This mark is sufficient for entrance to the majority of Kent grammar schools, apart from seven that require higher marks for all or most of their entrants. The required marks for the latter vary according to demand each year, and are reported here.  Further places can be awarded to individual schools by the appeal process; my article on Appeals reporting on 2018 outcomes. 

St Thomas' Catholic Primary, Sevenoaks (68%), followed by Gateway Primary Academy, Dartford (61%), Ethelbert Road, Faversham (60%); Blean, Canterbury (57%); Selling CofE, Faversham (56%); Amherst School, Sevenoaks, Hernhill CofE, Canterbury and St Peter’s Methodist Primary, Canterbury, (all with 55%); Leigh Primary Sevenoaks (54%); Sheldwich, Faversham (53%); Claremont, Tunbridge Wells, Lady Boswell’s CofE, Sevenoaks and Tunstall CofE, Sittingbourne (52%); 

Five of these schools are in the equivalent list for the 2017 Test: Amherst; Lady Boswell’s; Selling; Sheldwich; and Tunstall, with four having been in the list for the highest proportion of grammar school places in each of the past three years: Amherst, Claremont and Lady Boswell's, all in West Kent where private coaching is of course an industry of itself, and Sheldwich near Faversham.    

Apart from Gateway Primary Academy in Dartford, a high performing stand alone academy with no obvious advantages, every one of the schools are in West Kent, or in Canterbury and Swale (including Faversham) where the proportion of successful HTAs is very high (see below).

The variation year by year at the top of this list makes it clear there is no such thing as ‘which are the best schools for grammar entrance?’ a question I am regularly asked. This is because there is no way of knowing what proportion of the pass marks are down: to high quality teaching in the school; private tuition; simply a group of bright children passing through: or the decision making process of Headteachers on the HTA.  

Just two of these schools featured in the top fifteen performers at Higher Grade KS2 SATs in 2018, Gateway Primary Academy (ninth) with 30% of its pupils achieving this level (one of just nine primary schools with all three Progress assessments ‘well above average’), and St Thomas Catholic (eleventh) with 29%.

There is a 21% target of automatic passes across the county, although the pass marks this year gave 18.8%, the lowest for some years. There is also a target of an additional 4% of children to found selective by Head Teacher Assessment (HTA) which looks at children’s work, previous test results, headteacher recommendation and pass mark. You will find further details of the process here and outcomes below. The county success rate for HTAs was 6.3% of the total cohort being found selective by this process, arriving at a total of 25.2%, very close to the target of 25%.

The table below shows the pattern across Kent’s 14 Districts, but hides some wide variation in the success rate of boys and girls.  

 At the foot of the table (leaving out Thanet for the moment) come Dover, Folkestone & Hythe, Gravesham and Swale. The alternative locals test for the Dover and Shepway grammar schools, together with Highsted Grammar in Sittingbourne and Mayfield Grammar n Gravesham (both girls) will have considerably inflated the figures of children in these Districts found suitable for grammar school.

This year local test passes provided over half of the pupils offered places at the two Dover grammar schools and Folkestone School for Girls, indicating a total grammar selection rate of more than 40% in each area. Three quarters of the 138 boys allocated to Dover Boys Grammar qualified through the Dover Test.  

There is a total of 30% of girls in Canterbury District found selective overall, because of the high HTA figure (see below), a figure only topped by boys in Sevenoaks at 31%.

This year 11.3% of all Kent automatic passes have gone to children in the private sector, slightly down from the previous two years 11.5%, but just 4.8% of the upheld HTAs, resulting in overall 9.6% of selective assessments being for children at private schools. The data calculations can only consider those children who took the Test, so the total numbers in each school year group are not known. However, a considerable proportion of these successes will not take up grammar school places, preferring to remain private.

Most automatic passes follow socio-economic patterns across the county, but the influence of HTAs is quite different, perhaps reflecting local pressures. The table below shows outcomes of the four Headteacher Assessment Panels, that operate geographically across the county. It is likely that the NW Kent Panel will have a high proportion of out of county HTAs referred to it, which may be a factor in the high figure.

Note: HTAs for out of county pupils will be considered by the most appropriate Panel, usually West or North West 

Recent changes in admission policy at the two Wilmington Grammars and the Judd and Skinner’s super selective grammars to favour Kent children is further inhibiting supply of places for out of county children, but certainly not demand. For 2019 admissions, of the 3065 (2735 in 2017) ooc Kent Test passes in October 2018, just 399 children (down from 454 in 2017) were offered grammar places in March this year, over half at the four Dartford and Wilmington grammars, with this number likely to have fallen further before entry in September.

Of course this large proportion of speculative test sittings, in some cases merely provides free practice for grammar schools in other parts of the country for many as can be seen by the high number of enquiries on 11 plus forums from parents in possession of a selective assessment for their child. Many of these don’t even know where the Kent grammar schools are!

But of course, it is not free for Kent taxpayers, as the costs of administration, materials and provision of test venues falls on them. Sadly, there appears no way of recovering the costs, which surely run into tens of thousands of pounds, from those parents who have no Kent connections. 

This is the year that the first Shepway Test cohort, which saw an additional 159 boys and girls selected for grammar school without passing the Kent Test, reach GCSE. Their removal from the two non-selective schools had seen the demise of Pent Valley School, now replaced by TFS. No doubt when Dr Jo Saxton, CEO of Turner Schools, carried out due diligence before proclaiming that ‘both schools will outperform all schools in the south of England – excluding grammars - and provide “success without selection”’ she will have taken this into account, as FA will have lost a whole swathe of its brightest pupils for this summer’s GCSEs. Perhaps this was also explained to Mr Herrington. 

Turner Free School is certainly well staffed, its leadership back in September comprising a Principal and three Vice Principals to oversee the 120 pupils now down to 117) However, one of the Vice Principals suddenly left the school and teaching eight weeks after his appointment in September, and has now alleged on Twitter that part of his decision was because of homophobia by his employer. His departure leaves a leadership primarily drawn from the nearby Folkestone School for Girls (grammar), which has ‘a close working relationship’  with TFS. This includes the Chairman of Governors, the Principal, and one of the two remaining Assistant Principals; surely far too incestuous a team for a good professional ethos, the whole sending out appalling signals to the pupils. It may be that this close affiliation to one school has not helped outsiders either, although the departing Vice Principal posted on Twitter in June just before he took up post: ‘So proud to be part of #Team Turner’.  How wrong he was and, if his allegation is valid, what an indictment of the school.

The letter from the Trust CEO makes no mention of the reasons for the decision, and contains no regrets about the failures by her, the Castle Trust and the leaders of Delce Academy to offer the children of the school an adequate education, severely blighting their educational development (why does no one mention the children in these games of monopoly?). It does make clear that this is a decision of the RSC and not the Trust; i.e. the school has been taken from the Trust as not being competent to run it, and re-brokered.

I have also been contacted by representatives of Trafalgar Community Infant school in West Sussex, which was due to join the Trust, a decision that was deferred by the RSC’s Headteacher Board in May, presumably to ponder on these events.

Inspire Partnership is a small Multi Academy Trust, currently running five primary schools, three in SE London, having recently taken over the failed Elaine Primary and struggling Maundene schools in Medway. I have written extensively about Elaine before when it was part of the failed Williamson Trust, then re-brokered to Inspire. What I do know about the Trust is that I have been in correspondence with the CEO, Rob Carpenter (is he connected with Melissa Carpenter, Executive Head of Elaine and Woodville primaries?), who clearly cares passionately about the task ahead of him at Elaine and has provided as yet informal evidence of the considerable improvement under his charge. I am therefore optimistic that the children will now get a decent break, although there still remains the considerable problem of what to do about the wholly unnecessary Infant section, when there are already two good infant schools with sufficient capacity between them, feeding into Delce Junior section.

 The chart shows the continued high levels of Home Education (for part 2018-19 equal to the second highest number in the county in 2017/18) and pupils disappeared from education (one less than 2017-18, although with a month still to go, which was also the highest figure in Kent).

The Ofsted Inspection Report contains that familiar sentiment for new headteachers being inspected, too many of which do not come to fruition: ‘Since her appointment, the principal has identified correctly the strengths and weaknesses of the school. She has a deep understanding of the challenges the school faces’, although being an internal appointment after an extensive external trawl for alternatives, the new Principal must have previously known the school’s qualities well, as explained here.

OAIS has suffered since its inception as an 11-18 school in 2009, being based on two sites, each of which had an equivalence, for pupils from Years 7 to 13. I have regularly documented its problems since the takeover by Oasis in 2013, when it got rid of the only effective headteacher the school has seen since it came into existence.  the problematic two site structure also offered a solution for victims of bullying who could easily be transferred to the second site, at cost to their education and friendships, but leaving the bullies to continue their work unabated.

Earlier this year, plans were announced to change the structure making one site academic and the other vocational, a local newspaper reporting this as a commitment. The founder of Oasis is quoted as excitedly saying that 'one will be for prospective engineers and the other for those interested in law or medicine', suggesting he is completely out of touch with reality. Unsurprisingly this fantasy proved unworkable so at very short notice, families have been told the ‘exciting news’  in what is ‘a fantastic opportunity’', that from September the school will be split vertically with Years 7 to 11 on the East site and Years 12-13 on the West, although squeezing the former and leaving great areas of the latter empty, with just 93 sixth form pupils in a building with capacity for some 800! None of this would be possible if the school had not lost an astonishing 550 pupils from its roll since Oasis took it over, with more than a quarter of the 1961 pupils attending in 2012 shrinking to 1405 in 2019. 

Since my last round up, I have also published articles on Turner Schools; Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy; Delce Academy (more to come); Copperfield Academy; Delce Academy (again); and Skinners School, along with more general items. 

There have also been a number of approvals, including Rolvenden Primary School to join Tenterden Schools Trust. The most oversubscribed school in Kent, Brent Primary, Dartford, is to join the Cygnus Academies Trust , currently comprising four Kent schools (three also in Dartford) in September. To quote the SE Academy Headteacher Board (SESLHTB): ‘Two strong, experienced leaders joining together with skills that complement each other well’. Dartford Bridge Community, having failed its Ofsted in January, will also be joining the Trust in September.  All Souls’ CofE Primary School, Folkestone is to join Aquila (Diocese of Canterbury Academies Trust)

Wainscott Primary in Medway is to join the Primary First Trust in Medway. A sad story this one, for a school which has previously been high performing with a strong Ofsted inspection just two years ago, was placed in Special Measures in March, in spite of a strong history of good performance ‘Dynamic leadership of teaching and learning has resulted in strong provision in all year groups’.  The decision was based primarily on safeguarding issues, with governance coming under specific criticism; yet another failure by a Medway Authority school, this one entirely avoidable. Primary First was chosen: ‘based on strong performance at KS2, their proximity to the school, and that this completes a hub for the trust in Medway’, according to the South East South London Headteacher Board, SESLHTB, a decision making arm of the Regional School Commissioner's empire. The ‘hub’ concept appears to be a growing trend for geographically widespread Trusts.

The Trust planned to merge the two previous Williamson Trust primary schools it had taken over, on the far end of the Hoo Peninsula, All Hallows and Stoke schools. Both suffer from small numbers, and in the case of Stoke poor performance, since before their acquisition by LAT, so there was a case for the merger, although such proposals for neighbouring villages are nearly always very unpopular and certainly in this case hard fought. Currently the lower Year Groups at Stoke are taught at All Hallows, a mile and a half away with plenty of space being currently less than half full. At the very end of term, and unusually, government announced it had turned down the proposal. It is not clear if parental protests influenced this, but if so this would be rare.

Also in Medway, the new Rainham Leigh Academy which is to open in 2020 has consulted local families on its plans in an extensive publicity drive including a leaflet with further details here. Currently, the three Medway non-selective secondary schools in Rainham and Gillingham have no vacancies, with Brompton Academy in Gillingham the second most oversubscribed school in Kent or Medway, and a total of just 3%  empty spaces in the Authority schools. There has been no news of the proposed all through Maritime Academyannounced at the same time, to be run by the Thinking Schools Academy Trust, and originally planned to be opened in Strood in 2019.

Strood Academy, taken over as a sponsored school by LAT in 2016 from the Creative Arts University, carried a financial surplus of over £3 million in its reserves, £2 million of which was earmarked for a new examination centre, completion planned for 2017/18. It appears that this concept has vanished as has most of the surplus. Meanwhile LAT is using part of the current premises as HQ of its Medway hub. 

I have looked previously at the LAT takeover of the Medway based Williamson Trust, headed up by Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School (The Math).

Phoenix Junior Academy in Medway and run by the FPTA Academies Trust has been given conditional permission to run an Infant section, in direct competition with its feeder school, Greenvale Infants, by the SESLHTB. This is in spite of the scandalous failure at Delce Academy, which was a Junior School also allowed to extend to provide for infants in spite of the direct challenge to its two feeder schools, The permission decision shows the problems are recognised, and the application was previously refused, so one has to ask why this one was allowed, ‘generously’ on condition that Greenvale, which wishes to remain a Local Authority school, turn itself into an all-though school although there is no indication it wishes to. Apparently the Local Authority can see the benefit of creating ‘flexibility’. It ‘believes any impact on places at nearby schools can be managed’! More information on Delce Academy and Medway Council’s failure in creating flexibility and impact to follow shortly.

Norton Knatchbull School, Ashford has seen its PAN enlarged from 149 this year, to 210 in 2020-21, although it only offered 170 places for September. The school has a pattern of encouraging a large number of successful appeals, allowing 46 out of 66 last year, the fourth highest success rate of any Kent grammar school.  This brought its intake up to 193, so one would have thought there was plenty of spare capacity, even given the rapid increase in housing in Ashford. A physical expansion has been approved by the SESLHTB which means funding will be provided.

Bennett Diocesan Memorial School, Tunbridge Wells has also been given permission and funding to expand further, having taken additional pupils for several years to ease the pressure on non-selective places in Tunbridge Wells at each of its three Ofsted Outstanding schools. Bennett has tight admission criteria focusing on a strong religious commitment attracting many pupils from outside the county and from private schools, displacing local children to schools outside the town. CEO Ian Baukham, head of the Tenax Trust led by Bennett along with seven primary schools, has gained fame from the website Education Uncovered, in an article entitled: ’how does he find the time?’  He was an elected member of the SESLHTB from its founding in 2014 to 2017 amongst four other roles. He is currently: a board member at Ofqual, the qualifications regulator, also serving on its “standards advisory group”; Sex and Relationships Adviser to the DfE; Chair of a New DfE Advisory Body on Character Education; appointed to the Inspectorate’s overarching “curriculum advisory group”; an external adviser on a group advising Ofsted on modern foreign languages in relation to its new inspection framework; a board member of both the National Foundation for Education Research and of NFER Trading Limited; on the board of  board of the Confederation of School Trusts, formerly FASNA, a charity which supports and lobbies for academies and director of its related company, CST Professional Development Limited.

He was awarded a CBE for services to education in 2017.  

Cranbrook School, which changed from having a main entrance age of 13 to one of 11 (although still admitting one class of pupils at 13) admitting 60 day pupils, has now been given permission to admit boarding pupils at age 11, six in the first instance.

Sir Joseph Williamson’s and Rainham Mark Grammar, both in Medway, both always oversubscribed, have also both been awarded a physical expansion. The Math has a PAN of 203, up from 180 in 2018, but topping up with a considerable number of successful appeals in previous years (but will this have happened this year with the increased PAN).  RMGS has been admitting 235 pupils for several years with a PAN of 205, (topping up with around 5 successful appeals each year). Both schools saw all successful appeals in 2018 awarded to pupils who had passed the Medway Test.

Hersden Primary School, near Canterbury and Lansdowne Primary, both run by Stour Valley Academy Trust, have had expansions approved by the SESLHTB, the former to manage a building development and controversially changed its name to Water Meadows Primary School.

Barming Primary School, Maidstone has been given permission for a physical expansion of premises expansion as it regains popularity under its academy sponsorship with Orchard Academy Trust. As a KCC school it suffered terribly as explained here, falling into Special Measures then being let down further. 

Oakwood Park Grammar School in Maidstone has been hit by the actions of the underperforming Maidstone Grammar (not an academy), which  was funded for an expansion of 30 places by KCC two years ago to an intake of 250 boys, although there was and is still a surplus of selective boys' places in Maidstone. For the 2019 appeals it is clear that MGS has been widening its ability range further (it gives priority to higher performing boys), offering places to a number of boys who were unsuccessful at Oakwood on academic grounds.  

Ebbsfleet Academy has replaced its previous confrontational headteacher, Alison Colwell, who hit the national headlines earlier this year in a resignation interview with the Sunday Times (not her first controversial contribution to the paper as she courts a tough love image for the school). This rubbished the school’s families, perhaps in an attempt to hide the multiple failures of the school. Her replacement, Gurjit Kaur Shergill, has had experience as a deputy head (in two good schools) which may well prove helpful as Ms Colwell appears to have missed out that step.

As well as neither school appearing on the ‘Forthcoming Academies’ section of the  LAT website, there is no mention on the websites of either of the two primary  schools, apart from the heavily redacted Governing Body Minutes from February at Paddock Wood that removes any understanding of events. Although not lawful, there are no Governing Body Minutes on the Horsmonden site.

The website Education Uncovered has looked closely at developments, summarised here (but look at the full story of the false propaganda published in the three articles on the site).

The headteacher of both schools is Mr Scott Opstad, who enjoyed a good reputation at his previous school Folkestone Academy (primary section), and more recently as headteacher at Paddock Wood, but was only appointed to nearby Horsmonden in addition last year.

Parents were told on December 6^th last year that governors were reviewing options, including academisation, although the DFE website showed it had already submitted an application to become an academy. On December 20^th an announcement appeared on the Leigh Academies website, welcoming Paddock Wood and nearby Horsmonden to their Trust. At Christmas the LAT Newsletter stated that

 In January, the headteacher of Mascalls Academy in Paddock Wood (also a Leigh Academy Trust school) sent a letter home to parents welcoming Paddock Wood and Horsmonden to LAT, although governors subsequently insisted that no decision had been taken, but it had! However, the Easter Newsletter of LAT, rowed back somewhat from the announcement of the December issue, declaring that  

 A consultation had begun in March ending on May 3^rd. However, before well before this finished this on March 31^st, the SESLHTB issued an Academy Order for the two schools to become academies under Leigh, after the application had been approved on March 14th. It is therefore very difficult to determine the purpose of the Consultation. The decision (of which Education Uncovered has published a copy) originally carried a comment and a condition for the application to go ahead: ‘Following this approval, the board expects the trust to undergo a period of consolidation until all new academies have been fully integrated into the trust’; ‘Approved with one condition 1) the trust limits growth for a period of 12 months until Easter (2020)’. Sometime later, the approved Minutes were changed removing these two items! The power of Leigh Academy Trust!!

The Chairman of Governors at Paddock Wood chose to launch an attack on KCC and the quality of education offered and, whilst I have my own criticisms, I don’t accept that:‘ “recent and significant changes to the way Kent County Council influences the running of its schools means that there is considerably less time for school leaders to lead learning and teaching beyond delivering the core curriculum,” with the quality of education on offer to pupils said to be likely to suffer if this was allowed to go “unchallenged” within the  next year’. Not surprisingly, Roger Gough, KCC Cabinet Member for Education politely queried these allegations only to receive a factually incorrect onslaught from Simon Beamish, the £220,000 annual salaried CEO of Leigh, for querying the views of parents (although the consultation had not yet finished!

His letter included: “You and Paul have always been such supporters of LAT.….Have you taken this action in the case of every academy conversion in Kent?...I wonder if [this] is related to the very small, but very vocal, anti-academy and NEU [National Education Union]-linked local Paddock Wood lobby group...We and Scott [Opstad, the two schools’ headteacher] have kept a dignified silence on all of this and will carry on doing so. The vast majority of parents and staff have found it distressing as well…We are simply following very carefully the process laid down by the Conservative Government’s policy on education to encourage academisation which I am surprised you take such an agnostic view towards locally as part of a Conservative-led county council. I expect governors will also be interested in the reasons why Conservative policy locally is at odds with Conservative policy nationally, but then very little surprises me in politics these days.”

What arrogance!

The Paul mentioned above, is presumably Paul Carter, Leader of KCC, who was a Director of LAT between 2007 and 2010. To the best of my knowledge he has always shown himself agnostic towards academisation in his written and verbal public communications, so this can hardly be the surprise to Mr Beamish he claims.  

The ‘very small anti-academy group’ was presumably behind a petition calling for the community to be given a “binding vote” on the school’s academisation had been signed by 471 people including more than 300 signatures from postcodes in which Paddock Wood parents lived. Hardly ‘very small’. When asked for their evidence of parental support, LAT could only waffle. The 'small group' will also have included a parent, Charles Marshall, who has been very active in the campaign. 

Neither school is mentioned on the Leigh Academies Trust website as part of the Trust or one of its forthcoming academies, except in a throw away line from the Summer Newsletter's Message from Simon Beamish 'We look forward to welcoming two more primary academies at Horsmonden and Paddock Wood from September', from which we must assume they are starting out in the brave new world then. 

Whatever debate there was is not even mentioned on the school websites, except in the case of Paddock Wood in a heavily redacted Governing Body Minute back in February that removes any understanding of events.

A Freedom of Information Request from Charles Marshall to the Regional Schools Commissioner finds Mr Beamish arguing that: ‘Other than pupils who go to grammar from the two schools, virtually all the rest go to Mascalls in Year 7, already in LAT. The all-through education links are a bit of a no-brainer and fit perfectly with the LAT approach’. This is a powerful argument, and if the school communities wanted academisation would indeed be a no-brainer, but there is no evidence that they do, and the dishonesty of LAT’s policy, part applied through its own Mascalls School was hardly likely to endear them to the Trust. 

Since my previous article, I have had several messages from past and present members of staff at LAT, and there is a certain consistency about the messages. It is clear that Mr Beamish's personality dominates the Trust. He takes criticism by the media badly, one informant saying he describes them as 'trolls under the bridge'. Several refer to the financial model of squeezing those on the front line, but seeing higher salary management roles proliferate. Bullying of staff is alleged. One hopes that Mr Opstad is going into this with his eyes open. 

On a completely separate subject, Jeremy Kite, long term Leader of Dartford Council became a founder Director of the Trust and its predecessor since before it became a City Technology College 1990 and has continued to this day. Mr Kite has led Dartford Council to take a very positive view of education and supported a wide range of developments (contrast with next door Gravesham Council which has shown no interest in education for the past 35 years at least).  Mr Kite’s was a very astute appointment, as the school and the Trust’s other Dartford schools appear to have benefited strongly from the connection ever since.

I have asked both LAT and Mr Opstad to explain where the two schools now are in the process of academisation and have updated this article incorporating the LAT response.

It has arisen because the Council failed to object to the proposal in the first place, on completely spurious grounds (see below). You will find the full background in two previous articles most recently here.

 The whole thing begs so many questions one hardly knows where to begin. It appears that the loan was necessary because the poor management of the badly run academy after it set up an unnecessary Infant provision left it without classroom space to cope with the extra pupils siphoned off from the two feeder schools. Medway Council felt obliged to step in because the consequence of all this would have been children without a classroom. Blackmail?

The Council Document describes some of the background to the decision not to challenge the school’s expansion by the introduction of an Infant Department:

‘During the consultation the Local Authority provided a response to the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC), neither supporting nor objecting to the proposal. The rationale for this was that other options to provide places were available to the Council in the area and these could be provided at little or no capital investment. As such, the local authority’s position was that if the proposal were approved, the Council would not be able to invest basic need funding into the project. It was accepted at the time though, that the additional 30 places, whilst not essential, would add some flexibility into the place planning system. 2.3. It was also made clear to the school not only at the time but subsequently, that they did not have sufficient space to accommodate this number of children i.e. the usual intake from the two local infant schools and their own intake of 30 per year group. This would result in the school admitting 730 primary pupils when full instead of the 520 they would admit if the proposals did not proceed. This would mean that they needed another 8 classrooms to meet demand’.

In other words, Medway Council decided not to object to a plan for introducing unnecessary extra places in a school to compete with its own Infant schools, where there was insufficient room and no funding to expand. All this on the grounds of a novel concept for Medway, of flexibility in the place planning system.

The model of one all through primary school with the children of two other Infant schools feeding into it is, I believe unique across Kent and Medway, and it is difficult to see the advantages of this ‘flexibility in the planning system’. The document goes on to argue that there will be a 20% increase in the Medway population over the next 15 years, so ‘this additional capacity is likely to become necessary’. I have news for Medway Council which does not appear to have considered the detail. The increase in population will not be in this part of the built up area, but elsewhere where there will be considerable demand for places and resources. I suppose it is good that Medway is focusing on planning for 15 years ahead, but its recent history suggests it would be far better to be considering present issues.

The table below shows the pattern of place offers over the past four years, producing  a fall of nearly 20% in take up across the three schools, presumably as local families chased places elsewhere, the whole situation having become toxic. In particular, the take up at Delce Academy has already fallen by over two thirds, even before it was placed in Special Measures, for parents are clearly wiser than Medway Council gives them credit.

The Council paper gives two other options for a situation they should never have found themselves in and which could and should have been avoided if they had challenged the original seriously flawed plan.

 The first of these would have been to refuse the request.  This apparently would have left children without classrooms, an entirely predictable outcome. Of course these are children who should rightly have been in one of the two Council run schools there would still have been room if this project had folded. Secondly would have been to divert basic need funding away from necessary projects which even for Medway Council might have been a step to far. So how did all this happen? Back in 2010 Medway Council proposed the amalgamation of the then oversubscribed and strongly performing Delce Infant and Junior Schools, strongly opposed by by both schools, but passionately by Karen White headteacher of Delce Juniors (but now CEO of the Castle Trust, having had Delce taken away from her because of its dreadful performance), supported by the Chair of Governors, Richard King, who also appears to have sold out his principles and remains a Member of the Trust. Amongst her arguments were 'Concern that standards will drop if the schools are amalgamated' and 'A school over more than 630 pupils is too big for a primary school and will make the personal knowledge of each child and their family far more difficult than is currently the case. Ms White and Mr King then created the equivalent of the amalgamated school, by opening its own Infant Department, seeing standards fall dramatically in a school with a potential 730 pupils (well above the 630 she identified as the maximum) 'forcing' Medway Council to offer the £400,000 loan. Ms White also delivered a further damning opinion: 'If amalgamated there would not be a provision of equal opportunity for all children as those joining from St Peter's (and also now Crest Infants, which did stick to its principles) would join children who had been pupils at the amalgamated school for several years'. She then proceeds to extend the school totally against her previous principles setting up precisely this situation.

Conclusion

So what are the consequences of extending the school against the previously expressed wishes of headteacher and governors of Delce Junior School. It has now failed its Ofsted Inspection including a withering criticism of the leadership. It joined with Greenway Academy, a Junior School in West Sussex (amazingly also reported to be considering expanding to become an all through primary school possibly by absorbing the nearby Trafalgar Community Infant School) to  form the Castle Trust with Ms King as Chief Executive Officer. Delce Academy has been taken away from the Trust because of its dramatic fall from grace under Ms White's leadership. However, she is okay with her annual salary of £100,000 plus for running the one Junior School in West Sussex with the grand title of Executive Headteacher, unless the unfortunate children of nearby Trafalgar primary led by an equally besotted governing body decide to link with the Trust, having been dazzled by its false claims. Unethical hardly describes the machinations of those involved, having moved on without a scratch and left hundreds of children enduring an inadequate education.  

And then there are the other big questionsThe £400,000 commercial (?) loan was paid to the Castle Trust. Who is now responsible for paying it back and when and if Medway Council ever recover their 'investment'? 

Further Material added September 2nd.

You will find the advertisement for a non-executive director here, placed by a company specialising in providing  a free, bespoke service matching business people and professionals with multi-academy trusts looking to strengthen their boards (it looks as if they failed with due diligence here). What is especially mind blowing is that a month befor the sky fell in on The Trust, it could set out its future plans:

We can ignore (1) as the Trust is down to one small Junior Junior Academy, but is it really the case in the fantasy objectives of (2) and (3) that not one of the Trustees  and Members had any idea how low  Delce Academy was failing and falling. These included the CEO and previous headteacher, Karen White; Christopher Purchse (chair), a self-employed tutor; Lisa Roper (vice -chair), senior member of staff, Mid-Kent College; Samuel Calvert, an accountant from HM Treasury (now having wisely resigned); Joyce Gundry, with the Trust since its inception in 2014, a Partner in 3J School Improvements Specialists Ltd with considerable experience over the years of supporting Medway schools, through the years when they were amongst the worst performing in the country -how come she fail to notice with her background; Richard King, Chair of Delce Academy before it created the Castle Trust; James Stringer (to be confirmed- is he the The new recruit from Academy Ambassadors. 

 I

the Inadequate Ofsted outcome for Medway Children's Services which will have come as no surprise to anyone except possibly the Conservative Party that runs Medway Council. There are also considerable further important issues relating to the academisation of Paddock Wood and Horsmonden primaries, which happened on September 1st, parents being notified just two days earlier. I have more news on each of the three Disappearing Headteachers in North Kent. I also have the outcomes of all Secondary Admission Appeals heard by KCC Panels, the most striking being the sole success out of 53 appeals heard at Holcombe Grammar in Medway. Amongst others.......!

The Minutes of the 'Taking the School Forward Working Group' an informal governors meeting on 22nd November 2018,  later portrayed as a Full Governing Body, contains an attack on KCC by the headteacher of the two schools (although Mr Opstad . There were just four governors present: the Chair, Ros Tucker; the Headteacher Scott Opstad; a Parent Governor, and Sue Stone, who has now left the Governing Body (along with two other governors). 

My previous article identifies attacks on KCC and Paul Carter its leader (previously a governor of LAT) by the CEO of the Trust in his attempt to justify the process. Warwick Mansell, an investigative journalist, has published two further articles on his website 'Education Uncovered' looking in detail at the failings of the schools and Trust.  The linked article inlcudes:

Paddock Wood formally triggered the process of academisation by applying for an academy order on December 6^th, the government’s official academies “pipeline” data shows. However, government rules state that there has to be a vote of the full governing body before such an application can be made. Yet there seem to be no publicly-available meeting minutes showing that such a vote took place. A parent,Charles Marshall,  had sought to challenge the academisation of the school through judicial review. That attempt failed, as reported in a separate story here. ...The school’s solicitors said, in a letter sent to Marshall’s lawyers as part of preparing for the judicial review process, that governors had voted on applying for the academy order at a meeting on November 22^nd last year. However, the only set of governor minutes available on the school’s website which relate to that date are for a meeting of a governors’ “working group” on academisation. So, not a meeting of the full Governing Body as required, and in any case, no indication of a vote being taken by the four governors present out of the 14 in total at that time. 

Little if any of this would have come to light were it not for the efforts of Mr Marshall, one of that small band of whistleblowers that try and hold academies to account whilst those in authority pretend all is right with the system.. 

 In passing, Education Uncovered has reported that Simon Beamish, CEO of Leigh Academy Trust was the 13th highest paid leader of an Academy Trust in the country for 2017-18, on £220,000.

This as they say is 'fake news’ missing the essential ingredient of legal authority, probably with the main target of halting the provision of sufficient grammar school places for children in the rapidly expanding areas of Whitstable and Herne Bay, as emerges from the pronouncement of the organisation.  

Surely, given that Kent is a selective authority, committed to providing places to all children identified as of grammar school places,  Comprehensive Future  should first suggest an alternative scheme to meet the very real need for girls’ grammar school provision in Sevenoaks whilst selection remains official policy, with 90% of girls offered places at Weald of Kent this September being local to the area. Personally, I would have thought it best to get the legal advice before running yet another scare story, for the organisation and Jo Bartley, now its Campaigns Officer, have tried and failed many times previously over the past four years to get rid of or destabilise the annexe. I have lost count of the numerous published FOIs to for example schools, KCC, Weald of Kent and government seeking to probe weaknesses, all without success.   

Without the annexe there would certainly be a serious imbalance of imbalance of selective places in West Kent where there are 580 places available for boys, the vast majority from Kent, as Judd and Skinners have changed their admission rules to give priority for Kent boys in return for new buildings enabling them to expand, and Tunbridge Wells Boys also expanding. These initiatives have enabled a total of 580 places allocated for this September, the vast majority to local boys. This would have been matched by a chronic shortage of places for girls, with just 500 available for the year group this September if there had been no annexe  

KCC has also tried to keep the balance for non-selective schools, the new Trinity School on the same site as the Weald Annexe providing another 180 places and Knole Academy expanding, although some children from Edenbridge were still offered places at High Weald Academy in Cranbrook. Meanwhile I have exposed the limitations of the Free School programme in Tunbridge Wells and previously, with no new school being possible in the near future to meet the current pressing need.

On the back of this non-news, Comprehensive Future attempts to sabotage what appears its main target; stopping the provision of much needed additional grammar school places in Whitstable and Herne Bay. Two schools, Barton Court Grammar in Canterbury and Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar in Faversham have made bids to set up an annexe  under the Selective Schools Expansion Fund , previously discussed here (with links to other articles). Once again, the organisation comes forward with no alternatives for providing sufficient grammar school places in an area of shortage in a selective authority.

By all means campaign against the existence of grammar schools as a whole, or of new grammar schools in currently comprehensive areas, but it is wholly wrong to try to damage the current selective system and the education offered by publishing ‘fake news’ stories in this way. Sadly, as I have demonstrated previously, this is not an uncommon tactic. Spot the errors in the linked article!  

Without knowing the detail, it appears that Edinburgh Primary had a chequered history previously with several changes of headteacher, hence presumably the urgency of a mid-term appointment. The school website is poor and presents a chaotic set of newsletters so that I am unable to identify any from 2019. However, something very unusual happened shortly afterwards in that I was approached by several Edinburgh parents and staff who tracked down Ms Rider’s Fairview history on my website, even with name removed. There was a consistent story, pleading for my advice and support for this London school, citing concerns which parallel those I received at Fairview. I am told these have now settled down as she has changed her approach and is starting to consult. One indicator on the school website however, is a current advertisement for new teachers that begins: ‘Calling all teachers who are looking for a new and exciting role in September’!  Sounds very much like a school that lost too many staff for whatever reason.

It is clear she was strongly supported in post by KCC in spite of all the concerns being expressed by parents over the years, whose views counted less than protecting one of their own KLEs. My first enquiry, one of many about the way SEND children were treated, was received as far back as 2016! Sadly, such wilful blindness at the expense of children’s education and staff careers is not unique (see too many other articles). Eventually she and Miss Emma Nuttall, the Deputy Head also responsible for SEND who was creating similar concerns, appear to have gone on gardening leave for the whole of the Autumn Term (presumably on full pay) at least before leaving their posts around Christmas (usually signs of a healthy pay off).Clearly Miss Nuttall has not blotted her copybook either and was offered a temporary post as Deputy Head at Grange Park, a KCC Special School in Wrotham, where she is now ‘Primary Advisory Lead’.  

The school was run by an Executive Head, Alex Cornelius, for the whole of 2018-19. He was  also headteacher of Langton Green Primary in Tunbridge Wells, an arrangement that is reported to have worked well. The school now has a new headteacher, Ruth Austin, previously headteacher of  the Ofsted Outstanding Ryarsh Primary, less than six miles from Tunbury and so not only may she well be known by the school, she will be well aware of the history. The chairman and vice chairman of governors have also gone, as has one of the Assistant Heads, the new Chair being a Local Authority representative. 

 You will find the equivalent article and data for 2018 here; a preliminary article here; and the parallel Kent article here.

I would encourage parents to apply to go on the waiting list for any of their preferences that have not been offered, as there will be movement over the next four months. This is your best chance of getting a school of your choice, as chances at appeal are generally very low because of Infant Class Legislation. For 2018 entry, of 63 registered Primary appeals organised by Medway Council where Infant Class Legislation applied (the overwhelming majority), just two were upheld - the comparable figures in 2018 being 66 appeals registered, one upheld.  

Note: The letter after the name of each school in the table above indicates the Medway area in which it is situated.

The abbreviation LAA (Local Authority Allocation) in the sections below refers to a child placed by Medway Council at a school they have not applied to, as all their own choices are full. PAN refers to the Published Admission Number of the school.

Eight of the 14 schools have vacancies, most at Twydall with 44% of places empty, whose recent history is reported here. The two other schools with over 20% empty spaces suffer from a difficult Ofsted history, Napier Community (43%) with repeated ‘Requires Improvement’, and Saxon Way (25%),  Special Measures under Medway Council control but now ‘Good’ as an academy. 

As well as neither school appearing on the ‘Forthcoming Academies’ section of the  LAT website, there is no mention on the websites of either of the two primary  schools, apart from the Governing Body Minutes at Paddock Wood most recently as far back as February 2019, which claim the matter is still under consideration. There is no mention of the process on the Horsmonden site.

The website Education Uncovered has looked closely at developments, summarised here (but look at the full story of the false propaganda published in the three articles on the site).

The headteacher of both schools is Mr Scott Opstad, who enjoyed a good reputation at his previous school Folkestone Academy (primary section), and more recently as headteacher at Paddock Wood, but was only appointed to nearby Horsmonden in addition last year.

Parents were told on December 6^th last year that governors were reviewing options, including academisation, although the DFE website showed it had already submitted an application to become an academy. On December 20^th an announcement appeared on the Leigh Academies website, welcoming Paddock Wood and nearby Horsmonden to their Trust. At Christmas the LAT Newsletter stated that

 In January, the headteacher of Mascalls Academy in Paddock Wood (also a Leigh Academy Trust school) sent a letter home to parents welcoming Paddock Wood and Horsmonden to LAT, although governors subsequently insisted that no decision had been taken, but it had! However, the Easter Newsletter of LAT, rowed back somewhat from the announcement of the December issue, declaring that  

 A consultation had begun in March ending on May 3^rd. However, before well before this finished this on March 31^st, the SESLHTB issued an Academy Order for the two schools to become academies under Leigh, after the application had been approved on March 14th. It is therefore very difficult to determine the purpose of the Consultation. The decision (of which Education Uncovered has published a copy) originally carried a comment and a condition for the application to go ahead: ‘Following this approval, the board expects the trust to undergo a period of consolidation until all new academies have been fully integrated into the trust’; ‘Approved with one condition 1) the trust limits growth for a period of 12 months until Easter (2020)’. Sometime later, the approved Minutes were changed removing these two items! The power of Leigh Academy Trust!!

The Chairman of Governors at Paddock Wood chose to launch an attack on KCC and the quality of education offered and, whilst I have my own criticisms, I don’t accept that:‘ “recent and significant changes to the way Kent County Council influences the running of its schools means that there is considerably less time for school leaders to lead learning and teaching beyond delivering the core curriculum,” with the quality of education on offer to pupils said to be likely to suffer if this was allowed to go “unchallenged” within the  next year’. Not surprisingly, Roger Gough, KCC Cabinet Member for Education politely queried these allegations only to receive a factually incorrect onslaught from Simon Beamish, the £220,000 annual salaried CEO of Leigh, for querying the views of parents (although the consultation had not yet finished!

His letter included: “You and Paul have always been such supporters of LAT.….Have you taken this action in the case of every academy conversion in Kent?...I wonder if [this] is related to the very small, but very vocal, anti-academy and NEU [National Education Union]-linked local Paddock Wood lobby group...We and Scott [Opstad, the two schools’ headteacher] have kept a dignified silence on all of this and will carry on doing so. The vast majority of parents and staff have found it distressing as well…We are simply following very carefully the process laid down by the Conservative Government’s policy on education to encourage academisation which I am surprised you take such an agnostic view towards locally as part of a Conservative-led county council. I expect governors will also be interested in the reasons why Conservative policy locally is at odds with Conservative policy nationally, but then very little surprises me in politics these days.”

What arrogance!

The Paul mentioned above, is presumably Paul Carter, Leader of KCC, who was a Director of LAT between 2007 and 2010. To the best of my knowledge he has always shown himself agnostic towards academisation in his written and verbal public communications, so this can hardly be the surprise to Mr Beamish he claims.  

The ‘very small anti-academy group’ was presumably behind a petition calling for the community to be given a “binding vote” on the school’s academisation had been signed by 471 people including more than 300 signatures from postcodes in which Paddock Wood parents lived. Hardly ‘very small’. When asked for their evidence of parental support, LAT could only waffle. The 'small group' will also have included a parent, Charles Marshall, who has been very active in the campaign. 

Neither school is mentioned on the Leigh Academies Trust website as part of the Trust or one of its forthcoming academies, except in a throw away line from the Summer Newsletter's Message from Simon Beamish 'We look forward to welcoming two more primary academies at Horsmonden and Paddock Wood from September', from which we must assume they are starting out in the brave new world then. 

Whatever debate there was is not even mentioned on the school websites, except in the case of Paddock Wood in a heavily redacted Governing Body Minute back in February that removes any understanding of events.

A Freedom of Information Request from Charles Marshall to the Regional Schools Commissioner finds Mr Beamish arguing that: ‘Other than pupils who go to grammar from the two schools, virtually all the rest go to Mascalls in Year 7, already in LAT. The all-through education links are a bit of a no-brainer and fit perfectly with the LAT approach’. This is a powerful argument, and if the school communities wanted academisation would indeed be a no-brainer, but there is no evidence that they do, and the dishonesty of LAT’s policy, part applied through its own Mascalls School, was hardly likely to endear them to the Trust. 

Since my previous article, I have had several messages from past and present members of staff at LAT, and there is a certain consistency about the messages. It is clear that Mr Beamish's personality dominates the Trust. He takes criticism by the media badly, one informant saying he describes them as 'trolls under the bridge'. Several refer to the financial model of squeezing those on the front line, but seeing higher salary management roles proliferate. Bullying of staff is alleged. One hopes that Mr Opstad is going into this with his eyes open. 

On a completely separate subject, Jeremy Kite, long term Leader of Dartford Council became a founder Director of the Trust and its predecessor since before it became a City Technology College 1990 and has continued to this day. Mr Kite has led Dartford Council to take a very positive view of education and supported a wide range of developments (contrast with next door Gravesham Council which has shown no interest in education for the past 35 years at least).  Mr Kite’s was a very astute appointment, as the school and the Trust’s other Dartford schools appear to have benefited strongly from the connection ever since.

I have asked both LAT and Mr Opstad to explain where the two schools now are in the process of academisation and have updated this article incorporating the LAT response.

I have started this year to separate out Short Inspections, which look at some schools with previous Good or Outstanding outcomes, but the small numbers reduce their significance for 2018-19. Most Short Inspections have the same assessment confirmed, but some will trigger a subsequent inspection where there are grounds to raise or lower the level. There were, in the event, just four secondary Short Inspections in Kent all confirming a previous Good Outcome, but many more primaries (article to come).

I am in the process of adding the recent Ofsted history of each Kent and Medway secondary school to my Individual Schools sections on this site for Kent and Medway, which contain data on places offered, appeals and performance for every school, amongst other information. If you would like me to give a particular school priority in this editing, or a page needs updating, please let me know. 

I have regularly seen on school websites again this year, the usual claims about best ever GCSE and A Level results. I prefer to wait until Provisional Results are published next month to authenticate these, as some tend to be selective in their choice of data. 

 Note: There were no grammar Short Inspections, and no non-selective inspections for Local Authority or Foundation schools 

Four schools saw a fall in  Ofsted Level, with the two Maidstone boys’ grammar schools dropping from Outstanding to Good, looked at here. Westlands also saw a decline, all three of these schools down from Outstanding to Good, suffering from another change of policy which had previously exempted Outstanding schools from a subsequent inspection. The fourth was The Malling School, looked at in more detail below.

Some years ago, I supported a student there, who struggled for much of his school career but subsequently graduated from university with a first class honours degree. This is a tribute to both the school and a determined mother who, like so many other parents of SEN children, would never give up and fought and fought the system for her child.

Back to the Malling Holmesdale Federation. One problem with The Malling School is that the Tydeman pupils will always bring down the overall school GCSE performance, as with other such schools possessing Units. As well as East and West Malling, it technically serves the wealthy Kings Hill area, many of whose residents developed a prejudice against the school and it suffered a loss of popularity. However, thanks to the Federation and good leadership the school improved and eventually became the stronger partner, whilst Holmesdale nosedived, as explained here. Ofsted regularly recognised the poor starting levels of pupils when awarding a series of four Good Ofsteds between 2006 and 2015. 

For those with an eye to history, the previous Year 2000 Report of the school under the headship of the unique Valerie Dagger by 13 Inspectors over a period of a week, is an eye opener. In 60 close packed pages it carries out a full analysis of the school its strengths and weaknesses including each subject area, but does not reach an overall judgement.

However, the most recent Inspection Report in June 2019 finds, in less than a quarter of the length of the 200 Report, that the school Requires Improvement although it considers the leadership is still good. It employed five inspectors, a large team for such a task these days, over two days. The previous headteacher left over the summer, joining a mini exodus of Kent heads to exotic foreign parts. New head John Vennart, in a one page introduction on the school’s website headed ‘Ofsted Report’, presents a glowing picture of the report, blaming any weaknesses on previous poor examination results (they crashed in 2018), but failing to notice significant issues in teaching, learning and assessment identified in the Report. However, the good news reported is that the quality of these areas is rapidly improving.

 However, another matter that has come to light following an FOI by me to the school is the shockingly high proportion of teachers without Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) teaching at the school. Quite simply, over a third of the 86 full time teachers at OAIOS are unqualified (30 in total) together with two of the five part timers. There is no mention of this surely unacceptable proportion in the Report section on teaching quality, so presumably Inspectors were unaware and did not enquire about it.

The school is still suffering from its dreadful reputation highlighted by having 101 out of 177 offers of places made in March being Local Authority Allocations of children who did not apply to the school but could get nowhere else, Robert Napier by contrast having 22 LAAs out of 180 offers. This pattern of high LAAs is shared by the three ‘tough love’ Kent academies, Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey (above), Ebbsfleet and Hartsdown, all running a ‘no excuses’ culture, all four being amongst the five most unpopular schools in the county by this measure. Perhaps that Ofsted Report will cause it to cut back on its tough no excuses approach which clearly sits badly with families. Indeed, the school report that it has achieved its best ever GCSE and A Level results are greeted with: ‘We are delighted with these results, as they are proof of the changed culture’ on the school website. I look forward to seeing numbers improve as the past fades away.  

The eight most oversubscribed non-selective schools in order are: Valley Park with 186 disappointed first choices; St George’s CofE Foundation (Broadstairs), 182; Fulston Manor 152; King Ethelbert, 122; Trinity, 104; St George’s CofE Comprehensive (Gravesend) and Westlands, 93; Bennett Memorial, 78.

The six most oversubscribed grammar schools are: Dartford Grammar, 336; Dartford Grammar Girls,230; Judd, 173; Skinners, 122; Tonbridge, 111; and Wilmington Boys, 101.

The Trust's closure was forced in 2016, when government tired of its activities, having provided it with extensive additional funding including £122,414 from the ESFA to stabilise its finances, with one of its nine primary schools in Kent and Sussex, being awarded a grant of an additional £507,546 in financial support.  None of this helped, and the verdict from the Trust's own August 2016  Annual Report and Financial Statements was that: 'The Lilac Sky Schools Trust is carrying a net deficit of £1,329,631 on these funds because: The Trust incurred extortionate and expensive Founder/ substantive CEO consultancy  costs for 232 days at a net cost of £217,500 along with other high cost support services, central  Trust  staffing  costs that  were far higher than average,  the cost of  settlement  agreements  (contractual  and non-contractual) paid to staff who were immediately appointed as consultants by the company and recharged to the Trust, minimal value for money procedures and a lack of competitive tendering'. Now look back at the justification by Mr Beeson (the Averre comes and goes) of those actions in the light of these facts and those below. Mr Beeson's explanation suggests he is not aware of the condemnation of financial activity produced by the new management of the Trust after he left/was forced out. 

You will find my analysis below of the 'progress' of the four companies at the heart of the Lilac Sky empire. 

My recording of the sins of LSSAT began when it came apparent that  with the open support of KCC it was financially ripping off a troubled school sending it spiralling further downwards. One of the key articles was here, which provided powerful evidence that LSSAT was failing its schools, financially benefitting to a  gross extent, all being championed by KCC and its Head of Education, who accused me of making false allegations, but although when challenged for evidence never replied or withdrew the false accusations. 

I can find nowhere any acknowledgement by KCC or LSSAT of their failures to show due care for the children under their care, who are always the victims of such abuse of power. For those who think the failures are now dead and buried, look at the subsequent fates of some of these schools, such as Knockhall Academy, Martello Primary and  Morehall Primary!  The Lilac Sky Companies appear to have hoovered up money from LSSAT and other sources, so it should be a surprise to learn that they have all financially failed, unless the money has somehow been extracted from them. LSSAT was uniquely identified in the Department for Education Annual Report  for 2016-17 as accounting for nearly half of the cash losses to schools nationally at £537,000. Mr Averre Beeson is quoted in the TES some years ago, as being in favour of 'run for profit' schools. 

I do not propose to reiterate my exposé of the sins of Lilac Sky further as they are covered in great detail elsewhere (follow the links), except to mention the sad story of Virgo Fidelis Preparatory School, a small flourishing private girls primary school which had the misfortune to come into contact with Lilac Sky who bought it out. Needing to get way from the by then toxic Lilac Sky brand, its name and the that of the company were changed to trade on the virtues of Henriette Le Forestier, a Frenchwoman who founded a Catholic movement dedicated to the shelter and education of orphan girls, some way removed from the aims of Lilac Sky! You will find details of the the Employment Tribunal that awarded large sums  to employees of the school after it went bust seven months following its take over by Lilac Sky here.  Presumably as the company had been dissolved, the taxpayer became responsible for their losses.   

LS is short for Lilac Sky throughout

* but also traded as Education 101 Outstanding Services from 1st September 2016, not a registered company, and whose website has now disappeared. 

Most recent Abbreviated Unaudited Accounts for Lilac Sky Schools Ltd, August 2015 show dividends of £76,500 paid to Mr Averre Beeson (£200,430 in 2014), and the company was owed £150,740 by Mr Averre-Beeeson (£148, 531 in 2014). No subsequent accounts were lodged.  

Liquidators of Henriette Le Forestiere Statement of Affairs to April 2017 shows unpaid creditors totalling £917,000, including back pay for employees.

Most recent Abbreviated Unaudited Accounts  for Lilac Sky Outstanding Services in 2015 show a loan to Mr Averre-Beeson of £180,521.  No subsequent accounts were lodged. 

 *Most recent Unaudited Financial Statements August 2016  show an advance to Mr Averre-Beeson of £245,438 sole director, which was more than the total assets at that time, but there is no record of them being repaid.. 

 Education 101 Ltd, set up in November 2017, and dissolved in February this year never filed accounts, although very active. Its website has now been taken over by the Trevor Beeson site, with much of the same outdated information and news, together with linked email addresses. 

You will find the answer to most questions about whether to apply for a Review in the article onReview and Appeal.....

You will find a full analysis of Medway Test and Review outcomes for 2019 admission here. 

I have completely retired from my appeals advisory service, and am afraid I am unable to answer individual questions as a result. However, this website offers comprehensive explanation and advice if you trouble to look at the relevant pages, the best start probably being here.  As in previous years, I will also publish articles on Medway Test results and Review in more detail as I receive them. 

Note: OOC stands for Out of County, i.e. living outside Medway

You will find the source of much of this data here. 

Out of Area Applicants:It is difficult to be precise about the consequences of the continued increase in Out of Medway children passing the Medway Test with the dramatic change in Rochester Grammar admission policy (see below). We don't yet know the gender breakdown, but the table below shows the 2019 allocation breakdown by school. Around half of the OOCs are from Kent children in most cases.

Note: PAN stands for Published Admission Number. Last year most grammar schools increased their PAN to respond to high demand, although The Rochester Grammar reduced theirs. Details here, 

There is considerable information and advice on admissions and appeals to Kent schools, including grammar schools specifically, on the right-hand side of this page together with links to important articles. In response to multiple enquiries each year you cannot: appeal the Kent Test Results; challenge the Head Teacher Assessment; or arrange a late HTA.  What you can do is apply for one or more grammar schools and then appeal against decision of the schools to turn you down if your child did not pass the Kent Test. You will find the parallel article for the Medway testhere. 

Please do not try and post comments about individual situations. This is not a forum.  I am afraid I have retired from offering individual advice.

KCC now make individual test scores available to parents who registered online from 4 p.m. today, Thursday 17th October, available the following day from school or KCC.

As last year, I  shall be publishing a second article later when I receive more data from KCC. You will find initial figures released by KCC below, mainly taken from the official press release, together with further information. 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 few reported cases in recent years of grammar qualified Kent children  who were looking for a place not being offered one, the exception being the Greenhithe/Ebbsfleet area of NW Kent with some families having to go to appeal. Further thoughts below. 

On top of the 4941 Kent children found selective, some 350 additional pupils are eligible for a single grammar school every year through success in the Dover, Shepway, Mayfield (Gravesend Girls) or Highsted (Sittingbourne Girls) Tests.

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

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 are 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!

For  further information you will find Oversubscription and vacancies in Kent Grammar schools on allocation for Admission September 2019 (via link) provides considerable information on pressure of places, as does the page on Kent Grammar School Applications for Entry in 2020. There is a 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 on  a particular school, please let me know. You will also find additional data on OFSTED Ratings (currently being inserted for every secondary school), 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 am about to publish an article on school appeals statistics for schools for entry in September 2019. You will find last year's article here, with a link to further outcomes, although I have already updated many 2019 appeal statistics for individual appeals. In the meantime you may wish to consult the relevant information pages for Kent Grammar School Appealsor Oversubscription Appeals the latter for both non-selective and grammar schools, or again the Individual Schools section.  

I suspect the overwhelming majority of those 2666 OCCs who passed the Kent Test but were not offered places will have had other preferences met, including the M25 tourists, whose poor children take grammar school tests all around the ring.

Whereas in 2017 the proportion of Kent girls being found suitable for grammar school was be slightly higher than that for boys, last year it switched back again to 25.3% boys to 25.0% girls. I will know the 2019 proportions later. 

The main pressure areas are usually 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, because of the opening of the Weald of Kent annexe. 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 grammar qualified boys may need to go to appeal as in previous years, but 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 336 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 and girls in the Greenhithe/Ebbsfleet area, but in the end I believe that all who wished secured places at one of the Gravesend grammars or at Wilmington. 

Whitstable/Herne Bay has been difficult for boys in the past, with no local grammar school and extensive building development in the area, but for 2019 Simon Langton Boys increased its number of places by 30 to 150 which appeared to eliminate the problem. There is not a problem in capacity for girls in the city.

 In other areas the situation can be fluid, and the 5305 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. 

Since the Sevenoaks annexe was conceived and championed by previous Leader of KCC, Paul Carter, it was always planned to find a boys’ grammar to complete the co-educational nature of the Sevenoaks site. This proposal will be driven by KCC whose new Leader, Roger Gough, just happens to represent Sevenoaks as a County Councillor. National politics????? Whatever, there will certainly be more legal obstacles and challenges to overcome before the second half of the annexe is brought into being, even if the Consultation outcome is positive, which I anticipate. There is most unlikely to be a quick conclusion to proceedings. 

TWGSB has always been the obvious tenant for the new premises, and it may be that the change of heart has followed the retirement of the previous long serving headteacher, John Harrison, and the appointment of his successor, Amanda Simpson. However, there are two important differences between this proposal and what is currently known as the Weald of Kent annexe. TWGSB is one of the last remaining Local Authority grammar schools in the county, which means it has fewer freedoms than academies such as Weald of Kent. Secondly, the combined governance of the new annexe would present fresh challenges to overcome, most importantly how to run a single institution with two separate hosts.  

Distance between the two sites appeared to be a major concern of the vocal objectors to the original annexe, but the new proposal means additional linking with another school just over a mile further away. Whatever, the future of this project will be controversial but the objectors, who appear never to mention the interests of local children at the centre of the proposal, might like to take these into account when mounting their inevitable challenge.