The statement was presented to the Appeal Panel, describing the reasons why applications for admission were refused and why appellants  who had not qualified through the Medway Test should not be offered a place. The key paragraph is as follows:

This curriculum is designed for the top 25% of the ability range. Students below this level would struggle to engage with the curriculum and its delivery. Therefore, students who have not been deemed selective should not be considered for a place at Holcombe Grammar School. Any score around the 100 mark, (50 th percentile) indicates average. A score below 100 suggests that there may be difficulty in that area unless there are mitigating circumstances. For an appeal to be successful there must be a strong case with compelling evidence.

This is quite simply factually wrong. I give a more technical explanation of the misrepresentation at the foot of this article below but, as briefly as I can make it, the reference to a score of 100 being at the 50^th percentile or nationally average only applies to the Kent Test. The Medway test, which the large majority of applicants to Holcombe take and with a very different method of scoring, is not described. In the Medway Test the pass mark of 495 for this year is made up of the total of five components. For example these could be scores for the three Tests of 100 marks each (English and maths marks then being doubled to provide the five components) which would secure a grammar assessment with a total of 500 points. Therefore, a score of 100 is the equivalent of a pass mark, the mathematics suggesting it comes in the top 27% of candidates taking each paper, well above the false claim of 50% by TSAT.

One has to ask the question as to whether this false claim was deliberate or through ignorance? I hope it was not the former. Whichever, it makes the whole appeal process a travesty for those candidates who were not initially found selective, as they would have been on a hiding to nothing if the Panel swallowed the story. Unfortunately, we have no idea of this, as the Panel does not appear to have questioned the claim, possibly because they were Kent based and so wrongly simply accepted it as truth.

The Executive Principal (and Director of Secondary Education for the Trust), who was previously headteacher of The Rochester Grammar School, the super selective Girls Grammar in TSAT, may never have come across this fundamental plank of the Medway Test, as that school sets a higher pass mark than other Medway schools, this year at 520, twenty-five marks above the official pass. So scores of 100 would not normally come under consideration for selection or appeal. Even if the result was due to his ignorance, it is shameful that no one at Holcombe bothered to check, adding to the catalogue of errors they have committed recently (below).

There is no doubt it is an unforgiveable blunder, making a mockery of the appeal process and compounding the months of stress of families waiting for what they assumed would be a fair appeal. It also strengthens my hypothesis about the aims of TSAT towards Holcombe Grammar School. So, don’t be surprised to see another change of character proposed after the two previous failed attempts to become co-educational. It appears the school is attempting to emulate The Rochester Grammar School (RGS), lead school in the Academy Trust, which offers its places to the highest scorers in the Medway Test, this year offering 81 of the 205 places outside Medway, fifteen of them to girls from Greenwich. . The difference is that for RGS these are mainly girls who made a positive choice for the school.

A few years ago, when they were struggling for numbers, both of the Chatham Grammar Schools introduced the Kent Test as an alternative route to qualify for entrance. This means that boys who may have had no initial thought of looking at Holcombe, suddenly find they are eligible for a place. As a result 20 boys offered Holcombe had placed the school fourth, fifth or sixth choice, probably having been rejected from Dartford Boys, Wilmington Boys and Gravesend Boys grammars on the way, all nearer their homes in one of the London Boroughs.

The sad thing is that the events described in this article take place whilst Holcombe is clearly working well in other areas as confirmed by the recent Good Ofsted Report. However, whilst the Report does not consider external matters, even the Inspectors came across a current of unhappiness about the school that I regularly still pick up: ‘Some parents do not appreciate the good work that is going on in the school. Approximately one third of the parents responding to Ofsted’s online survey Parent View do not feel that the school provides valuable information about their child’s progress. A similar proportion does not feel that the school responds well to concerns raised, and many additional comments suggested that concerns raised were not always responded to in a timely manner’. The school website is unusual in that no one’s name is mentioned anywhere (except occasionally in letters home) echoing a concern that parents do not know who to contact about issues. Why the secrecy?

The Report also failed to pick up the enormous fall out of 22% of students half way through their A level course, more than double that of any grammar schools across Kent and Medway (apart from one on 13%). This follows my exposure of the practice of illegal expulsion of pupils in 2016 in local grammar schools, which caused a sharp fall in students leaving half way through their course everywhere else, but clearly not at Holcombe!

Holcombe Grammar has made two controversial and seriously flawed failed attempts to become co-educational, which would have reduced opportunities for boys in the area, and threatened the viability of neighbouring Chatham Girls Grammar. In the first proposal, the school confirmed its ability to take up to 180 pupils; in the second it recorded that ‘We have the capacity to provide enough places for every boy and girl who wants one’ ( presumably of grammar school ability, but not mentioned)!).

It also came up with the astonishing, unlawful and ridiculous plan, to be able to fill the vacant places after allocation by a Committee of Governors making their own decisions. They would do this by setting a new test to choose additional pupils who had not passed the Medway Test to fill places. The second proposal for co-education was accompanied by a plan to allow girls (not boys) to transfer from the TSAT non-selective school Victory Academy to Holcombe without formal assessment. This was also turned down, a pilot plan admitting girls on this basis failing because the girls chose not remain.

Then there was the unlawful transfer of boys who had been accepted by Holcombe, to Victory Academy for their education, keeping them on the roll of Holcombe. This was supported by Medway Council, but was declared unlawful by government and had to be scrapped.