Index
When MSST opens, the children it draws from other schools will create a churning effect, as children move up to fill gaps opening in the more popular schools. This inevitably reaches through to the two schools at risk, Cornwallis and New Line Learning academies, both run by the Future Schools Trust. These two schools have 132 Local Authority Allocations between them. The only six vacancies currently in Maidstone are at Cornwallis which does not appear in the above county vacancy list, but still has 21% empty spaces before LAAs, at present. The problem is exacerbated by the annual high number of successful appeals at the four Maidstone grammar schools which last year absorbed 187 further children. These are drawn mainly from the same two schools after trickle down. The KCC Commissioning Plan for Maidstone non-selective places forecast there would be a surplus of 607 places in September 2020 after MSST came on line. This is a figure larger than the total capacity of Cornwallis and New Line Learning academies!
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The increasing pressure showing in Sittingbourne is exacerbated by large numbers of pupils travelling off the Isle of Sheppey for their secondary education.
Surplus capacity in Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy will help to offset some of the deficit in Sittingbourne.
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Unfortunately, this hardly touches the issue of the large number of Sheppey families trying to avoid Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey (OAIOS). These, along with families, often to the south of the town, who would have looked to Fulston Manor are desperately seeking schools on the mainland but instead themselves part of the 101 Local Authority Allocations at OAIOS (second highest figure in Kent and over 30 more than ever before). This still left the school with 66 vacancies, also the second highest figure in Kent. Each year when I was offering individual professional advice, I received enquiries from large numbers of these families at their wits end and refusing to consider Oasis with its awful reputation. Only last week I took a phone call from a professional who told me about the large number of reports of bullying at the school which they received. I am not convinced any of these families will find the KCC view acceptable.
Not surprisingly Fulston Manor and Westlands schools in Sittingbourne are both in the top six most oversubscribed N/S schools in Kent, although last year they took very different routes through the appeal process. The Fulston Manor Appeal Panel has not upheld more than seven cases (one per class) in the past six years at least, so the successes will be very special cases. Westlands upheld 51 out of 52 appeals, but may of course go down a different route this year. The problem has reached crisis levels, with KCC's estimated shortage of 144 Year Seven non-selective places in Sittingbourne next year, rising to 192 in 2023. The Commissioning Plan recognises there will need to be another six forms of entry in 2023, but puts through no solution. Some years ago, a new school was proposed, but there is now no mention of this. Oasis saw a fall of 51 potential Year Seven children between allocation and the October school census last year. The decline in Oasis numbers has seen the school mothball one of its two sites, but for how long. Reopening surely cannot be the solution to the coming crisis, but where is there an alternative for those 192 children Some families desperate enough to avoid the school home educate with around 150 families on the Island trying this at present! This should not be happening. Girls might like to try Rainham School for Girls in Medway.
The Sittingbourne School saw the second highest increase in first choices in the county, at 55 taking it to 21 first choices oversubscribed. It still did not appear to have any appeals last year, and Abbey School, Faversham, which is slowly losing out in popularity to the much improved Whitstable, just filled.
