Three of the six schools turned away over 50 first choices each: Meopham; St Georges CofE; and St John’s Catholic Comprehensive. Three schools, the two church comprehensives and Thamesview have added another 75 places between them. Just one school with vacancies, Northfleet Girls’ with nine, so enormous pressures to come in future years.
As usual, enormous polarisation between the four heavily oversubscribed schools in the town, and the three on the outskirts: Cornwallis Academy; Lenham School; and New Line Learning Academy. Each of the oversubscribed schools have added additional places, 85 between them. Valley Park is the second most oversubscribed non-selective school in the county, turning away 193 first choices, even after its addition of 30 places. Next come Maplesden Noakes with 80, and St Simon Stock with 44 (could it be said to be falling in popularity having slipped from 75 oversubscribed in 2017?). SSS has offered 30 places presumably to Catholic families, from Medway where even some Catholic primary schools do not recommend their local denominational school. It had no successful appeals out of 30 heard in 2017.
A proposed new academy, the Maidstone School of Science and Technology has repeatedly been delayed because of planning issues, with the sponsors losing patience and could walk away from the deal.
Lenham School renamed from Swadelands after its failed OFSTED and subsequent academisation, appears to be recovering popularity with its number of vacancies falling from 45 in 2017, to 15 this year. The two academies of the Future Schools Trust, on the west of the town are both disaster areas, with poor academic performance and low popularity, in spite of new premises. Although New Line Learning Academy has just 33 vacancies, it has 80 of the town’s 103 LAAs. This gives it the second highest vacancy rate in Kent before LAAs are taken into account at 54%. Cornwallis was recently described to me as ‘huge, plazas instead of classrooms and fish bowl science labs. Not a good learning environment for easily distracted children’. Certainly, my last visit there left me with a very negative view watching the movement of children round the site.
Three schools, no vacancies. Trinity Free School has really established itself, again offering 180 places, but being 81 first choices oversubscribed, up from 13 in 2017. Knole Academy is 25 places oversubscribed, but has offered 69 to Bromley children, a number of whom usually find local preferred schools before September.
Orchards Academy in Swanley continues to be very popular, also thriving on the closure of Oasis Hextable, offering places to all its 105 first choices, but by virtue of expanding 20 places to 140.
Just three schools since the closure of Pent Valley in 2017, to be replaced by a new school in 2019. In the meantime Brockhill Park in Hythe between Folkestone and Romney Marsh, is the main draw, turning away 134 first choices for its 235 places. Both Folkestone Academy and Marsh Academy are also oversubscribed, by 18 and 12 places respectively.
