Kent County Council has been awarded one of 39 new Special Schools to be opened across the country, following a bid to government. This will be built on the Isle of Sheppey, on land adjacent to the new Halfway Houses Primary School site,  and is planned to focus on children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs aged 11-16. Under current regulations KCC will now need to set up a tendering process to select a Sponsor from an existing academy chain to run the new school. As explained below, this can be a drawn out and uncertain process, with the opening date not yet fixed.

This follows approval in January for the Aspire School, Sittingbourne a new Free School for children with autism or speech and language difficulties to be run by Grove Park Academies Trust, currently comprising Grove Park Primary School. It will be built on council land not far from Grove Park, both schools in Bobbing. The Aspire School came into existence because of the vision of parents as long ago as 2013. The original vision was for high functioning autistic children aged 4 -16, although final details have not yet been settled, and it is now looking likely to be for primary aged children, opening at the earliest in September 2020.

Update 5th June: To no-ones surprise (surely), Tina Lee, currently Interim Principal, having been at the school for three years has been named as the new permanent Principal of Isle of Sheppey Academy. Whilst I genuinely wish her well with this poisoned chalice the academy surely needs, and the Trust was surely looking for an external candidate 'someone with a strong track record of outstanding leadership' with, as a priority in the next two years: 'Ensure the Academy is well placed to secure a judgement which is at least good and ideally Outstanding at its next Ofsted inspection'. I am afraid in salary terms offering up to £100,000 was never going to attract such a candidate to the second largest, split site, most troubled school in the county.  

Update 28 April: Several updates to the article below in blue. Mr John Cavadino, Principal of Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey Academy (OAIS), has left his post at short notice after just over 18 difficult months in post.

Update 1 July: At least one MP appreciates what is going on in his constituency and is taking action. He has taken this up with the Schools Minister. Now there is an idea Mr Henderson! 

Ihave written several articles about the mismanagement of the school over this time, and indeed during the time of his predecessor, one of which The scandal of Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey, written last summer, explores most of the issues. 

In its time Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy has been the most troubled school in Kent, my previous article also providing links to earlier references.

That article, entitled “Problems in Secondary Schools in Kent's Coastal Towns“, looks at the high casualty rate amongst headteachers of non-selective schools around the Kent coast. With Sheppey’s sharp fall in GCSE performance since the current Principal, David Millar, took over in 2013, from 41% and 37% before he arrived, to his 19% then 25% in 2015, he was surely a candidate to be next for the chop, especially with discontent amongst the staff and the continuing cry of ‘anywhere but Sheppey’ from any aspiring parent.

However, remarkably, although he is leaving the school this summer before his public commitment to serve at least three years at the school was fulfilled, he has been given a ‘great opportunity’, a further promotion with another multi-academy trust, presumably therefore a school even larger than Sheppey, the second biggest in Kent.....

Sadly, yet another Principal of Sheppey Academy has lost his job, joining a long list of headteachers who have failed to crack the problems of this, the largest and most problematic of all Kent secondary schools. David Day, who proved an excellent headteacher of Wrotham School (where he was described as "a committed and inspirational head teacher” by OFSTED) before moving to Isle of Sheppey Academy in September 2011, is leaving his post at the end of this month along with his two subordinate Executive Headteachers.  In spite of his leadership of the academy, taking it out of its failed ‘Notice to Improve’ rating from 2011, this will be the fourth change of leader since 2009 when its predecessor, Minster College,  became a sponsored academy, although the problems of the school reach back many years before (see below).

Possibly of even more significance, the current sponsors, headed by Dulwich College and supported by Kent County Council and the Anglican Diocese of Canterbury are also relinquishing their roles in January when Oasis becomes sole sponsor, taking on the role of lead sponsor from 1st September. 

Holy Family Roman Catholic Primary School joins the growing list of Maidstone primary schools failed by OFSTED, when it was given 'Notice to Improve' in October. Particular criticism is made of the "slow progress many pupils make, especially in Key Stage 2 mathematics; their attendance; and the school’s governance".  The full list of failing schools in the town is: .........

Updated October 2019

Entries on this page include the OFSTED Grade for each Primary School updated twice a year, also recording change from previous Inspection result, together with some other relevant information below. It is worth using the search engine on the Home Page to pick up other references to individual schools.

You will find advice on Primary school Admissions and Appeals here. 

You can read the full Report on each Primary School at OFSTED. Each school is awarded a main Grade: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement (previously Satisfactory), and Inadequate (two sub categories - A school that has serious weaknesses is inadequate overall and requires significant improvement but leadership and management are judged to be Grade 3 or better - A school that requires special measures is one where the school is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the school’s leaders, managers or governors have not demonstrated that they have the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school). Each Report carries a brief description of the school before justifying its decision in more detail. If a school is in Special Measures or Serious Weaknesses, the results of further monitoring visits are noted.

A majority of the schools that have previously had a 'Good' or 'Outstanding' assessment are given a Short Inspection (known as Section 8). These are indicated by 'Good (S). These will be confirmed in their assessment grade. However for some of these schools, the Inspection Team may consider that there are concerns, or in the case of a Good school, grounds for raising the Grade and this can only be done by a full Section Five Grade. These are recorded for example as  'Outstanding (SC) or 'Good (SR). 

You will find an analysis of oversubscription and vacancies for  Sittingbourne and Sheppey Primary Places for September 2019 Allocations here and here, for 2018 here, for 2017 here, and for 2016 here.

You will find a good website to provide a host of factual data about individual Kent schools here.

Reports on Inspections between between September 2018 and July 2019  are in the first table, followed by other tables containing older ones.

(A) Indicates the school is an Academy (2017 onwards)    

  *The small Eastchurch CofE Primary School in Sheppey is spread across two sites  in Eastchurch and Leysdown. This has proved very costly, running with two headteachers, and in 2017 whilst KCC were forcing cuts on the school in order to make it viable, both headteachers resigned. The school has been struggling ever since. According to Ofsted: 'Leadership is vulnerable. Both leadership and staffing since the previous inspection have been turbulent, with a number of successive headteachers having been in post.'

**St Edward's Catholic Primary School in Sheppey has been failing for many years, having failed to make progress from being placed in Special Measures in 2013 (see tables below). It has now been academised and is run by Kent Catholic Schools Partnership, which has a good record in turning failed Catholic schools round. 

*** Sunny Bank Primary School is run by the Local Authority being formed by the amalgamation of two KCC schools in 2016 and remaining under the control of KCC. Murston Infant School 's most recent Ofsted Report was Good, Murston Junior School Requires Improvement. This proved a disaster, with Ofsted recording: 'Over the past three years, weak and turbulent leadership has prevented the school from improving'. Will surely become an academy. 

 *Thistle Hill Academy was the central school of the appalling Lilac Sky Academy Trust which closed amidst poor standards and large debts as money vanished. Transferred to Stour Valley Academy Trust, Ofsted Report shows school improving from poor base. 

 St Edward's position is so difficult that KCC have instituted an Interim Executive Board, to replace the Governing Body in preparation for the school being taken over as an a academy. 

South Avenue Junior is being taken over by Fulston Manor School as a Sponsored Academy. 

Kemsley Primary School: After its good progress from Special Measures report, Kemsley Primary has still been taken over as a Sponsored Academy in April. 

Pre September 2012 Reports