in 2018, looking at the likely effects its opening would have on neighbouring schools. The good news (??) according to the DfE was that there would be a Minimal Effect on Folkestone Academy in terms of recruitment, but a Moderate Effect on Astor College in Dover. For the Sixth Form there would be Moderate Effects felt by Canterbury College, East Kent College (which have now merged) and Hilderstone College. How much more wrong could government be! See below.
Catholic Church Overturns Catholic Trust Ban on Kent Test in school premises.

Last week, the ECD set out one of the clearest and best argued policy statements I have seen from an education body for years. This scrapped the previous requirement on the grounds that the ban was inoperable, discriminatory and not supported Canonically from the Bishops’ Conference, and so could not therefore be Diocesan policy.
Kent Final GCSE Outcomes 2019
Final GCSE Results for Kent published last week confirm the provisional results released in November. This article is a minor revision of the November original as I have found very few variations in outcome. The results show that Kent schools were below the National Average of -0.03 in the governments key measure Progress 8 at -0.11. However, they were ahead in Attainment 8 at 47.2 against the national figure of 46.6, as explained below.
Girls’ grammar schools make a clean sweep the top seven places in the Progress 8 table, the government’s key measure of performance. Highworth shows the greatest consistency being second for the past two years.
Bennett continues to dominate both non-selective tables, ahead of 28 grammar schools in Progress 8, followed as usual by St Simon Stock, and in the past three years Meopham. The only new non-selective school arriving in the list of best performers is Cornwallis Academy which continues to struggle to attract applications. Biggest turnaround is by Holmesdale (see below).
Borden Grammar is by some way the lowest performing grammar school at Progress 8, being Below Average, and also at the foot of the Attainment 8 table. Worryingly, there are 20 non-selective schools Well Below Average and below the government’s Floor Level of -0.50, up from 15 in 2018. At the foot of both tables comes Hartsdown Academy, lowest performing Attainment 8 and fourth lowest school at Progress 8 in the country. The 20 schools below Floor Level include many regularly low performers, but also now: Thamesview; Archbishops; Fulston Manor; Hayesbrook; Hugh Christie; and St Augustines.
Who could not have got it more wrong when he said on his school website: 'We are celebrating our best ever year for results at GCSE in Year 11''? Answer below.
You will find performance tables and further information and analysis below.
Medway Final GCSE Outcomes for 2019
Final GCSE Results for Medway schools published last week confirm the provisional results released in November. This article is a minor revision of the November original as I have found no significant variations in outcome. The key measure of GCSE Performance is Progress 8 (full table here) .Under this measure Medway is slightly above the National Average of -0.03; at +0.03. There was just one school, Robert Napier, Well Below Average although the results of Medway UTC (Well Below Average in 2018) have been suppressed for unexplained reasons. Attainment 8 (full table here) has Medway exactly the same as the National score of 46.5 with Robert Napier firmly at the foot of the table, although again Medway UTC has results suppressed and is now the Waterfront UTC.
Overall, positions in the full performance tables below are very similar to 2018, with for grammar schools, Rochester being at the head and Holcombe the foot of both tables again. Rainham School for Girls and Thomas Aveling have topped both tables for non-selective schools each year .
You will find performance tables including outcomes of the English Baccalaureate and the proportion of pupils gaining Level Five or better in English and maths together with analysis below.
Medway Schools A Level Performance 2019
This article looks at A Level outcomes for Medway schools in the summer of 2019, following the release of performance data last week; you will find an equivalent article for Kent schools here. Medway schools perform slightly lower than the national outcomes in Attainment; summary data for Progress from GCSE to A Level not available.
In terms of Progress Grades, there are no schools that have performed at an Above Average Level; in 2018 there was one. There are six schools with Average Progress: Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School; Rainham Mark Grammar; Brompton Academy: St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive; Rainham School for Girls; and Walderslade Girls School. Every other school has below average progress.
Two grammar schools, Rochester Grammar and Rochester Maths have performed highly in the A Level attainment categories as usual. Highest attainment amongst the non-selective schools are again Thomas Aveling and Rainham Girls.
Chatham Grammar (previously called Chatham Grammar School for Girls) appears to have had a disaster on all counts, see tables below.
Also noteworthy is the very high fallout rate at three of the six grammar schools between Years 11 and Year 12, and for Holcombe Grammar from 12 to 13 for the third year running, which suggests illegal off-rolling to inflate performance.
Kent Schools A Level Performance Summer 2019

Ofsted Annual Report 2018-19 (1): Kent and Medway 'Stuck Schools'
Update 24th January: Royal Harbour Academy has been found to Require Improvement by Ofsted today, up from 'Requires Significant Improvement. This leaves just Holmesdale School as the only Kent secondary school in Special Measures.
The Chief Ofsted Inspector has published her Annual Report for 2018-19, available here. The year has been very successful overall for both Kent and Medway schools being inspected, with all categories outperforming national data. I have explored these in two previous articles, the first looking at secondary school Ofsted Reports which show both grammar and non-selective schools in Kent and Medway performing comfortably above the national average in Progress and Attainment. At primary level, both Authorities again outperformed national data, this time with academies noticeably achieving higher levels and improved assessments against Local Authority schools. A third article on Special School Inspections will follow shortly.
Rightly, Ofsted is concerned about ‘stuck schools’ and I look at each of the ten stuck schools in Kent and three in Medway below, discovering that this is a very broad category. I am also preparing a follow up article looking at two other issues on which the Report focuses: schools where there is potentially off-rolling and excessive movement of pupils: and school exclusions, with Kent enjoying the fourth lowest proportion of permanent exclusions in the country.
Academy and Free School News January 2020
IThis article first looks at the two new Free Schools opened in Dartford in September: Stone Lodge School (secondary) and River Mill Primary. Six schools have become academies: Dartford Bridge Community Primary School; Horsmonden Primary; Paddock Wood Primary; Rolvenden Primary; St Katherine’s Primary; and Wainscott Primary. A group of primary schools in East Kent are proposing to academise together: Briary; Bysing Wood; Holywell; and Queenborough. Sunny Bank School in Sittingbourne has an Academy Order. The re-brokering of the failed Delce Academy; the Private Finance Initiative and academy conversion; a roundup of the names and numbers of Kent and Medway academies, and various other academy matters.
The 15 Kent and Medway Priority School Building Programmes currently underway, planned or completed
In 2015 Government introduced Phase Two of the Priority School Building Programme, to rebuild or refurbish individual blocks of accommodation at 277 schools using capital grant and are scheduled to hand over by the end of 2023. 13 of these are in Kent and a further two are in Medway. This article looks at progress of the project in the local schools to benefit, which were as follows. Kent Primary schools: Barton Junior; Benenden Church of England Primary; Colliers Green Church of England Primary; & Platt Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School. Kent secondary schools: The Abbey School; Dover Grammar Boys; The Folkestone School for Girls; Hartsdown Technology College; High Weald Academy; Mayfield Grammar; Pent Valley Technology College; Simon Langton Girls' Grammar; Swadelands. Medway secondary schools: St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive and The Howard School.
Key words in the project are: ‘using capital grant’, as the previous programme of Building Schools for the Future relied heavily on commercial loans under the now largely discredited Private Finance Initiative. Whilst many schools benefited hugely from this project, the financial implications are crippling, as can be seen in several previous articles on this site, including here, with a full analysis by ShepwayVox here. In this second phase more schools qualify under ‘a block replacement based on poor condition. Only in exceptional circumstances will a whole school be replaced’ . At least three of the projects described below appear to come into the ‘exceptional circumstances’ category. At the foot of this article is a list of all the previous successful BSF Schools in Kent.
Grammar School Expansion, including Tunbridge Wells Boys, Gravesend and Norton Knatchbull.
Progress on 15 Approved New Free Schools in Kent and Medway
New Secondary School in Thanet vetoed at the Last Moment.
In his last action just twenty minutes before standing down as Leader of Kent County Council on October 17th, Paul Carter vetoed the proposal to build a new non-selective school in Thanet on the grounds that population numbers had not risen as fast as forecast. Instead he stated that what Thanet needed was better schools rather than additional ones, and that the financial cost to Kent was not necessary.
Preceding this decision, the Kent Schools Commissioning Plan 2019-2023 stated that: The new secondary Free School has been commissioned on the site of the former Royal School for the Deaf. The Howard Academy Trust has been confirmed as the successful sponsor via the DfE Free School Presumptive process. The School will open in temporary accommodation in 2020 with 120 Year 7 places, and in 2021 on the new site as a 6FE school. The support of existing schools will be required to provide temporary Year 7 places for 2019 until the new school is delivered.
KCC’s Scrutiny Committee on 19th November considered Mr Carter’s decision as reported here, pp 17 – 28, and I have considered it in detail below. The two key outcomes of the Open part of this meeting were: firstly it appears clear that the decision to veto the original decision was the right one even if the alternative proposed would create other problems and; secondly that KCC officers were seriously wrong in their number planning as demonstrated by KCC’s own Commissioning Plan and my simple charts below, their excuses for not noticing the population trend not standing up to scrutiny and with no one to be held accountable for this debacle. A subsequent closed session may well have looked at the data, but we don't know.
Folkestone Academy joins the Tough Love Failures, and Other Turner School Successes
Kent & Medway Primary School Performance: 2019 Key Stage 2 Results
Government’s key measure is progress from Key Stage One (end of Infant stage at age seven) through to Key Stage Two, in Reading Writing and Mathematics. The best overall Progress performances were by: Stowting CofE, Ashford, 19.3; Oaks Primary (Academy), Maidstone, 17.2; Joy Lane Foundation, Whitstable, & New Horizons (A), Chatham, 16.9; Hernhill CofE, Canterbury, 16.7; St Mary of Charity CofE (A), Faversham; 16.5; and Kings Farm, Gravesend, 16.4. Six of the highest performers have been in Special Measures in the past five years which, although not recommended, appears to have acted as a spur - five after academisation.
In Kent, five schools saw every pupil achieve the expected achievement standard set by government but, apart from Sibertswold CofE, Dover each of the others had small age groups of between seven and twelve pupils! Next came: Ramsgate, Holy Trinity CofE with 97%; St Margaret's at Cliffe, 96%; Chilton (A), Ramsgate; and Temple Ewell CofE (A), Dover, both with 95%, again with a preponderance of East Kent schools, along with the next schools in the list. Top performers in Medway by this standard were Pilgrim (A), Medway, and St Helen’s CofE, Cliffe, both with 90% of pupils achieving the expected standard.
There are plenty of opportunities for many schools to claim a top position in one or more of these categories, as shown in the following sections. For definitions and full details of performance consult the Government websites for Kent and Medway. The article concludes with some advice to parents trying to select a primary school for their children.....
Lilac Sky Schools Academy Trust: Progress on Financial Investigation
For those who thought we had seen the last of the dreadful Lilac Sky Schools Academy Trust (LSSAT)I enclose a copy of a letter sent by the Government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), which reports on the ESFA investigation into LSSAT.
This tells us that the investigation concluded several months ago and that the ESFA intends to publish a final version of the report, so there is already an interim Report in existence about the investigation. The author of the letter, sent 9th October, apologises for the long delay in concluding the investigation, and records that the final Report will be published as soon as possible after fact checking has taken place. Clearly a robust process of fact checking that has taken more than two months already!
The letter concludes: ‘I cannot speculate as to exactly what enforcement action will be taken. However, I can assure you that the department will take robust action as appropriate to ensure that individuals responsible for financial mismanagement will be held to account’. In other words, some form of action will be carried out.
Elective Home Education & Children Missing from Education 2018-19: Kent and Medway
The figure of 830 Kent ‘Children Missing from Education’ (CME), with no known destination is way down on the 2292 of two years ago, with larger figures in some areas caused by families returning to their homeland, notably in Gravesham and Thanet, both home to large numbers of Eastern European families, and by Traveller families.
The four highest EHE schools are the same as in 2017-18, and are four out of the top six the previous year, yet no-one appears to question what is going on in these schools. They are High Weald Academy, losing 4.8% of its statutory aged population (11-16); Hartsdown Academy 4.1%, Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey, 3.6%; and New Line Learning Academy 3.4%, all losing on average more than one child from every class last year to home education. There were no schools in Medway losing more than 2% of their statutory roll to EHE.
Kent Catholic Academies Banned from Hosting Kent Test

Kent and Medway School Exclusions 2018-19
Kent and Medway Primary School Ofsted Outcomes 2018-2019


Medway Review 2019 and the Medway Test.
I have now received more data relating to the Medway Test with its pass level of an aggregation of 495 marks across the three tests, following on from my initial article here.
It is clear that the Review process has once again failed Medway children with a total of 0.43% of children having Reviews upheld, against a target of 2.0% of the cohort. As a result, 45 children missed out of being found of grammar school ability this year because of failure by the Medway process. The rules then state that such children cannot be considered at appeal unless they can show the process to be flawed! Of the 15 successful reviews for Medway children out of 147 submitted, 11 were from girls, over half of these being born in the first quarter of the year. Some might argue that the underlying reason for the very low success rate at Review is poor work produced by Medway primary schools, although it could of course be simply the annual failure of Review Panels to follow the procedure!
22.2% of boys and 24.1 % of girls in Year Six of Medway schools passed the Medway Test, meeting the overall target of 23.0%. Whilst this confirms the annual bias in favour of girls as demonstrated below, the gap is slightly lower since the introduction of the CEM selection Test in 2017. The Council has attempted to save money by banning late testing since 2018, which is unlawful as explained here, Year Six children moving into Medway late are therfore denied the opportunity to go to grammar school.
There were 921 Out of County (OOC) successes in the Medway Test. Nearly half of these came from Kent. Many will be looking for places at Holcombe and Chatham Girls grammar schools as second or lower choices to schools nearer their homes. Last year just 246 OOCs were allocated Medway places out of 844 grammar qualified, many of whom would have subsequently dropped out after gaining more suitable places nearer home.
Second Sevenoaks Annexe: Consultation from Tunbridge Wells Grammar Boys to go Ahead
Note: This is an update to a previous article, now deleted
At long last it looks as if the second part of the Sevenoaks grammar school annexe buildings will be built and occupied as originally planned, in response to a growing shortage of grammar school places in West Kent. A consultation document on the development of a separate annexe has now been published, which appears to provide a fairly straightforward progress to completion in 2021 for 90 boys in Year Seven, following approval of the girls’ annexe three years ago.
This will be an important increase in selective education places for West Kent. At present, grammar school qualified boys from the north of the District, who are not eligible for the super selective Judd and Skinners schools, have to travel up to 22 miles to TWGSB which is bursting at the seams as it keeps having to expand to meet local need.
Additional grammar school places are certainly needed to meet the increasing number of Kent children being assessed as selective due to a growing population. There is a forecast deficit of 242 places for boys and girls jointly by 2022-23 (see below). I have explored the non selective place issues several times previously, for example here.
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