I don’t know the details of plans for all the successful schools, although I have prepared a separate article looking at the astonishing turn around for The Rochester Grammar. You will, however, find a list of their names here, along with some examples of the incentives offered.

Targets will be set, although it is difficult to see what sanctions can be applied if schools fail to meet these as the new buildings will then be in place. I have not looked across the country to see if there are any patterns in the successful schools, but the contrasts between Kent and Medway are quite stark.

You will find a full list of applicants here. Those in Kent are: Cranbrook; Highworth; Skinners; Tunbridge Wells Boys; Wilmington Boys and Girls; together with Rochester and Rainham Mark in Medway. I have looked at most of these possibilities and rationale in several previous articles, most recently here. Each of these schools is under pressure to expand. 

The 24 grammar schools offering some form of social mobility encouragement encompass a variety of plans. These include 12 who offer a blanket PP priority such as Dartford Girls’, together with Borden  and Queen Elizabeth’s both offering FSM priority, but in slightly different ways, and Weald of Kent that offers a maximum of 18 PP places. A further seven offer priority to PP or FSM children living in a priority area defined by the school for its general admissions, such as Maidstone Grammar which sub-divides its priority area into two, one for high scorers (when all would get in) and one for other boys (who should also all get in). Tunbridge Wells Boys places PP pupils in each of its two priority areas and also outside these at the top of the category. 

The other three are super-selective schools, all offering a set number of places to the highest achieving pupils on PP or FSM, such as Judd School with 5 places on offer to the five highest scoring FSM boys.

Just seven grammar schools offer no priorities: Dane Court; Dartford; Folkestone School for Girls; Harvey (these last two Folkestone schools, however each offer a large number of places to passing through the alternative Shepway Test with both having amongst the highest proportion of Ever 6 FSM pupils in the grammar school sector in Kent); Mayfield (also admitting extra pupils through the Mayfield Test), proposing FSM priority for 2020-21; Norton Knatchbull; and Simon Langton Boys. 

The six schools with the highest  percentage of Ever 6 FSM comprise all the East Kent grammars apart from Sir Roger Manwoods. The four Folkestone & Dover Schools all operate alternative local tests which should explain the high figures. All serve areas of high social deprivation, especially the two Thanet schools. The six schools with the lowest percentage are all in West Kent. Three are super-selective. Five of the West Kent grammars have recently changed their oversubscription criteria to give some priority to Pupil Premium children, so one would expect to see these percentages increase over the next few years. 

 The six schools with the highest  percentage of Ever 6 FSM comprise all the East Kent grammars apart from Sir Roger Manwoods. The four Folkestone & Dover Schools all operate alternative local tests which should explain the high figures. All serve areas of high social deprivation, especially the two Thanet schools. The six schools with the lowest percentage are all in West Kent. Three are super-selective. Five of the West Kent grammars have recently changed their oversubscription criteria to give some priority to Pupil Premium children, so one would expect to see these percentages increase over the next few years.

The national percentage is 29.1%. It is totally unsurprising that the grammar school average of approximately 10%  is much lower, as the average proportion of Ever 6 FSM children achieving higher KS2 results is lower than for the general population, and so the two are not comparable. Please note that this does not discount the demonstrable fact that too many able PP children do not achieve their full potential, and so are not selected for grammar school. This is what the KCC policy and the actions of many grammar schools are about. What is needed is an incentive, or a pressure to get the remainder to follow suit along with creating a positive attitude in all primary schools, rather than this bribe which will do nothing for the majority of grammars not  involved in the scheme. 

So where do these decisions leave Kent, with increases in its population creating serious pressure points, as it tries to provide 25% coverage of grammar school places across the county? It also has to manage the additional pressure of out of county children seeking Kent grammar places with no control of academy provision.  I have written about these issues several times before, with regard to grammar school expansion here, and looking at pressure on places here. Yes, the number of grammar school places has increased with self-funding, money from KCC (often in return for PP policies) or from government under different financial headings. However, current schools cannot expand indefinitely, some with restricted space cannot expand at all (for example the two Wilmingtons'). Unless government policy changes to allow new schools, KCC will be unable to offer places to all Kent children found suitable for grammar school. This scheme does not address this serious issue. 

The only Medway grammar school offering relevant admission priority is Rainham Mark Grammar School, which offers places to grammar qualified children on FSM, irrespective of place of residence, although most other places at this oversubscribed school go to boys and girls living nearest. This follows a recent complete change from priority for high scorers irrespective of residence. Like the Kent schools, Rainham Mark appears to have been penalised for its success, having introduced the proposed RGS scheme two years too early. 

It is no surprise that of the two TSAT schools, Holcombe appears to be trying to lose its basis for prioritising local boys by restricting numbers, falsely claiming at appeals that the pass standard is much higher, and twice failing in its attempts to turn the school co-educational, the issues at RGS being explored below. The new criteria now being introduced contain no plans to prioritise Pupil Premium boys. 

The proposed criteria will see extra girls drawn from within Medway, which will inevitably hit Chatham Grammar School for Girls (see below) with possible dire consequences. Is this really what the scheme is about?

The school has considerable potential under its new management to rebuild its reputation as a good school serving its local community. Now it appears that government wants to undermine that future and close the school. Surely that is quite the opposite of what this scheme is about. However, Chatham Girls does have a 'Get out of Jail Free' card, in that it it is also looking to out of Medway girls to make up its numbers, the whole making Brexit look quite simple! 

The Monitoring Inspection reported the school’s own perception of how GCSE performance was going: ‘According to the school’s own information, since the previous inspection, there have been improvements in the progress pupils are making. However, the school has not yet done enough to shore up assessment processes, so they are reliable. The school’s own information indicates that results for the current Year 11 will be better than last year’s GCSE results’. This was written shortly after those same GCSEs were taken. How wrong can you be! Both Progress 8 and Attainment 8 GCSE outcomes fell further on 2017 performance, Progress 8 to become second worst in the county (fourth worst in 2017). Yet still KCC took no effective action in the interests of pupils, to tackle this crisis.

Three Deputy Headteachers are also reported to have left the school since February.

And then there is the GCSE performance! You will find historic data here. 

Eventually KCC appears to have given in and invited Swale Academies Trust to take over provision of school Improvement work, which began as late as 26^th November, less than a month before the end of term. By now, teacher departures which have not been replaced amount to nine vacancies for January, yet another crisis for the school and its children, although SAT is large enough to redeploy staff from other schools in the short term to fill these temporarily.

This situation has all the hallmarks of another school in a downward spiral, similar to those of Chaucer Technology College and Pent Valley Secondary. Both were also the responsibility of KCC who failed to spot their decline, and both now closed and are being replaced by new schools. Coincidentally, SAT was brought in to try and save but, but in effect deliver the last rites on the two schools.

However, this is unlikely to happen for Holmesdale, as it is part of the Private Finance Initiative, and so would incur massive costs amidst legal issues, see below.

Back in 2013, I published an article explaining the problems of PFI schools becoming academies, in that they left KCC holding the enormous long term debt incurred by their creation without any oversight of the institution. The figures quoted by Shepway Vox are eye-watering, with £200 million paid to the contractors for Kent’s 11 PFI school between 2010 and 2018 (more previously), and at least £400 million still owing. There will also be considerable issues with premises ownership, which lie with the PFI contractor, who will have no educational interest in resolving difficulties, instead being driven by profit and security of their investment. My article was precipitated by KCC allowing what is now Ebbsfleet Academy to academise without a fuss. I had been lobbying extensively for some time time, seemingly alone, with KCC finally accepting my view and refusing to allow any of the others to become academies in a stand-off that still exists.

So, when Swale Academies Trust, upon taking control of The North School, Ashford stated in 2016 that it would become an academy, it is no surprise that no progress appears to have been made. Now, it has lost a government grant for £80,000 for converting a failing school to an academy, as The North has a Good Ofsted Report. The same article in Schoolsweek, in September this year, quotes KCC as saying:’ Kent council said the PFI contracts at both schools predated academy legislation and “do not lend themselves to the conversion process”, adding the issues potentially left the council facing an “unacceptable and significant risk”’. Similarly, when Holmesdale submitted an application in 2011 at a time when it was a highly successful school, this made no progress.

The new twist now is that Holmesdale is under an Academy Order, so government requires it to academise (as presumably The North did in its turn), but without legal and financial assurances to KCC and presumably the offshore finance company that owns the premises, it is difficult to visualise the next step.

 It will certainly bring in new staff to strengthen current provision, but faces a difficult time with low school numbers leading to a difficult financial situation. The PFI situation will ensure the school remains open (as distinct from Chaucer and Pent Valley) so in one sense the only way is up.

At the very least, the last eleven months of indecision and failure to protect the education of the pupils currently at the school, should come to an end. 

In any case, Kent County Council needs to analyse why its School Improvement service has failed so badly in this case. 

Although the commendation refers to my previous paid and voluntary work supporting admission appeals for children to all types of school, it highlights the section on this website that refers to the provision of information, advice, news and comment freely given, but subsidised to a small extent by advertising. You will find here over 200 pages of information and advice for parents on many aspects of education in Kent and Medway, although also followed by many professionals both locally and nationally.  Over the past 15 years I have undertaken, and in many cases been successful, in campaigns about injustices of various types, several reaching a national audience. 

Talking with the editor of 'Index' after publication, she referred to my very real independence. I do value this highly as will be confirmed by the many in authority I have challenged over the years. I believe I have always acted in and been driven by the interests of young people of Kent and Medway, but make no claim to represent anyone, being solely responsible for any views expressed. 

I am privileged to be in such company.

You will find initial figures released by KCC below, mainly taken from the official press release, together with further information and ways I can support you. I find that the information articles on this website (right hand side of this article and every page of the website), with links below, answer the majority of questions I receive. 

Although KCC cannot guarantee every Kent child who has passed, a place in a Kent grammar school (and not necessarily of their choice), there were no reported cases in recent years of grammar qualified Kent children not getting in who were looking for a place, although some have had to go to appeal. Further thoughts below. 

Some 350 additional children are eligible for a single grammar school through success in the Dover, Shepway, Mayfield (Gravesend Girls) or Highsted (Sittingbourne Girls) Tests.

Notes: (1) I don't yet have data for boys and girls differentiated for this year, but will include this as soon as it is available

        (2)  'Other' includes children who are home educated. 

        (3) Some totals do not add up, as late adjustments were made. 

Please Note that this article has been produced to meet the Thursday 4 p.m. deadline and is likely to be revised at my leisure, if I have any over the next three weeks!

If you wish to contact me please read the information at the foot of the page and use the Contact Me Form together with all the information I request. If it is a simple question I will attempt to respond to it directly. 

For information you will find Oversubscription and vacancies in Kent Grammar schools on allocation for Admission September 2019 provides considerable information on pressure of places, as does the series of pages on Individual Kent Secondary Schools, which also contain additional information on each school, including take up of places. I am afraid I am behind in updating some of these pages (look at update date in top left hand corner), so if you would like more up recent information, please let me know. You will also find additional data on OFSTED Ratings, Examination Performance, and Appeal Statistics together with other important news, comment and information here. Also try entering the name of the school you are interested in in the Website Search engine: this may provide other news, comment and information articles about that school over recent years.

I will shortly publish an article on school appeals statistics for schools for entry in September 2018. You will find last year's article here, with a link to further outcomes. In the meantime you may wish to consult the relevant information pages for Kent Grammar School Appeals or Oversubscription Appeals the latter for both non-selective and grammar schools, or the Individual Schools section.  

For those obsessed with individual Kent Test scores for other children, there is a breakdown of the 2017 figures here. This is unlikely to be repeated for 2018, as KCC have now correctly applied the Freedom of Information Act and such individual scores are no longer available. This information will also rightly be no longer be available for individual FOI requests for detailed information relating to scores, as these can enable individual children’s performances  to be identified.  You will find a previous article which fully explains the issue, here. 

I suspect the overwhelming majority of the others will have had other preferences met, including the M25 tourists, whose poor children take grammar school tests all around the ring.

'Pressure Points

I anticipate as with last year, the proportion of Kent girls being found suitable for grammar school will be slightly higher than that for boys, last year 26.6% girls to 24.3% boys, but in both cases all Kent children should be allocated a grammar school place eventually, not necessarily of their choice.

The main pressure areas are West and North West Kent and Whitstable/Herne Bay. In West Kent all Kent girls should get a grammar school place in the District, not always the one of their choice. The boys’ situation has eased considerably with additional places being put into all three schools and the two super-selectives, Judd and Skinners, now both giving priority for most of their places to local boys. There is always a shakedown in West Kent and some boys may need to go to appeal as in previous years, but in past years, all have been successful at one of the schools, to the best of my knowledge.

North West Kent continues to have the greatest pressure, caused by enormous numbers applying from London Boroughs, Dartford Grammar turning away 313 grammar qualified first choices last year (and rising year on year) and, along with the girls rejecting local applicants whose pass scores were not high enough (disgracefully and contrary to promises made to the Schools Adjudicator when he approved their new arrangements). However, the two Wilmington Grammars now give priority mainly to Kent children and although they have increased greatly in popularity should pick up all local children who have qualified and choose them, as the number of out of county siblings continues to fall. Last year there was a specific problem for boys in the Longfield, New Ash Green area, but in the end all who wished secured places at Gravesend Grammar

Whitstable/Herne Bay remains difficult for boys, with no local grammar school and extensive building development in the area, some having to settle for a grammar school in Thanet. Whilst some boys will find places in Canterbury, there is not a problem in capacity for girls in the city.

 In other areas the situation can be fluid, and the 5215 places will certainly expand further,  with temporary increases as schools measure demand and capacity.

There will always be horror stories about pressure on grammar school places -they make good media copy, especially with proposals to expand grammar school places (but expansion has been happening for years without legislation and will no doubt continue). The reality is that eight of the 32 Kent grammar schools had vacancies last March on allocation for the second year running, spread across the county apart from the West and NW. 

I have previously published another article explaining the issues at Holmesdale, which was itself highly critical of KCC’s failure to take positive steps, but this cache of emails takes the concerns to a new level, alleging serious failings by senior officers from both KCC and 'The Education People', Kent's privatised School Support Service. One can argue the details of the issues, but what is not in doubt is that the children at Holmesdale have been failed by the school for years, and KCC appears to have chosen to hinder, not help, the school’s recovery.

For much of the past year Holmesdale has been provided with inadequate school Support from The Education People (TEP), Kent’s In House commercial company set up to sell educational services to schools, which boasts on its website of its 'exceptional quality' for Secondary School Improvement  The section below demolishes this claim. 'Moral Purpose'?

This is a lengthy and quite technical article, but it raises serious issues about how KCC managed its responsibility for the children of Holmesdale School. The damage to their life chances should not simply be swept under the table. 

Whilst the emails, 46 in number, are in the public domain, by virtue of their being released to me under an FOI request, I am choosing not to publish them in full here, as I think it both unhelpful to identify the individuals named in them, and also important to focus on the key issues. However, I do quote excerpts from several of the messages below. What is clear from these emails is that there is ample evidence to support the allegations. 

The allegations in paragraph two above were sent by SAT to the KCC Corporate Director of Education on 12^th December but, at the time of writing, the Authority has not acknowledged the complaints.

According to the email trail, the most recent problems began in June when SAT was awarded the sponsorship of Holmesdale under an Academy Order, as and when it became an academy. At that point, SAT understandably wanted to take over the direction of the school which had not moved on under the school support provided by Brook Learning Trust, according to the two Ofsted Inspection Reports. Instead, KCC came up with a contractual framework for anyone taking over responsibility for School Improvement. SAT found this framework inadequate for reasons spelled out in the enclosed email dated 28^th June. These reasons appear entirely justified and, in my view, when taken along with other evidence show that KCC appears out of its depth in such a situation. A very lengthy follow up email, dated 20^th July is also highly critical of KCC.  One puzzle is how a representative of The Education People was able to speak several times on behalf of KCC against SAT, given that the two are supposed to be separate entities.There could also be a conflict of interest, as TEP was not only deployed after SAT failed to get the contract it tried to keep them away from taking on responsibility. 

SAT:Over the past six weeks it has felt like the most important thing for (KCC) has been to keep SAT away from Holmesdale at any cost and be content to see the school struggle as collateral damage in this endeavour. Whilst that on the surface might appear somewhat of a dramatic representation, the facts of the matter are that the school has failed its first monitoring visit and had zero support for the past six weeks despite repeated offers from SAT as the sponsor to begin active support. If this is in fact solely down to the process that Kent must follow for the commissioning of any services from a third party I offer the view that the process is not fit for purpose.

Eventually in late September, SAT learned its bid to provide School Improvement to Holmesdale had been unsuccessful, although none of the alternative bidders for the contract (unspecified, if there were any) were appointed either, leaving the school in limbo. Two emails on 17^th September and 20^th September between the Trust and KCC, showed a complete breakdown in relationships, with SAT attempting to push the need for support outside a contract and KCC resenting the fact and the manner of this pressure.

Then in October, KCC suddenly reversed its decision and awarded SAT the School Improvement contract subject to it being signed. Further disagreements followed, with SAT wishing to appoint an Executive Head to oversee the work of the school, the Interim Executive Board for the school endorsing this decision, but KCC vetoing it.   

 On 2^nd November, SAT refused to sign the contract as:This is because of clauses in the contract specification which state that teaching will be "trending towards outstanding and securely good" after 12 months. In addition there is the same requirement for personal development and for leadership but that the trending towards outstanding and securely good is after 6 months. It is worth remembering that Holmesdale is in Special Measures. Talk of outstanding in the contract and measuring how we perform against Ofsted outstanding criteria after 12 or 6 months is not remotely realistic. We will not sign on that basis, for the key reason being that payment relies upon this unrealistic benchmark being achieved. Further to this, (TEP) has told the IEB today that they think the contract we have been given to look at is the wrong one and has now been superseded. Given that the school had been allowed to decline further over the previous eight months, SAT’s objections were entirely reasonable. To have provided the wrong contract after such protracted negotiations is surely just incompetent!

The correct contract was eventually signed and SAT became School Improvement Partner to Holmesdale on 26^th November but, with the resignation of the headteacher, the following exchange took place on 3^rd December:

SAT: Following the news today that Tina Bissett has resigned as Headteacher at Holmesdale, I am writing to ask for authority from KCC for SAT to appoint a new substantive HT from 1st January  2019.  The Trust is hoping to have a conversation with a successor tomorrow, and as it will be in everyone's interests to have a suitably qualified and experienced Headteacher in place with minimal disruption of continuity I would be very grateful if you can confirm that we can go ahead and appoint.

KCC: We can discuss the future plans for Holmesdale in our meeting next week. Please be advised that it is not for the Trust to appoint a new headteacher. We would welcome a discussion with suggestions / proposals on how the school can operate in Tina's absence moving forward, or at least for the interim period between now and April. I understand that Seamus is there for a significant amount of time and has already identified to the staff that he is now, in effect, in charge. So SAT was able to respond rapidly for a school in crisis (see next section), and no headteacher, whilst KCC is happy to leave it until April.

At present I am unable to announce that a suitably experienced Head will be in situ, despite this being agreed by the IEB unanimously because you will not approve her appointment. Without Nicki the school does not have a Head for January and we cannot do our work. This is manifestly not in the school's interests. Before the proverbial hits the fan in around 4 hours time could you please confirm Nicki's appointment in order that we can all move on.

KCC, 16.14: Given that the IEB chose to support your wishes and therefore rejected our advice to postpone the parents' meeting until the new year (which would have given a little more time to sort all of this out) the short answer to your email is that clearly it has to go ahead. With the agreement you have secured from the IEB (acting as employer) the parents can be told that the (KCC appointed) IEB has agreed to SAT providing  an Interim Head.  I don't think that there is much more to usefully be said beyond that.

The CEO of Swale Academies Trust submitted a forceful and formal letter of complaint about the actions of KCC senior officers to the Corporate Director of Education for KCC on 12^th December. It contains serious allegations about their conduct which will no doubt need to be investigated. These allegation include those in Paragraph Two of this article. The email begins:

SAT: At the open parents' meeting held at Holmesdale last night there was a great deal of anger over the staffing predicament that the school faces with many teacher vacancies unable to be filled until at least April 2019. These absences will significantly impact upon children's results and life chances going forward. You may be aware that I wrote to (KCC) on October 19th offering to fill these vacancies for January 2019 prior to the resignation window closing on October 30th•  (KCC) did not even have the courtesy to reply.

In summary, KCC sought to block Swale Academies Trust from taking on the School Improvement contract for Holmesdale School over a period of some five months. It failed. KCC sought to block SAT from appointing an Executive Headteacher. It failed. KCC sought to block SAT from appointing an Interim headteacher. It failed.

KCC refused SAT permission to appoint nine teachers from January. SAT has made very late temporary arrangements to try and meet the needs.

It is widely accepted that Swale Academies Trust is a difficult organisation to negotiate with, but throughout it has stressed the importance of improving standards for the benefit of the pupils. KCC has consistently opposed SATs involvement in Holmesdale School,  mainly by citing procedural issues that do not appear to have restricted action in other parallel situations. Each of these have been overcome. Nowhere in the KCC documentation is there any reference to the pupils of the school or their welfare of education. However, KCC is concerned about an email that ‘makes reference to your negative perception regarding the competence of the Local Authority, which you make no attempt to disguise either publicly or to my colleagues’. I leave it to readers to judge if this is unfair.

It makes claims on its website about its support for secondary schools: The support we provide to schools and colleges is of exceptional quality such that, in Kent, 92% of establishments are now rated good or outstanding by Ofsted.This is false, and the Kent secondary school improvement record is far from exceptional as shown below; arguably it is inadequate. 

Of the 97 Kent secondary schools which have been inspected, the latest Ofsted for just 87% are good or outstanding, not 92% as claimed. The latter figure is only partially achieved by omitting  the four RI or Inadequate schools under county control that have subsequently been academised and not yet re-inspected (Castle Community (now Goodwin Academy), Charles Dickens,  St Edmund's Catholic School & Swadelands (now Lenham School)).  The Education People cannot in any case claim to provide support for all of  Kent's schools in this way, as academies are under no obligation to take up their services including, for example, the nine Ofsted ‘Good’ schools of the Swale and Leigh Academies Trusts and many of the grammar schools. Of the 65 non-selective Kent schools, the 50 academies provide 84% good or outstanding. However, a third of the 15 county schools mainly supported by the Education People and previously by KCC do not reach this standard, with four having an inadequate latest Report: Charles Dickens, Swadelands, Holmesdale, and Royal Harbour. The first two have now been taken over as academies. Further, two of the ten Good county schools, North and Whitstable have only improved to this standard after having been taken over by Swale Academies Trust using its own school Improvement section. Further, two other county schools, Chaucer and Pent Valley, have closed after failure in the past four years.

None of this amounts to a record of success, let alone one of  ‘exceptional quality’.

In summary 

  Note: two new Kent schools have not yet had an Ofsted Inspection. 

It is not for me to comment on the content, but observe that it is entirely proper for KCC to consider possible negative effects and warn schools to prepare for them, given our position between Calais and the rest of the UK. 

Turner Schools rejected it on the grounds that they were going to publish this information at some future date. They are the only Public Authority I know that refuses to conduct an Internal Review which is ‘all but’ required by regulations. Accordingly, I took the next step and complained to the ICO. Today (22 January)  I received a full response following the ICO intervention, including a line ‘We have also now published census information on our website’. In no way is this relevant to the claim that the information I requested would be published.

You will find at the bottom of the Finance Page of the website the following:

 For Reference: the corresponding 2017-18 numbers form the October 2017 Census

Note: Martello Primary's numbers have increased as it now has an additional full year group. 

Of course this is neither census information nor has it any direct bearing on my request. Further it is for January 2019, and  I requested information for October 2018. I can find no other reference to the material I was asking.  

The Trust's aim is to lay the foundation for students to fulfil their potential and be citizens that the community can be proud of. The main objectives are as follows:

• To provide schools which are places where children thrive and knowledge matters;
• To operate according to the HEART values, having high expectations, enthusiasm in our approach, an academic subject-based curriculum, enabling reading for all, powered by team work;
• To have high expectations which will be reflected in the targets set for staff and students alike so that children reach their potential working towards and, where and when appropriate, exceeding national expectations;
• Harness the energies of students, staff, parents and the community to establish a genuine partnership for the benefit of all;
• Provide opportunities for the spiritual, moral, social and cultural as well as physical development of students;
• Ensure the effectiveness of all staff is maintained through continuous professional development as well as statutory performance management;
• To recruit and develop new staff who are similarly committed to eradicating educational under-performance;
• To overcome the effects of coastal isolation through sharing practice with high performing schools elsewhere and applying the lessons of high performing jurisdictions;
• To contribute to regeneration through education.

Please note that, as last year, these Provisional results are issued now to inform parents making secondary school choices. For the 2017 results, a number of schools' results were amended as students in certain categories were removed from the data. Few of these changes made a significant difference, so the current guidance is pretty reliable if it is one of your criteria for choice.  

Both Progress 8 and Attainment 8 are measured by an arcane formula combining results in eight curriculum subjects to produce numbers whose meaning and spread is very difficult to comprehend, but enable schools to be placed in an order. They  are measured across eight subjects, English maths, 3 qualifications from sciences, computer science, history, geography and languages, and 3 other additional approved qualifications.  for Progress 8 there is a target national average score of 0, with the great majority of schools being between +1 and -1. The government Floor Standard, or expectation is to be above -0.5, in which case “the school may come under increased scrutiny and receive additional support”. and 16 Kent secondary schools fail to meet this.There are further details of the outcomes below.  

At the foot of the table are sixteen non-selectives who are below the government floor standard and must all be concerned at their performance which will itself hinder future recruitment of the quality staff and leaders needed to improve matters. This is a sharp increase on the 2017 figure of six schools and may suggest an increasing polarisation of non-selective schools in the county as those at the top perform better than ever. Four schools have been here for all three years of the new scheme: Astor College; Hartsdown; Royal Harbour; and Holmesdale. the first three of these, along with Oasis Academy, Isle of Sheppey and Folkestone Academy, also occupying places at the foot of the Attainment table. A total of ten out of the 16 schools are situated on the coast. Oasis and Folkestone are powerful examples of how poor leadership can destroy young people's future prospects, both featuring in previous articles in this website, and both having had a rapid turn over of headteachers. I have branded Oasis Academy and Hartsdown, both serving areas of high social deprivation,  as 'Tough Love Academies'  using unreasonably harsh disciplinary methods for minor offences guaranteed to alienate pupils who above all need support. The most recent example of poor leadership has seen Folkestone Academy plunge into this group of struggling schools  as the high profile Turner Schools trust thrashes around trying unproven methods to educate children, hoping to cover up their failures with extravagant PR claims. 

Astor College in Dover has been at the foot of the tables for years, having receiving two  Warnings  about unacceptable standards from the Department for Education, most recently  in 2015. Dover Christ Church Academy is also in both lists, St Edmund's Catholic the third Dover school, being just above the cut off. The Dover Test for for grammar school entrance sees over 150 children annually who have not passed the Kent Test taken out of the system, which will inevitably be a factor in this low performance across the district. 

Leigh UTC also appears in both lists, down on both from 2017. Whilst its position as fourth lowest in the county for Progress 8 is significant, it should be borne in mind that there were only 36 pupils in Year 11. Medway UTC the only other local University Technical College came bottom in Medway by some way in Progress 8. 

Of the other schools at the foot of the table, Malling School is of particular interest. Five years ago, with the recent GCSE cohort it was another school of last resort for admission, but has been turned round by strong leadership, and is now heavily oversubscribed. It also carries the largest and most popular SEN Unit for children with EHCPs (the successors to SEN statements) in the county, whose results are included in the tables. It won't be there next year. Other schools at the bottom of both lists are Marsh Academy and High Weald Academy. 

 Spires Academy which struggled since long before it became an academy, having no strong catchment in the small community of Sturry, near Canterbury, had a disastrous period being run by the previous Headteacher of controversial Simon Langton Girls Grammar, but  is now part of the E21C (Education for the 21st Century) Academy Trust in Bromley. It is one of a number of schools which have been turned round with a strong improvement and is now in the middle of the table.

Note: To assist those looking for information on secondary school transfer, you will find the parallel  article on Medway GCSE outcomes here. I have also published 2018 school appeals. You will find items on the Kent Test and Medway Test, previously published. 

This is the third year of the new GCSE assessments for measuring schools performance, Progress 8 and Attainment 8, which replaced the long established 5 A*-C GCSE league table including English and maths. 

Both key measures have had their methodology changed to suit government priorities and the new GCSE grading system As a result, numbers are not directly comparable to last year, but appear to be of a very similar nature.

Both Progress 8 and Attainment 8 are measured by an arcane formula combining results in eight curriculum subjects to produce numbers whose meaning and spread is very difficult to comprehend, but enable schools to be placed in an order. They  are measured across eight subjects, English maths, 3 qualifications from sciences, computer science, history, geography and languages, and 3 other additional approved qualifications.  for Progress 8 there is a target national average score of 0, with the great majority of schools being between +1 and -1. The government Floor Standard, or expectation is to be above -0.5, in which case “the school may come under increased scrutiny and receive additional support”. and 15 Kent secondary schools fail to meet this.There are further details of the outcomes below.  

At the foot of the table are 15 non-selectives which are below the government floor standard and must all be concerned at their performance which will itself hinder future recruitment of the quality staff and leaders needed to improve matters. This is a sharp increase on the 2017 figure of six schools and may suggest an increasing polarisation of non-selective schools in the county as those at the top perform better than ever. Four schools have been here for all three years of the new scheme: Astor College; Hartsdown; Royal Harbour; and Holmesdale. the first three of these, along with Oasis Academy, Isle of Sheppey and Folkestone Academy, also occupying places at the foot of the Attainment table. A total of ten out of the 15 schools are situated on the coast. Oasis and Folkestone are powerful examples of how poor leadership can destroy young people's future prospects, both featuring in previous articles in this website, and both having had a rapid turn over of headteachers. I have branded Oasis Academy and Hartsdown, both serving areas of high social deprivation,  as 'Tough Love Academies'  using unreasonably harsh disciplinary methods for minor offences guaranteed to alienate pupils who above all need support. The most recent example of poor leadership has seen Folkestone Academy plunge into this group of struggling schools  as the high profile Turner Schools trust thrashes around trying unproven methods to educate children, hoping to cover up their failures with extravagant PR claims. 

Astor College in Dover has been at the foot of the tables for years, having receiving two  Warnings  about unacceptable standards from the Department for Education, most recently  in 2015. It avoids  coasting Schools status (below)  by being fractionally above the cut-off in 2016. Dover Christ Church Academy is also in both lists, St Edmund's Catholic the third Dover school, being just above the cut off. The Dover Test for for grammar school entrance sees over 150 children annually who have not passed the Kent Test taken out of the system, which will inevitably be a factor in this low performance across the district. 

Leigh UTC also appears in both lists, down on both from 2017. Whilst its position as fourth lowest in the county for Progress 8 is significant, it should be borne in mind that there were only 36 pupils in Year 11. Medway UTC the only other local University Technical College came bottom in Medway by some way in Progress 8. 

Of the other schools at the foot of the table, Malling School is of particular interest. Five years ago, with the recent GCSE cohort it was another school of last resort for admission, but has been turned round by strong leadership, and is now heavily oversubscribed. It also carries the largest and most popular SEN Unit for children with EHCPs (the successors to SEN statements) in the county, whose results are included in the tables pulling it down the table. It won't be there next year. Other schools at the bottom of both lists are Marsh Academy and High Weald Academy. 

 Spires Academy which struggled since long before it became an academy, having no strong catchment in the small community of Sturry, near Canterbury, had a disastrous period being run by the previous Headteacher of controversial Simon Langton Girls Grammar, but  is now part of the E21C (Education for the 21st Century) Academy Trust in Bromley. It is one of a number of schools which have been turned round with a strong improvement and is now in the middle of the table.

Of those with Good Ofsted Reports,Archbishop's in Canterbury was heavily oversubscribed and successful a few years ago, but appears to have lost its way and no longer fills. Homewood in Tenterden is the largest secondary school in Kent with a good reputation but is clearly underperforming, as are Hugh Christie and Sandwich.

Note: To assist those looking for information on secondary school transfer, I have already published articles on 2018 outcomes for: the Medway Test; Kent GCSE outcomes;  the Kent Test; and 2018  Kent & Medway school appeals. 

This is the third year of the new GCSE assessments for measuring schools performance, Progress 8 and Attainment 8, which replaced the long established 5 A*-C GCSE league table including English and maths. You will find an explanation of both measures in the parallel Kent GCSE article.

Grammar School Progress 8

Chatham Grammar School for Girls' excellent Progress grades at last show major improvement under its new sponsor University of Kent Academy Trust and management by Brompton Academy after years of disappointing outcomes by a variety of measures.

Rochester Grammar continues to head both major tables with its intake dominated by the highest performing girls in the Medway Test. The other Thinking Schools Academy Trust school, Holcombe Grammar, has had a torrid year, bogged down by controversy, which may have taken its eye off the ball being well adrift in both the main measures. Government divides progress outcomes into five groups around a median of 'Average', the large majority of grammar schools across the country exceeding this, arguably because bright pupils have the greater potential to work towards.

  Non Selective Attainment

Rainham Girls put Thomas Aveling into second place.

Victory Academy comes bottom, setting up a double with Holcombe Grammar as its Executive Head oversees both schools.

 *Leigh UTC appears out of  band order, possibly as a function of the small number of candidates,  (13). 

You will find the Progress Grades for every individual Kent school here, and Medway here,  compiled and updated by me as time permits. If you wish me to complete a table please let me know.

The ten schools with Well Below Average Progress performance also include: the three Swale Academies Trust schools – Meopham, Sittingbourne Community, Westlands; the two Brook Learning Trust schools offering A Levels – Hayesbrook and High Weald; and Medway UTC; along with Dane Court Grammar School. 

The phrase ‘home education’ unhelpfully encompasses a wide range of parenting styles – from those who choose to educate their children themselves for social and philosophical reasons and do so perfectly well, to those who choose to keep children out of the school system to avoid the eyes of the authorities or to deny them a secular education; and then those who would love to have their kids in school but cannot find a school to fit their needs. For this group of parents, educating their children at home is not a choice, but a forced response to difficulties fitting in at school. The child who is being bullied. The child struggling to cope with noisy corridors and classrooms; or sometimes with school uniform policies, homework and timetables. The child not receiving the specialist help she needs. These kids can reach crisis point and without additional care from schools or from external agencies such as CAMHS, the children fall through the gaps. It is sometimes schools themselves that put pressure on parents to remove children who don’t ‘fit in’. This practice, known as off-rolling, can amount to informal, illegal exclusion.

I have written about such issues in the past and it is pleasing to see the CCE place much of the blame for enforced EHE on a minority of schools themselves. The CCE records that: New research by my Office, published here, suggests that 1 in 10 schools account for half of the pupil movement. In Kent, the one in ten schools I have identified in my article account for a quarter of EHE, and a lower figure for Children gone Missing completely from Education (CME). She provides ample evidence demonstrating that for some schools, removal of problem children by one route or another is an unofficial policy. The Children’s Commissioner’s Office has spoken to many children and parents who said that they only chose home education because the situation at school had become so desperate – sometimes traumatic for the children involved. It is unacceptable that some schools are washing their hands of children - particularly the most vulnerable - in this way. She also identifies the problem as being greatest in academies. 

Of particular concern are children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND), who comprise 22% of those Home Educated according to one survey. Many of those children are taken out of school by parents unhappy with the school's inability to provide for their children's needs. This can be because the costs of managing the child are too high, or because the school cannot or does not want to deal with problems the child's presence creates, including  poor behaviour typically in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. 

The CCE recommends strongly that: We need to know who these children are, where they are, whether they are safe and if they are getting the education they need to succeed in life. There is a clear case for the Government to introduce a compulsory register for all home-educated children, without delay,although this would prove very controversial for many positive home educators. Whilst those opposed would argue that they are best placed to make decisions for their children without government interference, the greater good has to be for the large majority. Too many of these slip through the net without a proper education at considerable cost to themselves and society. Only with such a register can the guilty schools be identified and pressure put on them to change their ways.

An issue reported to  me several times by Oasis parents is that of off-rolling. From the Report: Some parents report that they opted for home education after the school threatened to exclude their child or fine them for non-attendance, believing that this would help their children by avoiding a formal record of exclusion.

Maidstone Grammar admits boys through the Kent Test but, whereas most Kent grammars have required a pass mark of 320 in recent years (up until 2019 admission), MGS has set a considerably higher requirement to secure a place, being 372 for 2018 entry. The Year group which took GCSE in 2018 had a high proportion of  such boys qualifying. Places unfilled by this cut off were filled by boys with lower pass scores.  

It is clear from the general nature of the Report that this inspection was not carried out as part of their Survey Work. Hence, the Outstanding classification was lost through the justified concerns about performance.

It notes with reference to places for 2018 entry that 'KCC Secondary School forecasts for the Maidstone district indicate a surplus of Year 7 places until 2018-19 when a significant deficit (of 79 places overall) is projected'. Whilst MGS just filled on allocation, Oakwood Park had 41 empty places, so there was hardly an excessive demand, even though Oakwood managed to fill them by dint of offering 68 places on appeal. At the other end, a very high rate of successful appeals across Maidstone’s four grammar schools left Cornwallis and New Line Learning with 156 vacancies between them, a far cry from the KCC forecast of a shortage of 79 places across the district to justify the MGS expansion.

The KCC Report also has a section on ‘Raising Standards -Comments from Maidstone Grammar School’ explaining that the school 'believes academic standards will not be negatively impacted' referring to the 2013 Ofsted Report which ‘found that students make exceptionally good progress in all years and in all subjects from their above average attainment when they enter the school’ and notes that ‘Furthermore, the impressive levels of progress students make through the school, and the outcomes in examinations across a wide range of subjects, mean that students are very well prepared for further study, training or employment beyond school’. Sadly, they appear to have been mistaken, although the £3.58 million (set aside, although I don’t have the final bill), would have been very welcome.

Oddly under the new Principal's Welcome one could never guess the school had changed ownership from a troubled school just a few months ago, as he talks about its heavenly ethos where all is wonderful. It even contains positive quotes from the Ofsted of May 2016, selecting from a generally negative Report about Corelli College, but without acknowledging they are nothing to do with the new incarnation of Halley College or of Leigh Academy Trust. 

With the school being subsequently the second worst GCSE performer in Greenwich in 2017 in both Progress8 and Attainment8 and in financial difficulties, the Regional Schools Commissioner appears to have acted very quickly in re-brokering it, certainly compared for example to SchoolsCompany, Lilac Sky and more recently Future Schools Trust. The school is now overseen by David Millar, Executive Head, who is also responsible for Stationers' Crown Woods Academy which has been with Leigh Academy since 2013. Mr Millar moved suddenly from a short period in his previous post as Principal of the troubled Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey in 2016. 

Update: The comment below from a well informed source highlights the issue. The recent takeover of the Williamson Trust should cause the Trustees of the Sir Joseph Williamson's Charitable Trust to be cautious. Whilst independent of the Academy Trust, it is a wealthy charity and in 2017 donated £244,677 to The Math (and £200 to Rochester Grammar School), surely making it the wealthiest state school in Kent and Medway. There are of course many ways to shift funds around between an Academy Trust's schools!

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

From Private Eye, June 2018

ACADEMY SCHOOLS

Greenwich lean time

The Department for Education repeatedly reassures opponents of academies that school land is not being given away on an enormous scale - yet a rebrokering deal in Greenwich has seen taxpayers shell out £1.5m this year to settle a "disputed interest" in school land.

The former Kidbrooke School became an academy in 2011, changing its name to Corelli College. It was run by Corelli College Co-operative Academy Trust (CCCAT), a standalone academy, with no sponsor. Christine Grice, one of Greenwich's ruling Labour councillors, was a governor of the trust.

Minutes from 2011 show that land and buildings were to be transferred to the school on a 125-year lease at a peppercorn rent and that "safeguards provide for the land to be returned to the local authority if the school is discontinued". The minutes also note that "matters to be resolved" include whether disused tennis courts, a plot of land next to the school entrance and a manager's house should be included in the lease or retained by the council.

Alas, these matters were not resolved. No formal lease was ever signed.

In 2016 Corelli College was given a "requires improvement" rating by Ofsted, and by 2017 it had a significant deficit. In May 2017 the regional schools commissioner brought in Leigh Academy Trust (LAT), a multi-academy trust running 16 other schools, to take over.LAT checked out the school and promptly asked for £500,000 from Greenwich for essential health and safety work. This was agreed in January as a grant "in recognition of ' the retention of land and premises manager's' house", which would definitely be excluded from the lease this time around.

In February, however, another report to the leader of Greenwich council sought agreement to pay LAT a further "£ 1m settlement in respect of a disputed interest in land". According to that report, the school will now get a five-year licence to use the house and land but they are not to be included in the long lease. The report says the house and the plot next to the entrance are valued at £lm for residential purposes (thanks to London housing prices) and that selling the sites is a possibility in future.

"Further negotiations will risk delay to the school receiving permanent leadership and could potentially lead to the school being without a sponsor, both of which could have a detrimental impact on children's learning," said the report.

When Cllr Spencer Drury queried why the land had not just reverted to the council when CCCAT was disbanded, he was told that a change in sponsor was not the same as a school being discontinued (Peter: although Ofsted describes the school as 'closed'). Nevertheless, it seems baffling that Greenwich is paying a trust a £500,000 grant and a £lm settlement over land it wasn't supposed to give away in the first place.

The school has now transferred to Leigh Academy Trust and been re-renamed the Halley Academy.

For the overwhelming majority of candidates who attend Kent schools, the Test is set in their own school, at no additional cost to the Authority.

This article is a continuation of a previous one entitled Kent Test: Out of County Applications looking at the more general issues.

I don’t have any data for the 1063 Medway Test out of county candidates, just 185 of whom were offered places, but it is reasonable to assume it is of the same order.

In my view this is an unfair charge on the home Local Authorities of Kent and Medway, but can see no way in which these costs can be recovered.

In between the two full inspections, there were four interim inspections indicating the high level of concern of the Ofsted regime. An emergency inspection in 2015 notes: ‘Leadership at the school is weak. Leaders have not been able to pull the school community together for the common good of the pupils. Serious and significant divisions between staff have led to difficulties in securing a consistent approach to tackling the management of safeguarding at the school. The ‘family ethos’ of the school has blurred the professional boundaries that are needed to maintain effective working relationships. This causes a culture of mistrust, claim and counter claim; all of which means there is too little focus on the welfare of pupils. The deputy headteacher has left the school and not been replaced. As a result, the only senior leader at the school with appropriate educational experience is the headteacher’. And still those responsible for the school did nothing! What an indictment.

Over the years when I was supporting school admission appeals, I was approached by St Christopher’s parents for assistance a number of times, but only took on one, for I found the too frequent attitude of “my child has been to St Christopher’s; I am entitled to a grammar school place”, intolerable. My previous article contains one anecdote illustrating this, and alleging maladministration of the test; another parent alleging to me that illustrations of answers and methods could be seen in the test room. For the one appeal I did carry through, I was surprised to find the headteacher turn up at the parental home for the consultation. I was dismayed by the confidence he showed that he fully understood the situation, would take charge and prepare a strong letter of support, politely implying that my input was unnecessary, whilst his comments suggested he didn’t know how the system worked or what would be required.

It is therefore no surprise that I described St Christopher’s as a dreadful school in my previous article, and that there appears to have been a loss of confidence by parents the roll having fallen by 20% over the four years between the two Inspections to 85 pupils, precipitating financial difficulties and the closure decision. Presumably, the £9975 annual fees are no longer regard as the investment the school proudly proclaimed (see my previous article).

Although this is a moderately sized junior school in the city, last year Mr Pywell was paid the highest salary of any primary head in the county, his school receiving a Good Ofsted in 2017 and a good record of success at grammar school entrance.

I am struggling to see the justification for a state school to take part in the running of a private school, although presumably there will be a management fee in return. Moreover, the KM article makes clear that St Christopher’s also had financial difficulties and has a target initial roll of 30-50 pupils, which is surely not viable in the large Victorian premises, and in any case will require an enormous input of time and energy to get the scheme off the ground.

More importantly, surely one has to ask the bigger question of the appropriateness of a scheme which diverts state school resources to supporting fee paying pupils. Mr Pywell is quoted as saying: "It is a sad situation to see such a long-established school close and we just want to try and see if there is anything we can do for those parents and children to keep it going, using our experience and resources. There could also be opportunities for children from the new school to benefit from St Stephen's facilities."

The bottom line is that this was a badly run private enterprise that rightly failed. Whilst I feel very sorry for the pupils who have been let down by St Christopher’s leaders, it can be no business of a state school to effectively re-start a new commercial company requiring a very different ethos and a demanding customer base in this way, even though presumably it would be indemnified against any financial loss.

Update: 8th September; I am told the Rescue Plan has been abandoned

Currently, the Howard Trust runs five Medway primary schools, including the troubled Temple Mill (which has recently lost its headteacher) as well as the Howard School itself and, I understand is looking to expand further. 

Medway UTC website carried a list of local Trustees and Governors which includes senior members of major local businesses and Universities, together with Les Wicks of Medway Council. 'The report warns that despite their wealth of knowledge and experience from business and education, Medway UTC’s governors have “presided over a failing school”.The report warns that despite their wealth of knowledge and experience from business and education, Medway UTC’s governors have “presided over a failing school” (quote). I am afraid they were clearly not fit to be put in charge of a £12 million capital investment, together with all the other investment of resources, skills, young people's ambitions, etc that go with it. 

If one wishes to seek any excuse for this dire performance it comes in looking at the whole misguided UTC sector. Nine of the 49 UTCs opened since 2010 have already closed, several after just a couple of years existence.  Five of the 26 to have been inspected by Ofsted have been placed into Special Measures. Even Michael Gove, the architect of the UTC experiment acknowledged last year that it had failed. The online blog, FE Week has also covered this story but observes that: 'The move to become part of THAT is part of the UTC’s “ongoing development” which is “proving very successful following our recent published results that highlight the UTC’s significant improvement”, a spokesperson said this week'. This is hardly consistent with the recently published GCSE results, which see the UTC bottom of all Medway secondary schools on the government's preferred Progress 8 measure, at  - 0.75, well below average and also the only Medway schools below the government's floor level. At Attainment 8, it reaches the dizzy heights of 17th place out of 18. Hardly significant improvement!

Medway's young people are fortunate that they are educated in a sector where nearly all schools are thriving as academies independent of the dreadful Medway Council, so there is little incentive to leave to join the UTC in Year 10. Whilst I do wish the Howard Academy Trust all the best in making this work, I fear it may yet be another white elephant doomed to offer students a bad deal. 

Please do not take anything I have written in this article as an endorsement of the academy model. I still believe its greatest weakness is the lack of accountability for those academies that abuse the freedoms they are given. 

Sadly, a major reason the academy programme came into existence, supported by both Conservative and Labour parties was a concern about low standards in Local Authority schools. The competition between the two sectors has certainly improved standards across the board, although the major weakness of the academy sector remains that lack of accountability which affects a minority of schools. In Kent there are still examples of both academies and Local Authority schools that suffer from this, where there is poor leadership.

The seven schools are: Deal Parochial CEP, The Downs CEP, Hornbeam Primary, Sandown School, Kingsdown and Ringwould CEP, Northbourne  CEP, and Sholden CEP. They cannot incorporate the other two local primary schools as these are already academies, committed elsewhere: St Mary’s Catholic Primary (part of the Kent Catholic Schools partnership) and Warden Bay School, lead school of the Veritas Academy Trust.

All these schools currently have a Good Ofsted Report. Five of them are CofE primaries and so will be familiar with the work of the Aquila Academy Trust, run by the Canterbury Anglican Diocese and one of the most successful in the county, with 18 schools to its name. Aquila has recently taken three of its Kent primaries, all failed under KCC, to two Outstanding and one Good Ofsted outcomes.  The five proposed Members of the Trust, who would appoint the Trustees hardly look as if they are out for themselves, headed by the Director of Education for the Diocese of Canterbury who is a a previous primary headteacher, and each bringing valuable skills to the operation.

The failure of Goodwin Academy has been covered extensively in these pages, beginning here under its previous name Castle Community School. The linked article contains two sections on the school, but finished ominously with the sentence: ‘SchoolsCompany already has a strong presence in the county, working with Kent County Council on its Schools Challenge strategy for supporting underperforming schools’.  In a combined operation, the two organisations brought the school down, my final article being here, although subsequently the school has been taken over by the Thinking Schools Academy Trust based in Medway.

Too many local people, including some who are now highly critical of this proposal, bear responsibility for uncritically championing Schools Company and the Goodwin Academy.

Those who follow this website regularly, know that I can be a fierce critic of unaccountable academies. As with media coverage, I do tend to focus on the minority of academies where there are major issues. For a full list of Kent and Medway Multi-Academy Trusts, go to here. This lists 73 Trusts, of which I have criticised 14 in articles. None of these are local community primary school Trusts, of which there are 17.

I can only see good coming from the seven headteachers committed to doing their best for their schools, firmly rooted in the local community, together with the fine team of Members brought together to oversee the work of the proposed Trust.

I am saddened by some of the unjustified rumours circulating about ‘academies’ deployed in an attempt to shoot down this proposal, but whilst certainly true of some do not apply to most academies. The proposed structure of the DEALT is such that these attacks are not realistic or in some case simply untrue. The two other thriving local primary academies are a powerful demonstration of this! Indeed, the freedoms these schools have may well be an additional factor in the decision to emulate them.

Labour Party policy, which up to now has been fully supportive of the expansion of the academy model, saw a slight change of direction at its recent Conference. Quite rightly it wants to rein in the excesses of some academy chains (such as the unlamented SchoolsCompany) which like the Conservative Party  has ,previously ignored for the greater good of the academy image. However, there is no sign of wanting to stop the expansion of the sector, except that Labour has proposed no school should be forced to become an academy (although what should happen to a failing school under Local Authority control?).

Already some 40% of Kent primary schools are academies or are in the process of changing status, with more coming through every month. As this continues, the funding that KCC has available to support its remaining schools decreases, with several schools described here running into difficulties because of inadequate monitoring or action. KCC has introduced a new model of providing services at a cost to meet this challenge, which are also open to academies, so any advantage that Local Authority schools may have in this area is vanishing fast, hastening the drive to change, as academies also have a choice of where to turn to.

We do not want our community schools to become part of a Multi-Academy Trust because:

Average salaries for teachers in academies are lower – there is no evidence at all for this assertion. Many pay their staff higher salaries to recruit and retain them.

 My previous article explores this takeover that appears to be for the benefit of all schools concerned except Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School (known locally as The Math), founded in 1701 following a bequest by its founder 'towards the building and carrying on and perpetual maintaining of a free school at Rochester'. After a series of strong headteachers, culminating in the leadership of Keith Williams, one of the great grammar school heads, it then embarked on an ill judged expansion through The Williamson Trust taking on a number of local schools, several of which were soon in trouble. The Trust was part of the ill-fated Inspire Special School scheme and it has had the Elaine Primary School taken away from it after a government Pre-Termination Warning was issued. This was after a government Letter of Concern about Standards was issued to Elaine, All Hallows and Hundred of Hoo Academies. 

The Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School Trust  is a charity independent of the school, whose main aim is to provide financial assistance and other support for the school. It is a wealthy charity and in 2017 donated £244,677 to The Math (and £200 to Rochester Grammar School), such donations surely making it the richest state school in Kent and Medway. Unusually for an Academy, the freehold for its buildings and land are still owned by the Math School Trust, and leased to the school for a peppercorn rent.  

 The Trust's most recent published accounts for 2016-17 show that it had one of the highest Local Authority Pension Scheme deficits in the county, with two of the three primary schools in deficit. It considered that one of the ways to improve finances is to take the historical reserves from some schools and re-allocate them centrally. I think we can assume this means spreading out the funding accruing to The Math. 

The accounts also describe the Trust's aspirations,  which look very empty in the current context. So: ''Our strategic action plan is ambitious and exciting and reflects our locality and the needs of our young people. The country's education system is in a state of fundamental change as we move to a self-improving system that reduces central government control in favour of an academy-led system. This provides a great opportunity for all of our Academies to take the lead and create a system that our young people deserve'.

In summary, the parents of children at most of the Williamson Trust's schools, can now consider themselves well out of it. It remains to be seen what the Leigh Academy Trust plans for The Math.