Displaying items by tag: primary school

 Kent Primary schools have continued to produce a very high pattern of OFSTED outcomes above the national averages since my previous report in February, with 3 more schools ‘Outstanding’, and 12 Assessed ‘Good’ out of the 19 schools inspected, with none failing. Even more pleasing for the families concerned, 10 of these have improved their rating, as against just 4 declining. The three ‘Outstanding’ schools are: Chiddingstone, Sevenoaks; St Martin’s CofE, Folkestone; and Wickhambreux CofE, Canterbury.

Special mention to St Martin’s, together with Kemsley Primary Academy in Sittingbourne and St Francis Catholic in Maidstone, which have each leapt two categories, Kemsley and St Francis (see below) up from Special Measures to ‘Good.’

In Medway, things also look much better with its first two ‘Outstanding’ schools for two years out of the eight assessed - The Pilgrim Primary in Borstal, and Cliffe Woods Primary, an Academy so independent of Medway Council, both up from "Good"  on their previous assessment. The other six were all assessed as ‘Good’ and, although one has slipped from Outstanding, two others have improved, so overall some improvement on previous results.

At the foot of this article, is a table of the relevant data for both Authorities in 2014/15, compared with the most recent national figures, and you can compare them with 2013/14 via the link here.

Whilst not a primary school, I am also happy to congratulate here Five Acre Wood Special School, Maidstone, on its recent Outstanding OFSTED Report, joining seven other Outstanding Kent Special Schools out of a total of  20, eleven of the others being graded 'Good'.......

Parents of Kent primary aged children looking to enter school in September, or transfer from Infant to Junior schools  have now received a letter informing them of the allocated school. All families who have not been offered their first choice school have also been told how to apply for waiting lists or submit an appeal.

The figures below show the outcome of a major planning operation by KCC following last year's primary school places crisis, producing the best figures for three years.At the time of writing, I am not aware of any local difficulties. 

 The headline is: the highest number and proportion of children being offered their first choice for three years; and the lowest number and proportion being allocated a place by Kent County Council after being offered no school of their choice - a fall of 20% over 2012. These very good figures are in spite of a steady rise in the number of primary aged children coming through the system. However there are still 661 children without a school of their choice. Kent and Medway parents who wish to seek my advice may like to consider using my Telephone Consultation to discuss options, so feel free to send me details of your situation  and I will let you know if I have practical advice to offer. You will see from my Primary Appeals Information page, that sadly, for most schools chances of success at appeal are very unlikely.

I have in the past been highly critical of Kent primary schools performance as measured by both OFSTED and Key Stage Two results at the end of children’s time in primary school, but recent statistics show a dramatic improvement in Kent’s primary OFSTED standards. 

This follows a new strategy for improvement prepared by KCC last year, and I have now measured the change by comparing OFSTED Reports recorded since September with those of previous years. For the three years until July 2012, there were 278 OFSTED Reports for Kent primary schools, of which just 41% were ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’, the majority being ‘Satisfactory’ or ‘Inadequate’ (making up the four possible grades), with an unacceptable 36 schools failing their inspection. Contrast this with the more recent performance by 51 schools, achieving 63% ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’, an improvement of over half again on the previous figure. You will find a record of every Kent primary school OFSTED for the past four years here, with Medway here, along with further information on some schools.  

This would have been even better were it not for the continuing dire performance of Maidstone’s primary schools, which have a record of being the worst performing district since I started keeping records,......

(UPDATED: 12 September)

Kent on Sunday published an abbreviated version of a prepared article last Sunday,  on KCC's handing over of low performing primary schools to academy trusts; the full article being reproduced here.

What follows is an update and amplification of that article, carried out as time permits.

Kent County Council is quietly resolving the problem of low performing primary schools by handing them over to sponsors, mainly large academy trusts, in a dramatic change to the face of Kent education. Interestingly, in Kent on Sunday this week, in a comment on this article, a spokeswoman for KCC is reported as saying "school governors, through discussion with the Department for Education and KCC, make their own decisions to become an academy". Rubbish, as many governing bodies can testify. Government has made clear that low performing schools are required to become academies (no freedom for governor choice there, as made public by the case of Downhills Primary in London and many others); governors report that KCC has put pressure on them to convert; some headteachers who have resisted conversion have "left" their schools; some governing bodies have been removed - in any case conversion sees new governors appointed, sometimes with members who have nothing to do with the local community, usually with a reduction in the number of parent governors, sometimes to as few as one.  All this too often without the knowledge of parents who have no right of consultation over the change. 

A classic example is Dame Janet Community Infant School in Ramsgate, placed in Special Measures by OFSTED in January. A recent follow up OFSTED inspection is highly critical describing progress as inadequate.  KCC ought to have.....

I now have detailed information on Kent and Medway primary school admission offers for September 2012. On the surface, all looks well with a healthy 95% of children in Kent being offered one of their three choices, similar to last year. However, with rising rolls the number of children being allocated a school they hadn’t chosen has risen from 564 to 818 in two years, a worrying rise of 45%.

You will find more general information in a separate article below.  I have started to provide more detailed information on difficult areas, via the links below. 

Analysis of the figures shows a sharp contrast between most of West Kent and most of East Kent and between urban and rural areas. Maidstone town is the most difficult area, with over 100 children allocated to schools they did not apply for (you will find an earlier article on part of the problem here) and NO places free in any school in the town. Other problem areas include:........

  * Oasis Skinner Street, see article here.

    Hempstead Junior**  See articles here,

 * Oasis Skinner Street, see article here.

**Byron, see article here.

*** Twydall, most recent article here. 

**** Temple Mill, most recent mention here.

  You will find my views on Medway Council's oversight of its primary schools and their poor performance at OFSTED here. 

Sherwin Knight Junior School is about to close and be absorbed into the Infant School which is extending its age range. Medway Council was criticised in the latest OFSTED Inspection for not monitoring or challenging the school sufficiently through a period of change. For instance, it has not asked leaders how pupils’ learning is going to be protected while the process of improving teaching takes place (quite important I would have thought).

Saxon Way Primary School, Kingfisher Community Primary School and Lordswood School are all to be taken over by the Griffin Schools Trust as sponsored academies in September 2013. 

All Hallows Primary is becoming an academy as part of the Williamson Trust in September 2013, joining High Halstow and Elaine Primary Academy.  

Twydall Primary School has been the subject of controversy following a proposal for it to become a Sponsored Academy (July 14)

Pre September 2012 Reports

Admission Comments for September 2012 entry (Written March 2012)

The general Medway picture on Infant Class admissions for the last three years is as follows.

The number of Medway children offered a place at a non-Medway school is 73, with 42 non-Medway children offered places in Medway primary schools, all of these were a preference expressed by the parent/carer. Most of these will have been in the Walderslade area, where the county boundary crosses the M2.

The percentage of Medway reception aged children being offered one of their four named schools is 97.0% slightly down from 97.4% last year. These figures will always be higher than those of Kent, who only allow parents to name three schools. However, the number who were not offered their first choice has risen significantly from 7.3% in 2010, to 8.2% in 2011, to 11.1% this year. This year's increase will be down to the 5% rise in pupil numbers for 2012 Year R.

Pupil rolls at Year R in Medway have been falling for many years, bottoming out in 2011, and figures are reported to show increases each year from now on for the next three years (all years that children have been born and can be counted). In 2010, Ridge View Primary School in Chatham  was controversially closed and many parents have expressed unhappiness at the lack of provision this year, as revealed by the fall in proportion of first choices offered. As a result of the closure, the number of places has fallen by 60 to 3336, whilst the Medway Reception age group has risen by 154 children, an effective reduction in 217 places.

This still leaves just 3% of Medway children being allocated a school not of their choice,  33 of the 90 concerned being in Chatham, to Luton Infants School, the only school in Chatham left with any vacancies, and where the key pressure can be seen . This suggests that the closure of Ridge View was a mistake, with St John's Infants, which also came close to being closed, being full. No other school in Medway received more than 7 allocations. What is clear from the parental preferences  is their quite understandable wish to avoid their children attending the 30% of Medway primary schools that are, or have been, failed by OFSTED.

Most oversubscribed school was Balfour Infants, with 41 first choices turned away, followed by All Saints CofE Primary with 34, then: Fairview Community Primary; The Pilgrim; Miers Court Primary; and Twydall Primary, all with more than 15 first choices rejected.

The Hoo Peninsula primary schools have the highest vacancy rate between them, with 18% of places empty, compared with 3% in Chatham and 9% overall across Medway. Four schools, all with a Satisfactory OFSTED are at least half empty.

 All data on this page is provided by Kent County or Medway Council, often under the Freedom of Information Act 

Admission September 2020 Statistics 

 You will find more detail on initial applications for Kent and Medway here.  

Admission September 2018 Statistics

 This table is for appeal Panels organised by KCC. A small number of primary appeals are managed by other organisations. Commentary here. You will find further information here.

 Admission September 2015 Statistics

You will find more detail on initial applications for Kent and Medway here. 

Further Information on Oversubscription and Vacancies for Kent here. 

*Note: this entry is given as third preference on the Medway statement, with no fourth preference provided, but given the size of the figures, I suspect my interpretation is correct.

 Further Information on Oversubscription and Vacancies for Medway here. 

Further details here.

This table is for appeal Panels organised by KCC. A small number of primary appeals are managed by other organisations. Commentary here. You will find further information here.

I did not collect the 2015 figures for Medway Appeals, but you will find the 2013 data here.

Kent Reception Year Admissions 2013

I have provided commentary to these statistics here. 

IKent and Medway Primary School Appeals 2013. 

I now have details of KCC primary admission data for 2011 entry as below

Early thoughts: These are very disappointing results given that KCC itself warned of pressures on Kent Primary places in 2011. In fact the percentage of children not offered one of their choices and hence have been allocated places by KCC has increased steadily from 1.6% in 2006 to the 4.7% of this year, a 25% increase in the past year.  This is not because parents  are chasing the very popular schools, but overwhelmingly because parents want a reasonable school in their own area. The increase in numbers of 1,329 (which conceals an increase of well over 100 out of county applicants not offered places) was entirely predictable two years ago, yet KCC has had to put in 345 temporary (emergency) places since January. Where is the planning? Biggest problem is likely to be once again in Gravesham and other parts of West and North West Kent, as I warned last summer in Kent on Sunday and Gravesend Reporter.   See below for further information on primary admissions.

For Medway the infant class position is much more positive given the continued fall in numbers. However, their statistics differ slightly from the Kent method of analysis. Also the 2010 system of admission was not coordinated with other Local Authorities and so is not directly comparable.

44 out of Medway children (nearly all Kent) were offered places in Medway Primary Schools and 63 Medway children were offered places outside Medway (nearly all Kent).

2010 Statistics

Infant class allocations for entry in September 2010 or January 2011 were made in March. The pattern countywide is almost identical to 2009, with 96% of all children being offered a school on there form and 88% being offered their first choice. although of course there may be regional variations.

Kent Primary School Appeals for entry in September 2010 or January 2011

Some Reception class appeals are not subject to Infant Class Appeals where the Planned Admission Number does not easily allow classes of 30 to be formed. 15, 20, 45 PANs are all used for split age classes to be put together, comprising 30 children.

Updated December 2020

 Infant Class Legislation means that success rates are very low (see figures below), and as explained in my most recent appeal survey for 2020 Appeal outcomes.  I am afraid I no longer give individual advice.

For all problems, first piece of advice is don't panic. If you are going to appeal it is better to reflect what you are going to write in your appeal statement rather than dash something off in the hope it will be looked at early, or you will get priority in an appeal because you got in first. You won't. If you have been given none of your choices and have been allocated a school that does not make any sense, it may be worthwhile contacting KCC admissions to see if there  is a better alternative that has vacancies. This will not include one of your choices as these will all be full.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

• First piece of advice on Primary School appeals is – don’t panic. You will not get an earlier appeal or a better hearing by sending in your case early. If you are not ready, make sure you record your appeal by the closing date, using such words as “I am appealing for….... I will send in my detailed case when it is ready”. This enables you to take advice or plan your appeal without additional pressure (it is already stressful enough!). Following several queries on this - the rule is: "Parents should also be informed that there is no statutory time limit for submitting information about their appeal".

• Appeals for places at primary school are very difficult because of a government ruling that no infant class should have more than 30 pupils. Whilst I no longer prepare appeals one of my clients in the recent past won an appeal for his son to an infant class in a catholic primary school. His twin sister had already been offered a place initially. Another won a place after fraud by another parent was demonstrated. A third won a case after we demonstrated doubt over the distance measurement. Another was taken to the Local Government Ombudsman where we secured a place after demonstrating that the Local Authority had made mistakes in applying the oversubscription criteria. Another won a place after we demonstrated that the Admission Criteria were unfair.

• Of the  243 appeals for Reception Classes for entry to Kent Primary Schools for September 2020, where Infant Class Legislation Applied,  just one was successful where there were class sizes of 30 children or a multiple of this, 15 or 20 in the Planned Admission Number. Another 11 places were won on appeal out of 18, where the Planned Admission Number is not a multiple of 30, with five out of eight successes into Junior Schools. . Remember, if you wish to appeal, all you need to do initially is to use a form of words similar to "I am appealing for a  place for my child.... in the Reception Class at ..... School. A more detailed letter will follow", and then submit your detailed case later.

• I am sorry to be so negative, but Infant Class Legislation is very tough. Parents often ask me what the point of an appeal is in such circumstances; quite simply it is your legal right. Sadly, for nearly all of the 457 Kent children who were offered none of their choices in  2020, your only chance is through the waiting list process. Schools should be in a position to advise you of this at the appropriate time; also of the distance from the school to the home of the furthest child accepted the previous year and the distance from the school to your own home, to enable you to understand your chances.