Currently Bligh Primary in Strood is part of the Barnsole Primary Trust which is discussing a merger with (takeover by) the Maritime Academy Trust, based in Greenwich whose CEO is currently also Interim CEO of the Barnsole Trust. I had assumed this proposal was inevitable and this decision is further evidence of it. The nine mile journey may appear daunting, but both schools are close to the A2/M2 so it makes a great deal of sense when weighed against the alternatives. 

According to the KM, the proposal is currently with the Department for Education awaiting approval. The Trust is in discussion with Kent County Council to arrange transport, and the school is planning ot meet 'virtually' with prospective parents next Thursday to outline arrangements. At present there is no mention of the issue on the school website. 

Dr Saxton is leaving to take on a Civil Service role as Policy Adviser for the School System to Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education. I suspect that her particular style will make the role a success, drawing on her experience of organising a School Academy Trust. The article on the Turner Schools website announcing Dr Saxton's departure lists her key achievements and, in the interests of balance, I supply some more below. It is unfortunate that the website article, as is sadly typical for Turner Schools, contains a number of misleading statements, similar to the many I have highlighted in various previous articles. I have published multiple articles on the Trust and Folkestone Academy in particular, which can be accessed via my website search engine (top LHS) with the simple word 'Turner'. You will also find a collection of some the torrent of slogans and promises made by Dr Saxton and her Trust here. It is unfortunate that too many of the claims by the Trust can be easily disproved.

• The largest number by a long way of fixed term exclusions in Kent at a single school, Folkestone Academy ever, at 1211 (more than double the next school) in 2017-18. This did fall sharply the following year after I had made this very public, to 536, but still the second highest in Kent. Martello Primary, taken on by Turner Schools in January 2017, had the second highest Fixed Term exclusion rate out of all of Kent's 463 primary schools in the same year with one exclusion for every four pupils. It was not much better for 2018-19 having the third highest percentage at 16%. Explanation by Dr Saxton: This was necessary to raise standards.
• Fall in academic performance Progress 8 (government's key measure) at Folkestone Academy, from top half of all selective schools in Kent (2017) before Turner Schools, to fifth bottom in Kent (2018) and still in the bottom quarter (2019).
• Fall in numbers at Folkestone Academy: Sixth Form numbers fall by half from October 2016 (337) to October 2019 (170). The school has 34% of its Year 7 places empty, sixth highest proportion in the county, with 179 pupils in Year 7, down by over a third from 287 in 2016, for its 270 places. 34% of those offered Year 7 places in March 2019, were not in the school at the census the following October. There is also a fall in numbers at Morehall Primary with the lowest Year R intake in the whole of Kent, filling just 27% of its 60 places, and Martello Primary fourth lowest intake at 34%. Every other Folkestone school is more than half full, most completely full.
• Indebtedness to government by the Trust has increased from nothing to £1.3 million over three years. Morehall Primary is running at a deficit of £105,000 in 2018-19, up from £90,000 the previous year, due to low numbers. Turner Free School, in spite of its start up grant, has a deficit of £58,000 at the end of its first year of operation, possibly due to the overload of senior staff, with three deputies and a headteacher at the start of the year to manage 120 pupils.
• Staff turnover has been huge, especially at Folkestone Academy which saw a third of its staff leave in 2017-18, with 54 teachers going. This did fall to 27 in 2018-19 including an Associate Principal who lasted just a month. Because of the fall in numbers, the school is in any case having to lose staff, but this high departure rate reduces the need for redundancy. The school is now on its fifth Principal since Turner Schools took over less than three years ago. Martello Primary is on its fourth. It is reported that one of the reasons for the large rate of turnover is Dr Saxton's style, in that she has a vision and knows clearly what is best for the Trust, but does not appreciate disagreement.
• Governance was a shambles, with the Co-Founding Chairman and two other long serving Directors leaving after an emergency meeting of Directors called at very short notice and held by telephone Conference Call over two days last summer.
• On the other side of the balance sheet, the Trust does excel in attracting funding, the previous Chairman of Directors writing: 'Jo Saxton and her team have also worked extremely hard to bring in additional funding to Turner Schools with the explicit aim of this funding supporting all four schools. The additional funding Jo personally applied for amounts to over half a million pounds, and comes from a combination of government grants as well as charitable donations'. I have taken a closer look at these here.

My most recent article, entitled Annual School Report for Turner Schools: Serious Weaknesses covers several of these items, amongst other matters, and is based on the Turner Schools Annual Accounts for 2018-19 as submitted to Companies House.

The good news is the transformation at Holmesdale, following Swale Academies Trust (SAT) eventually being given a contract to manage the school at the end of 2018. GCSE Progress 8 last summer placed Holmesdale in the top half of Kent non-selective schools, up from second lowest in Kent the previous year under KCC control. 21% of pupils gained at least Level 5 at GCSE in English and maths, just below halfway and above a number of highly regarded schools. Whilst numbers applying for the school are still low because of its past reputation, children are now staying in the school whereas by October 2017, 34% of those enrolled in Year 7 five years earlier had left the school, by some way the highest proportion in Kent (still high in 2019, at 11% but much improved). There has been no Ofsted Monitoring Inspection since July 2018. This was a Report which followed on from the Special Measures verdict, was a shocker and took place before Swale took the school on. This lack of a follow up inspection is surely exceptional for a school in Special Measures, so why has it not taken place?  

Although some details are still sketchy, the external led inquiry into KCC’s actions was commissioned following a series of complaints about their conduct from Swale Academies Trust over Holmesdale. These led to a confidential Report which I have not yet seen, but which is reported to be highly critical of KCC officers including ‘malicious actions’ by staff. I have been promised a copy of the Report but, given the level of interest raised by my enquiries it may no longer be forthcoming!

Unsurprisingly, neither organisation is willing to talk to me further about the matter.

My second article was written after I was sent a cache of emails between Swale Academies Trust and KCC about these issues in December 2018, following an FOI request. I had planned to use them as the basis for a further article. A number are explosive and are likely to have informed the Inquiry conclusions but, whilst I was considering how best to present them, the short term future of Holmesdale was settled satisfactorily. I then made the decision to shelve the project as there was no reason to destabilise the new arrangements. What is clear however, is that the emails highlight a breakdown in relationships between the two organisations, with KCC attempting over a lengthy period to block SAT’s attempts to get the school working properly again for the benefit of its pupils. The emails also reveal how the dreadful The Education People worked closely with KCC officers to undermine Swale Academies Trust. 

What is clear in the article about the North, and others, is that part of the tension between SAT and KCC arises because of financial disagreements as SAT seeks to secure what it regards as fair and proper payment for the services it supplies which are clearly considerably greater or more expensive than KCC considers necessary. It is also partly because SAT insists on freedom to improve schools in the way it thinks best. My article on SAT's taking Meopham School from Special Measures to Outstanding explores these issues further, looks at other parallel successes by the Trust taking on KCC failures, and contrasts them with events at Holmesdale. 

Two new academies are in the pipeline as explained here. The Maritime Academy, for all ages and sponsored by the Thinking Schools Academy Trust, was planned to open in September 2019, but is now on target for 2021, which has created this year’s pressures.  The Leigh Academy Rainham was also approved by government in 2017 for opening in 2019, but again should come on stream next year. Good news for St John Fisher in 2020, but worrying for the following year!

You will find the parallel article on Medway grammar schools here, with the Kent articles to follow.

Please note that there will be some 'churning' as successful appeals for grammar school places remove some children from the non-selective schools. There were 81 successful appeals at Medway grammars last year (up from 66 in 2018), but over half were for girls at Chatham Grammar, see table below. There were also 32 appeals heard at four Medway non-selective schools (down from 34) taking pupils from less popular schools, 19% of those heard being successful, see below. 

Notes: * Refers to schools that apply a Fair Banding Test, see below for details. 

The school is also unable to hold its natural recruiting area amongst Catholics and Catholic Primary schools (the latter according to families I have advised), with the two closest Kent Catholic schools offering 36 places to  children from Medway. The prospectus quote: 'we have a proud history of providing a world-class education for students from faiths and none' hardly fits the facts!

The school’s Catholic ethos is unequivocal: “The Catholic School is not just an environment providing a series of lessons. It aims to meet the needs of the young people today in the light of the Church’s faith in Jesus Christ. This means that a school’s Catholic character is witnessed to in all facets of its life. For the school to be truly Catholic this vision must be shared by all concerned with its work.”

Six years ago, one of my clients took Medway Council to the High Court  and won a case  with what has been described as an esoteric conclusion but is certainly of exceeding complexity (I defy any lay person to understand it). The commentary quoted above states: 'The judgement repays consideration for its analysis of the law governing the teaching of, and curriculum-setting for, religious education in schools and academies. This was about religious teaching in state schools'. One side effect was that  it forced Medway Council to find an alternative non-religious school for the family's son to attend, on the grounds that he should not be forced to attend a faith school with a strong religious ethos. If this is upheld again, families could win cases to one of the two Walderslade schools in the South of Medway with the Council being required to pay transport costs. 

This article follows on from my initial survey of 2020 allocations, containing further data at Kent Secondary allocations.You will find the equivalent article here for 2019 allocations. Please note that it is written for and read by a number of different audiences, so not all may be of interest or relevance for families. 

You will find my initial and more general thoughts here, with the parallel article on grammar schools for 2019 here (2020 to follow) and 2020 Medway schools grammar and non-selective. A net total of 162 additional places have been created to meet a rise of 149 in the number of pupils offered Kent schools. This leaves 494 vacancies, or 3.5% of the total. 

The new Maidstone School of Science and Technology, opening in September, has offered 180 further places (together with holding a waiting list) which are not included in these figures as the school is not yet part of the Kent admissions scheme. This may pose an existential threat to two other Maidstone schools.

I look at individual Districts further down the article, with direct links at: 

Page 2: Ashford; Canterbury; Dartford; 

Page 3: Dover, Deal & Sandwich; Folkestone and Hythe; Gravesham; 

Page 4: Maidstone; Sevenoaks; Swale; 

Page 5: Thanet; Tonbridge & Malling; Tunbridge Wells

Last year there was just one new arrival in the list of schools oversubscribed by more than fifty places, this year there are four:  Wye and John Wallis, reflecting the major development of Ashford, Stone Lodge, the new school in Dartford, and Hillview Girls in Tonbridge. Two have gone, Charles Dickens in Thanet, and St Anselm’s in Canterbury. In one sense I am describing a misleading picture as, for some of these schools their popularity is increased by a desire to avoid another school with perceived difficulties, as explained below.  Some commentators seek to criticise such parents for chasing popular schools, but the reality is often very different.  

The picture will change from now until September, successful grammar school appeals taking children out of the sector and creating a ripple effect as children move up to preferred schools through re-allocation where places have been freed. In addition, some of these schools also admit significant numbers of additional children on appeal (but see below), those at the other end of the scale suffering even further.The Individual School section contains relevant detail here.

The polarisation referred to in my introduction continues apace, as can be seen by comparison of the table below with the equivalent 2018 article, and the District surveys below. The latter article listed just seven schools with a vacancy rate of more than a third before LAAs are added in. Now there are eleven with 40% or more vacancies. I have chosen the 40% cut off this time round because the next school in the 2020 list was a long way down from this level, with just 23% empty spaces before LAAs were taken into account. All the seven schools in the 2018 list are also in the current one.

 The final column, '% Loss 2019’' looks back to 2019 data. Here I have compared the March allocation figure with the number of Year Seven children who actually turned up, according to the October 2019 school census. It is no coincidence that the six schools with the highest percentage losses are all in that 2018 table of vacancies. The losses will have come from children taking up places at preferred schools where vacancies have developed (or in some cases private schools) together with an indeterminate number leaving for Home Education, rather than send their children to these schools.

A school’s finances are based primarily on the number of pupils in the school and my articles through the years have identified half a dozen secondary schools that have been forced to close through lack of numbers, most recently Pent Valley School, Hextable Academy and Chaucer Technology School. I can see two further schools that I consider are at risk.     

* Hartsdown Academy came third in this list separating the Brook schools, with just 65 first choices. 

I have written critically about the Brook Trust before, it is clearly still in considerable trouble and is the subject of a further article in progress.

 District Survey

 ** Excluding Duke of York's Royal Military School (Boarding only)

Kent children having been offered Out of County Non-Selective Places (around 280 in 2019): Bexley 69 (St Catherine's Catholic 19, Haberdasher's Aske's Crayford Academy 15, St Columba's Catholic Boys' 10, Blackfen Girls, 6, 2019 - 53);  Bromley 14 (2019-21); East Sussex 61 (Uplands 44, Beacon 7, Robertsbridge 6,  2019 -68); Medway 59 (Greenacre 16, Rainham Girls 9, Howard 7,  2019 -41); Surrey 37 (Oxted 35, 2019 -62).

 Unfortunately, whilst the three points above may well be aims for KCC, my District Survey below shows that there is considerable shortfall in the first two of these. I appreciate this section may not be of interest to most of my readers, so please follow the link to read on. 

You will find full data for each school in the Individual Schools Section of this website. Currently, the large data bank is up to date, although commentary is lagging behind in a few cases where indicated (update in progress, or on request).

There are new secondary schools in the pipeline to cater for future housing developments; but the first of these at Chilmington Green is not due until 2022, so existing schools will need to expand further to pick up the shortfall.   

The big loser is, as is to be expected, Ebbsfleet Academy with 29 of the 32 vacancies in the District (there were none last year), and 31 LAAs. However, under a new headteacher, this is better than it could have been with the notorious Alison Colwell having fled to run a private school in Mallorca. She is seeking to exact her revenge with a book to be published in August. This is reportedly an exposé of her experiences at Ebbsfleet under the title of ‘The Secret Headteacher’. The puff for this (a previous version, since deleted, identifies the author) predictably contains one of the many falsehoods claimed about the school under her headship.

Also losing out is the Inspiration Leigh Academy oversubscribed since its opening three years ago, but now allocated 18 children as LAAs and still with three vacancies. This is intended to bolt on to the struggling Leigh UTC, very short of numbers with its entry at Year 10 admitting just 40 pupils in a school with PAN 120 in 2019. The whole setup is starting to look very shaky. Every other school is oversubscribed.

Around 75 out of county children have been offered places in Dartford secondary schools, the large majority from Bexley, with a similar number crossing the border the other way.  With Ebbsfleet Garden City expanding at great pace, there is sufficient capacity in the District, until 2021-22 when the Alkerden School comes on stream.

Omitting DOYRMS, The District has 7% vacancies, second highest in Kent, all 63 being at Astor College, its popularity having slumped and also offering all Dover’s 34 LAAs. The school's one saving grace is picking up 12 pupils last year between allocation and the October census, some of whom may be refugees, others refugees from Folkestone Academy. Every other school is oversubscribed. St Edmund's Catholic School, last year full for the first time in many years, has continued to grow in strength. The school has the fifth highest increase in first choices in the county, up by 44. It has turned first choices away for the first time and becoming the most oversubscribed school in the District with 31 families disappointed.  Dover Christ Church Academy has admitted another 30 pupils increasing its PAN to 180 for the first time and is close behind St Edmund's, having seen its number of first choices increase by 40. Goodwin Academy is also full for the first time in many years, after the scandal of SchoolsCompany, having been taken over by Thinking Schools Academy Trust. 

Brockhill Park in Hythe is the most oversubscribed school in the District, disappointing 54 first choice families, while the rural Marsh Academy continues to recruit well and for the first time has turned away first choices, seven in number. It is likely that some families from the Marsh, drawn to Brockhill in the past, can no longer access it, because of the flow from Folkestone.  

When MSST opens, the children it draws from other schools will create a churning effect, as children move up to fill gaps opening in the more popular schools. This inevitably reaches through to the two schools at risk, Cornwallis and New Line Learning academies, both run by the Future Schools Trust. These two schools have 132 Local Authority Allocations between them. The only six vacancies currently in Maidstone are at Cornwallis which does not appear in the above county vacancy list, but still has 21% empty spaces before LAAs, at present. The problem is exacerbated by the annual high number of successful appeals at the four Maidstone grammar schools which last year absorbed 187 further children. These are drawn mainly from the same two schools after trickle down. The KCC Commissioning Plan for Maidstone non-selective places forecast there would be a surplus of 607 places in September 2020 after MSST came on line. This is a figure larger than the total capacity of Cornwallis and New Line Learning academies! 

Unfortunately, this hardly touches the issue of the large number of Sheppey families trying to avoid Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey (OAIOS). These, along with families, often to the south of the town, who would have looked to Fulston Manor  are desperately seeking schools on the mainland but instead themselves part of the 101 Local Authority Allocations at OAIOS (second highest figure in Kent and over 30 more than ever before). This still left the school with 66 vacancies, also the second highest figure in Kent. Each year when I was offering individual professional advice, I received enquiries from large numbers of these families at their wits end and refusing to consider Oasis with its awful reputation. Only last week I took a phone call from a professional who told me about the large number of reports of bullying at the school which they received. I am not convinced any of these families will find the KCC view acceptable.

Not surprisingly Fulston Manor and Westlands schools in Sittingbourne are both in the top six most oversubscribed schools in Sittingbourne, although last year they took very different routes through the appeal process. The Fulston Manor Appeal Panel has not upheld more than seven cases (one per class) in the past six years at least, so the successes will be very special cases.  Westlands upheld 51 out of 52 appeals, but may of course go down a different route this year. The problem has reached crisis levels, with KCC's estimated shortage of  144 Year Seven non-selective  places in Sittingbourne next year, rising to 192 in 2023. The Commissioning Plan recognises there will need to be another six forms of entry in 2023, but puts through no solution. Some years ago, a new school was proposed, but there is now no mention of this. Oasis saw a fall of 51 potential Year Seven children between allocation and the October school census last year. The decline in Oasis numbers has seen the school mothball one of its two sites, but for how long. Reopening surely cannot be the solution to the coming crisis, but where is there an alternative for those 192 children  Some families desperate enough to avoid the school home educate with around 150 families on the Island trying this at present! This should not be happening. Girls might like to try Rainham School for Girls in Medway.

The Sittingbourne School saw the second highest increase in first choices in the county, at 55 taking it to 21 first choices oversubscribed. It still did not appear to have any appeals last year, and Abbey School, Faversham, which is slowly losing out in popularity to the much improved Whitstable, just filled. 

According to the now out of date Commissioning Plan, 'Forecasts indicate a deficit of places for both Year 7 and Years 7-11 over the Plan period. In the short-term this increased demand will be met through temporary additional Year 7 places at Royal Harbour Academy, whilst bringing forward the permanent expansion of King Ethelbert School by 2FE for September 2022. Ursuline College will expand by 1FE later in the plan period to meet the forecast need from 2023'. Meanwhile, the misery for too many parents continues, with 187 children being allocated to Hartsdown and Royal Harbour academies through the LAA process, having tried to avoid the two schools. These are both managed by the Coastal Academies Trust along with King Ethelbert, the second most oversubscribed school in Kent, meaning the Trust controls over half of the secondary places in Thanet.  

St George’s CofE, whilst still the third most oversubscribed non-selective school in Kent, is declining in popularity! This year 129 first choices were turned down, against 2019’s 182, the fall possibly reflecting the disappointing GCSE performance in 2019. Performance is still significantly better than Hartsdown, Royal Harbour and Charles Dickens, three of the lowest five performers in Progress 8 GCSE in Kent.

It has now been overtaken by King Ethelbert, with 144 disappointed first choices. The other two oversubscribed schools are Charles Dickens, which has fallen from 77 to 37 first choices declined, and Ursuline College, which has chosen to reduce its intake back to 150 from the 180 of the two previous years, and is oversubscribed by 24 places (23 in 2019).

The previous link also provides much background information to the following data for Hartsdown and Royal Harbour, as my most recent article on the decision to reinstate the new Thanet Skies Academy.  

A further issue in the District is that 79 local grammar qualified pupils have been rejected from their first choice grammar school, so it is unlikely that many will be taken out of these two schools through grammar school appeals.

I have written previously about the avoidable disaster that led to Holmesdale  being placed in Special Measures following repeated failures by KCC to take action. A more recent article contains further revelations about KCC’s failures. The school is now rapidly improving its standards under the leadership of Swale Academies Trust with a much better GCSE performance and pupils no longer leaving the school during the course; however it takes time to rebuild a school’s reputation. As a result, there are still 70 LAAS out of the school’s 155 offers, and it currently depends on children from Medway to keep it afloat. 

Hayesbrook School continues on a downward slide as GCSE performance continues to decline from being the fourth highest performing Kent non-selective school in 2015 to Well Below Average and one of the lowest Kent performers in 2019. This will no doubt have influenced its current sorry state where it depends on pressure for places in Tunbridge Wells to keep afloat (see below). 56 of the 133 places awarded were LAAs, more than the number of first choices, at 54 the lowest number of any school in the county. Even more worrying, last year 59 of the 130 pupils offered places in March 2019, did not arrive in the school according to the following October census. That is 45% of the original number of places allocated, the highest dropout rate in the county. There is an item about the Brook Learning Trust which runs the school, earlier in this article. 

The crisis in secular non-selective provision in Tunbridge Wells is set out clearly in my 2018 article, which explains how a new school was lost through lack of a sponsor, and drawing on the Kent Commissioning Plan for 2018 which set out the need. The 2019 Plan was much less clear about the problem, stating that: 'the strategic response to this demand is a proposed 6FE expansion of an existing school or a new school from 2021-22'. There is no explanation how this is to be achieved, and the idea of expanding an existing school by 6 FE, is mind boggling. The 2020 Plan loses the problem completely recording that:

The use of the term ‘permanent’ makes it unclear if this extra provision, presumably at Skinners Kent Academy, is in addition to its current intake of 240 pupils, or if it is merely consolidation of the 60 places put in last year. 

So how is this sleight of hand achieved? Quite simply by spreading the children across a ‘Planning Group’ vision that takes in Tonbridge and Cranbrook, with some Tunbridge Wells boys unable to access local schools being dispatched to Hayesbrook (56 LAAs) and, I suspect, mainly local girls off to High Weald (32 LAAs), 20 miles away - last year some came from as far away as Edenbridge. TW girls cannot access the heavily oversubscribed Hillview School in Tonbridge. That totals up to 88 Tunbridge Wells children excluded from schools in their own town. There is still plenty of room in the low performing Hayesbrook and High Weald schools, both Brook Learning Trust Schools, see earlier item. 

High Weald Academy in Cranbrook, has recently had a major building programme, at a cost of some £13 million, replacing most of its older buildings. This has to be a high risk strategy, as the school has seen for some years the  biggest vacancy rate in the county along with a regular replacement programme of leaders in a vain attempt to improve matters, but no doubt the new premises were seen as an attraction to improve matters. Perhaps because the premises works were not completed by the time secondary admission forms were submitted in November, this hasn't worked yet, attracting just 55 first preferences with 96 places being offered in total for a school with a PAN of 180, at 36% the highest vacancy rate in Kent.  

Apart from the lack of the planned new school, the root of the problem lies with the two church schools. Bennett Memorial Diocesan School, which is consistently the highest performing (together with attainment) non-selective school in Kent and amongst the most oversubscribed, turning away 85 first choices this year. A key factor in this success is its highly selective religious criteria for admission, across seven categories, which only give limited priority to distance from the school. As a result, 41 places are going to Out Of County children this year (39 from East Sussex), and many others will be drawn from outside TW, at the expense of local children. St Gregory’s Catholic, 37 first choices disappointed, has a similar complex arrangement, but with just eight children from East Sussex. This leaves just one secular school in TW, Skinners Kent Academy, with 12 first choices oversubscribed for its 240 places, having expanded from 180 last year. 51 children from the area have decamped to East Sussex schools, 44 of them to Uplands Community College, the nearest school to TW.

Mascalls School in Paddock Wood has seen a sharp loss in popularity for reasons that are unclear, down by 59. but still leaving just one vacancy. 

Last year I finished this section with:'In other words, KCC does not know either where  the needed additional places are coming from or where they are going to place non-selective children who don’t qualify for faith schools, an issue that is not even mentioned!' The quotation still stands.

 Unfortunately, whilst the three points above may well be aims for KCC, my District Survey above shows that there is considerable shortfall in the first two of these. I appreciate this section may not be of interest to most of my readers.

I don’t intend to carry out a full analysis of the 162 pages, but draw some observations from the secondary schools section. It is unfortunate that the target is immediately nullified by the statement: ‘For this iteration, we have reverted back to publishing forecasts that do not include the pupil places required to support planned housing and therefore they  will need to be read in that context’ . In previous years KCC has taken planned housing into account which makes sense. It is some years since I had a public argument with the then Director of Education for Kent, who insisted that county policy was only to build new schools after there were sufficient pupils to fill them. The new policy appears to revert to those days, when the ambition to provide places for all learners saw some being allocated schools in other towns, although in reality we are already there in Sittingbourne and Tunbridge Wells.

This shift in policy may have followed the current debacle in Thanet, where planned housing has not arrived at the rate expected, a new school has been cancelled, although as a result, 187 families are allocated to schools they did not apply for and which are not regarded locally as of high quality. A reported 150 families on the Isle of Sheppey home school rather than send their children to the local school, unable to get a place in one of the three Sittingbourne schools, all bulging at the seams.

Whatever, the shift in policy accompanies an optimistic short term plan, which now assumes that schools in various parts of the county will be able to expand to whatever size meets the need, never mind the clear statement in the document that the recommended size of secondary schools should be between six and eight forms of entry.

It is certainly not KCC’s fault that whilst they are responsible for providing a school place for every pupil, they are not given the power to bring this about, nor to provide enough high quality education places located in the right areas. This is partly because Academy Trusts now run three quarters of Kent secondary schools, and in addition problems with finding sponsors, getting approval and planning have seen delays in getting most new schools off the ground.

However, surely one function of the plan is to identify problems which it clearly does not, instead papering over the cracks, presumably hoping that 'something will turn up'. And so we are left with the situation in Tunbridge Wells where a proposed new school failed to find a sponsor, and KCC now appears to have whitewashed the school and its six forms of entry out of its planning, instead expanding the eight form entry Skinners Kent Academy by two more classes if it allows, and dispatching those children unable to be accommodated to schools in Cranbrook, twenty miles away, and Tonbridge as is already happening. In Sittingbourne large numbers of pupils are offered places on the Isle of Sheppey where many families are taking whatever steps possible to avoid the local school. In Thanet, KCC policy is in ruins.

Please note that some numbers are approximate for two reasons. Pupils on Education Health Care Plans are not included in the data I have been provided with and I have estimated these. Secondly KCC does not provide exact figures where numbers are less than five, which for example explains the approximation in ooc figures. For simplicity I have used my best estimate in such circumstances. 

You will find: the equivalent article for 2020 Kent non-selective schools here; an initial article on allocation here, that also provides cut off scores for the super selective schools; the 2019 equivalent article here; and for Medway grammar schools here.  

You will find application numbers, appeal statistics and academic performance for the past few years, together with the Ofsted record for each school at the Individual Schools section of this website. Please let me know of any not up to date that you would wish to see, and I will revise them.  

Please note that all statistics in this website refer to grammar qualified children, both via the Kent Test and also through local Tests available through six grammar schools as explained below. My analysis of 2019 Kent Test outcomes for 2020 entry is here.   

To find allocation details and commentary for Individual Schools in:

Immediately below is  a full list of those schools oversubscribed by more than 25 first choices (grammar qualified) over places. This pattern will change following re-allocation and successful appeals in coming months, which can alter the picture significantly, as schools admit additional pupils. In some cases these are drawn from other grammars. Last year 29% of the 1,982 Kent grammar school appeals were successful ranging from none at Dartford Girls through to 86% at Highsted, followed by 70% at Simon Langton Girls and 66% at Maidstone Girls. 

Apart from the Thanet oversubscription, the biggest individual surprise is probably at Skinners in the second year of its new admission criteria. The increase in the aggregate pass score in the Kent Test explained here, whilst not changing the proportion of children passing, has had an unintended consequence at the school. This has seen the cut off distance for the majority of offers shrinking dramatically as explained below.   

All appeals at the six schools in the table below will be from children with a non-selective decision after the Kent Test procedure and most of the vacancies will vanish after appeals and late applications. Last year there were just four schools with vacancies at the October 2019 census in Year Seven: Dover Grammar Boys’ with 15; Tunbridge Wells Boys with 13 (having increased its Admission number by 30); Norton Knatchbull 10 (admission umber increased by 60); and Oakwood Park 2.

Four schools with vacancies in 2019 filled this year: Barton Court  (5 empty spaces last year now one first choice oversubscribed); Borden (16 last year, 9); Highworth (21 last year, 2);  Oakwood Park (41 last year, 0);

Individual School Survey. This looks at the situation for each Kent grammar school, below, including the number of first choices offered. At my request, KCC included the number of children with Education Health Care Plans offered places in these figures, otherwise they would have redacted this information (as happened last year).

In fact, is very difficult to win an appeal at any of the four Dartford grammar schools in spite of the very high numbers of appellants; a total of 18 upheld out of 426 in 2019.

The new Ebbsfleet Garden City continues to expand, planned to provide 15,000 homes at a rapid pace, with a number of new schools being included as explained here. However, government legislation forbids the provision of new grammar schools so, at present the four Wilmington and Gravesend grammars are expanding to meet the need. The Kent Schools Commissioning Plan (KSCP) identifies the additional one form of entry at Gravesend Grammar School which has been provided to meet the need this year. Two more forms of entry for the Gravesend grammars are planned in 2021-22. In Dartford, there are to be two more forms of entry in 2021-22, which presumably match the much needed two additional forms of entry provided at the two Wilmington grammar schools one year early for 2020, with another two in the District in three years time, unspecified. With the two Dartford grammars determined to keep their exclusive character, and the Wilmingtons’ on a limited size site, it is difficult to see where these places will be provided. Unfortunately, Kent County Council has decided its KSCP (Page 5) will not consider the effect of  further provision for planned housing developments and does not mention Ebbsfleet, so we can expect further capacity problems ahead. 

The knock-on effect of all this pressure follows right along the Thames coast to Chatham, where Holcombe Grammar offered 42 places to Kent and London families, and Rochester Grammar 83.   

Wilmington Grammar Boys has given priority to local boys for several years, but is often placed second to Dartford Grammar which partly explains why 106  of the 180 places went to lower choices and only  74 of 134 first choices were offered places. The school also gives a priority to siblings and siblings of pupils at Wilmington Girls, partly explaining why 18 ooc boys are still being offered places at the school, although the number continues to fall. 

Gravesend Grammar has increased its PAN in two stages to 210 boys up from the 150 of 2017 to meet the pressure from Ebbsfleet. The school markets itself as a local grammar, so it is not surprising that 175 of the 185 first choices were offered places. 8 of the 12 occ places went to boys from Thurrock, just a short distance from the school across the Thames by ferry. Apart from siblings, Thurrock boys would be unlikely to gain places in 2021 as the school has changed its oversubscription criteria to prioritise Ebbsfleet boys after those who live locally.  

The pattern for the girls’ grammars is similar but far less severe, Dartford Girls having started chasing London pupils more recently. Required aggregate scores have risen again, with local girls (from a wider area than the boys' school) being required to score at least 372 (up from 359 in 2019), with outers 393 (up from 385).There were 404 first choices of which 158 were offered places, second only to Dartford Grammar in terms of rejected first choices. In the last four years there have been just five successful appeals, a record low for any school, and including none in 2019.

Wilmington Girls changed four years ago to give main priority to local girls, but the number from London has not gone down so fast as the boys; school and is still 46. There were 133 first choices for 180 places (down from 148 in 2019), of which 97 were offered places. 

Mayfield Grammar in Gravesend admits girls through its own Test, as well as through the Kent Test, with 13 being offered places who did not pass the Kent Test, down from the 33 of 2019 (see Table below).  Further details here. 173 first choices for its 180 places, of which 165 were offered places. Few than five offered from out of county. 

The super selective Judd School has kept its position as the most oversubscribed West Kent grammar with 327 first choices for its intake of 180 boys, of which 160 were offered places. Clearly the decision to give priority to local boys in 2018  continues to prove very popular, with just 17 boys from out of county, the same figure as in 2019.  The Inner residential area cut off score rose to 385 up from 376 (down to 373 after re-allocation), with outers reaching the stratospheric requirement of 407, also up from 402, the maximum available being 421. In  part the higher required scores are because of the increase in the aggregate pass score from 321 to 330.

The second year of the new Skinners admission criteria brought their own shock to many parents, as the main criterion for boys in the priority area as living nearest with a score of 360 saw the distance limit shrink from 10.099 miles to 3.294. This cuts out most of those living in Tonbridge as well as all of Sevenoaks and District. I have already looked at the reasons for this in some detail here. The school is once again fourth most oversubscribed in Kent, turning away 148 first choices for its 160 places. Only four out of 56 appeals upheld in 2019.

The recent expansions at Judd and Skinners, both attracting many more first choices, have hit Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys with just 81 first choices for its 210 places, but still turning 17 of these away. As a result it has cut back to PAN from the 240 places it has offered for the two previous years. There was a cut off distance of 14.9 miles for boys living in the named parishes, up from 13.38 miles last year. This is at the very furthest extent of the named parishes, all in Kent, to the north of Badgers Mount. However it still excludes boys living much closer in Kent outside these parishes, for example at Matfield, less than five miles away. There were fewer than five ooc boys offered places, probably siblings. There will be plenty of grammar qualified second choices who also failed to get in to one of the super selectives who will have appealed, so it is quite likely that, the school will go back to admitting up to 240 boys through the appeals. Preparations for a new annexe for TWGSB in Sevenoaks are advanced, which will also ease pressure on the Dartford grammar schools. There is some turnover, less than in previous years according to the 2019 census, caused by pupils being pulled out of West Kent grammars for private schools accompanied by a trading up to the super selectives. 

Even with Weald of Kent Grammar School’s expansion to 295 places through its Sevenoaks Annexe, now in its fourth year, it is still oversubscribed by 27 first choices, although it has the largest ooc intake in West Kent, offering 55 places to girls in Bromley and East Sussex.  

Tonbridge Grammar School also gives a priority to high scoring girls, with an aggregate of 380 for those in the Inner area (Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks addresses), up from 371, and 399 for outers (up from 393). A very high 176 places went to first choices out of 180 offered, the highest proportion of any oversubscribed grammar school in Kent. That still leaves 105 first choices who were unsuccessful, fifth highest number in the county. Just 29 ooc places offered so some of the 35 outers will have come from further away in Kent. There were just 4 successful appeals for places out of 30 in 2019.

Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar saw a sharp fall in first choices for some reason last year, but this is back up to 144 for its 145 places in 2020, with 29 first choices being turned away. Apart from 2019 when there were eight successful appeals, the Independent Appeal Panel had consistently upheld six for some years, the large majority being girls who had qualified for grammar school. 

Oakwood Park has filled for the first time in many years, offering all 160 places. The number of first choice boys has risen from 60 to 80 this year, but with 80 lower choices, it is likely to lose some of these to MGS and grammars in West Kent on appeal (one KCC Admissions adviser informed a parent they wouldn’t get a place on appeal because it was full!).  In 2019 when there were just 119 offers, 58% of the 127 appeals were upheld, but this is not likely for 2020.

Norton Knatchbull School, Ashford, made the largest number of offers ever with 187 for its 210 places, as the expansion of the town continues apace. 159 of these were first choices, but with the Maidstone and Folkestone grammars all full, it may have picked up some second choices in the countryside between the towns. The large number of successful appeals in previous years no doubt contributes to the 29% loss of numbers between Years 11 and 12, third highest in of any grammar in Kent. 

Invicta Grammar just filled its 240 places, all 225 first choices being offered. The days when it took in large numbers of girls on appeal have now faded, and last year there were just 22% of appeals upheld out of a total of 89.  

Maidstone Girls’ Grammar continues to lose out in competition with Invicta, offering just three more places than its low of 122 last year for 180 places. There were 111 first choices. In order to improve numbers, the appeal success rate of 66% of the 75 appeals was the second highest in Kent in 2019.

Highworth Grammar offered its capacity 210 places for the first time this year, as the rapid expansion of Ashford continues at full pace. 198 of these were first choices.

 Tests did all take place on the same day effectively prohibiting children from taking one in Folkestone and one in Dover. A recent School Adjudicator decision should clear this hurdle and will see applicant numbers rise for 2021  

The four Folkestone and Dover grammar schools have, as a result of the Local Tests, considerably the highest proportion for Kent grammar schools of Year 7 children on Pupil Premium (2019 data), next being Highworth with 15%. This is according to October 2019's school census which has the average for grammar schools at 10%.  

The three oversubscribed schools were Dover Girls - offering places to 135 out of its 145 first choices, qualified by either route; : Folkestone School for Girls - 180 out of its 194 first choices (uniquely all offers going to first choices); and Harvey Grammar -  142 out of 163 first choices for its 150 places.

One negative consequence of Local Testing in Dover and Folkestone is that GCSE performance in non-selective schools is significantly undermined as they lose many of their most able pupils. 

I also consider the two other schools running similar local Tests: Highsted below (East Kent ) and Mayfield above (NW Kent). 

The main feature of 2020 admissions is the greatly increased numbers seeking places at the two Thanet grammar schools, Chatham & Clarendon, and Dane Court. This follows an increase in the success rate through the Kent selection procedure for local children which rose from 19% of Thanet children found selective  in 2018 to 23% in the 2019 procedure. The 2019 figure is made up of the second lowest District pass rate in the Kent Test, at 14%, along with the second highest Head Teacher Assessment rate, at 9%. Too many children in local villages have lost out on a grammar school place completely as a consequence.

The parallel non-selective article on secondary transfer explains background to this outcome, with pressure to avoid two schools in the District leading to 187 children getting no school of their choice. One consequence last year was the very high number of appeals to the two grammar schools, as families sought any alternative schools, with 130 at Chatham & Clarendon of which just 18 were upheld. This, along with Dartford Grammar, was the highest number of appeals for any school in Kent. 

Dane Court has been oversubscribed for several years, but for 2020, the figure has shot up to 50 disappointed first choices. 163 of the 165 offers were first choices, so little room for any of those turned down at Chatham and Clarendon. In 2019, 21 appeals out of 68 were upheld, but clearly the number of appeals will rise further this year.

Chatham and Clarendon turned away 29 first choices this year as a consequence of the high success rate, against just one in 2019, no more than two of these could have been offered places at Dane Court. 30 of the 180 C&C places went to children who had put them in second or lower place, who could have been disappointed Dane Court first choices. So either way, there were at least 47 Thanet grammar school eligible children who were not awarded a place at either school, having applied for  one. I describe the interesting history relating to appeals in the Individual Schools Section, leading to 18 appeals upheld out of 130 in 2019.

The Kent Schools Commissioning Plan for 2020 (page 138) records that ‘The two Grammar schools in Thanet are both situated on sites where expansion is unlikely to be achievable due to site, planning and highway constraints’ , which does not augur well for appeals this year. Whilst not anticipating this year's surge in selective numbers,  it looks to an increase in provision in three years’ time from the proposed new Grammar School Annexe by either Queen Elizabeth’s or Barton Court grammars. This was expected to meet fresh demand in Whitstable/Herne Bay and somehow to stretch along to Thanet. Unfortunately, this has been turned down so it is unclear where any extra capacity is coming from.

The other heavily oversubscribed grammar school in East Kent is Sir Roger Manwood’s along the cost from Thanet, in Sandwich,  oversubscribed by 34 first choices, following a surge in numbers from having just filled in 2019.

Simon Langton Boys Grammar in Canterbury, which suffered a sharp fall-off in applications for 2019 as explained here, appears to have recovered its popularity for 2020, turning away 31 first choices for its 150 places. Meanwhile, Simon Langton Girls has the fourth highest number of vacancies at 19, its new replacement building programme coming up for planning approval in April. The third Canterbury grammar, Barton Court, just filled. I’ve not heard of problems this year at Herne Bay/Whitstable where potential grammar school pupils look to both Canterbury and Faversham for grammar school places, which was also the site of the failed grammar school annexe bid.  

Queen Elizabeth’s in Faversham also continues to be popular,  drawing applications from Whitstable/Herne Bay, although  many  have been unsuccessful on distance grounds in previous years, as well as attracting pupils from towards Sittingbourne and Canterbury. However, its level of oversubscription has fallen this year from 34 first choices unsuccessful to 21, for the school’s 140 places.

Borden and Highsted grammar schools in Sittingbourne both usually just about fill. Borden, which had four vacancies last year, is oversubscribed for 2020, turning away nine of its 116 first choices for 120 places. The school had by some way the lowest Progress 8 and Attainment 8 of any grammar school in Kent in 2019. The headteacher moved on to become Head of School at Barton Court in January 2020.  He is succeeded by Ashley Tomlin, currently Principal Deputy Head of the 2000 pupil Thomas Tallis School in Greenwich, one of at least eight heads including five in Kent grammar schools, who once worked for me at Gravesend Grammar and certainly has the determination and ability to make the necessary changes.   Highsted has vacancies for the third consecutive year, three for 2020, ever since it expanded to 150 places, even though it runs its own admission test as an additional route of entry, which saw 27 girls offered places by this route for 2020 (see above at Dover and Folkestone). 

I am waiting for detailed oversubscription and vacancy figures at both Reception and Junior School level to be sent, and will publish these as soon as possible, probably into May. You may find the equivalent picture for 2019 allocations helpful, as it conducts a detailed survey of the issues in each of Kent's 16 Districts. It is, year on year, the largest article on the website and one of the most read. 

 * From Press Release. Medway Council has decided to provide a figure for the proportion of children offered one of their first three preferences, rather than for all six preferences as in previous years. I will fill this table in when I have full data. 

A large  number of children are offered places off waiting lists, most setting off a ‘churning process’ freeing up other places. You have nothing to lose from going on the waiting list for as many schools as you  wish. Sadly, chances of success at appeal are negligible in nearly all cases, as explained below. 

The attached KCC map of Thanet schools highlights the issues, with the population concentrated along the coast and Margate itself currently having no secondary schools.  On current forecasts of pupil numbers, extra demand for places was planned to  be met by  expanding the two oversubscribed schools, Ursuline College and King Ethelbert to the west of Hartsdown Academy. All three schools are situated along the urban Thames Estuary coastal strip. Now, the new school (close to Cliftonville Primary) will be well placed to recruit pupils directly from the current Hartsdown catchment area in Margate and Cliftonville, whilst Ursuline and King Ethelbert will still have no problem recruiting pupils by also digging into Hartsdown's locality. To the south and east, any losses for the heavily oversubscribed Broadstairs schools, Charles Dickens and St George’s, will see them draw from Ramsgate and the Royal Harbour Academy catchment, so no problem for them there. 

When the new school comes on stream it is therefore difficult to see how Hartsdown Academy can remain viable, depending as it already does each year on pupils allocated to it who do not even apply to the school. There were 78 of these in 2020, whose successors will no doubt look to the new school in future. This will be in spite of Hartsdown being two thirds of the way through a multi-million pound new rebuild and with its its extensive grounds. Royal Harbour, which had 109  Local Authority Allocations will keep hold of some of them, although losing others to the two Broadstairs schools. 

KCC’s current Commissioning Plan for Education 2020-2024, described the plan to meet pressure on places without the new school as:

Forecasts indicate a deficit of places for both Year 7 and Years 7-11 over the Plan period. In the short-term this increased demand will be met through temporary additional Year 7 places at Royal Harbour Academy, whilst bringing forward the permanent expansion of King Ethelbert School by 2FE for September 2022. Ursuline College will expand by 1FE later in the plan period to meet the forecast need from 2023.

In other words, in a pure numbers calculation, there would have been no problem until at least after 2024, if two popular and oversubscribed schools are expanded on a permanent basis.

The letter from Lord Agnew, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System (new Policy Advisor, Dr Jo Saxton) to KCC Leader, Roger Gough, states that:

'I have now reviewed Kent County Council’s proposal to cancel the agreed secondary presumption school planned for Margate. I agree that the forecast basic need at secondary level in Thanet has reduced since the original decision was made, but a significant number of places are still required. 'I do not want to see the expansion of schools in the area that are less than Ofsted good, either temporarily or on a permanent basis. The outcomes at local schools are not good enough, with two having a provisional Progress 8 score in the bottom 1% of schools in the country. A new provider in the area will provide an exciting new choice for parents where this is currently severely limited. For these reasons, I cannot agree to your request to cancel plans for the new school and expect that this will now proceed.'

I have discussed the issues in this statement extensively in my previous article and won’t repeat them in detail. However, KCC’s medium term solution to the shortage of places was to expand two popular, Ofsted Good, oversubscribed schools, which appears to fully meet Lord Agnew’s criteria. The problem with it is that it does nothing to address the performance problems of Hartsdown and Royal Harbour, the two schools referred to, both in the bottom 1% of schools in the country at Progress 8, the 187 Local Authority Allocations to the two schools this year certainly proving that parental choice is severely limited. If in any doubt about this, look at the Thanet Section of my recent article on Oversubscription & Vacancies Kent Non-Selective Secondary Schools 2020.

The problem with Lord Agnew’s solution, which will now happen, is that it will draw the large majority of its 180 children from those who would have gone to Hartsdown, along with others from Royal Harbour. This year 187 children have been offered places who never applied to the two schools, all of whom would presumably have happily taken up places at the new (unnamed at present) school, or filled spaces at Charles Dickens School in Broadstairs, which would lose some potential pupils to the new school. The large majority of these would be drawn from Hartsdown, which could become more than half empty overnight.

One can only speculate what the Coastal Academies Trust, which runs Royal Harbour and King Ethelbert as well as Hartsdown Academy, will do in this situation. The Trust has already made clear via its Annual Report for 2019  (p34) that the Trust is having to support Hartsdown financially to the tune of an outstanding deficit of £727,385 at the end of the financial year 2018-19.  The main cause of this is the shrinking number of children at Hartsdown, as shown by the October 2019 census, with each year group losing up to a quarter of its numbers over the four year range from October in Years Seven to Eleven. There is no indication that this situation is going to improve.    

The Table below shows in detail how Hartsdown Academy is failing to attract and retain pupils who start at the school. It looks at the number of pupils in each of the current age groups, according to the October 2019 census, and how each cohort has shrunk by an average  of 19%over two years. The Planned Admission number for the school is 180. The current Year 11 cohort started out with 163 pupils in 2015, a loss of a quarter of its pupils since they started at the school.  

One can only speculate how Coastal Academies Trust is responding to this decision, and how it will plan for Hartsdown's future in the light of the news of the new school. Presumably, Dr Jo Saxton, the new government Policy Adviser for the school system with her extensive knowledge of the problems of East Kent coastal schools will now be able to advise.   

There is also a problem with pupils leaving Royal Harbour, but this is much smaller, although the equivalent year groups still lose 10% of their initial roll over the same two year period on average. Coincidentally, both these two schools lost 18% of the pupils placed in them in March 2019 by the time of the census above, in the following October.

One final thought: picture the views of the 57 Thanet families whose children having been found suitable for grammar school this year, were then told there is no room and instead, for the large majority, they have been allocated to Hartsdown or Royal Harbour.  See Oversubscription & Vacancies Kent Grammar Schools 2020.

Quite rightly, the letter states: ‘it is too early to confirm anything other than that provision will be made for children to be assessed so that Kent’s grammar schools can determine which of their applicants can be admitted’. It goes on to explain that nothing can be settled until further advice from government is received. I can’t see that any of the rumours have a basis in fact if they try and take the situation further than this, or assume a specific end to the pandemic. The key date is Monday 2^nd November, when applications for secondary school places need to be submitted, producing two alternative scenarios.

• The Kent Test takes place either on the set dates above, or else at some later date early enough to enable parents to know the outcome before choosing schools by the National Closing Date on 2^nd November. At present assessment decisions are scheduled to be sent to parents on Thursday 15 October. National Closing Date is not going to change to suit the small number of grammar schools nationally that are in this situation.

 If the date of the Test is moved forward, it still needs to allow the whole assessment process to be worked through, including Head Teacher Assessments, before publication of the results. At present, there is a gap of just 18 days between the two dates, so there is little flexibility to move the Test dates further into September.

My own view is that if the current set dates cannot be adhered to, then KCC will move onto scenario Two.

• If it is the case that decisions cannot be worked through in time for National Closing Day, then KCC will revert to a previous system where families choose schools before knowing the Test outcome. Unfortunately, this has considerable drawbacks for many who then have to hedge their bets by choosing their four schools to take into account the two possible test outcomes (or three if they are considering a super-selective school).

In this case the Test can be set as late as December. The last paragraph of the excerpt addresses the learning consequences of such a decision.

Whilst there is nothing that families can do directly about this, it becomes more critical that, if an HTA was carried out, your appeal documents include the information normally carried on this document, to assist the Panel. The best way of doing this is to see if your primary school will give you a copy of the form it submitted to the HTA Panel (not necessarily possible as the school is closed), and submit this with the data it contains. All that will then be missing is the reason for turning down the HTA (which is rarely to your advantage anyway), which completes the HTA process.  

• Reasons for HTA
• Evidence
• Y4 Teacher NC Assessments  in Maths, Reading and Writing
• Y5 Teacher NC Assessments  in Maths, Reading and Writing
• CAT (or similar) Standardised Scores (all subtests)
• Latest Reading Age/Standardised Score.

If you can’t get hold of the form, try and obtain as much of this information as possible from the school (and I know this can be impossible because of Coronavirus), but only use it if it shows your child in a good light.

The letter contains advice to headteachers of Community Primary schools, leaving them free as to how they use any forms they have received. Presumably headteachers from academies and voluntary aided schools are in the same position. When you get your paperwork before the appeal you will see if the HTA form is included.

• Proceed with the appeal, without an assessment decision, just based on academic evidence. If the appeal is not upheld, it would still be possible for the child to be tested at a later date. If the child then passes the Test late, they will be eligible for a second appeal due to changed circumstances if the school is then full. This would be allowable under the Appeals Code of Practice at the school's discretion. I am afraid I believe that few Appeal Panels will uphold a case without the Test evidence, unless there is an exceptional case to explain the situation and very strong academic evidence to justify a positive decision.

You will find direct quotations from the new regulations in blue below. Recent updates are in red

This is my fourth article on Coronavirus, Number Three being here, as the format of appeal hearings have clarified with fresh releases of information and regulations. I have also written a recent article on Coronavirus: Kent Test, Grammar School Admission and Appeals 2020 which includes amongst other matters, a look at different aspects of, and fresh problems with, appeals at grammar schools. 

I recognise I am not a lawyer; this being just the view of a practitioner (although with over fifteen years experience of appeals as panellist, trainer and adviser to families). To be clear, this is my personal interpretation, and may well be regarded as controversial in places. No doubt we shall soon hear the legal interpretations of the new rules, but this article is mainly written from a human perspective.. I have conducted an online survey of many Local Authorities and have only found two so far which have taken a position (27/4), Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire County Councils. See update below.  

In Kent and Medway alone, over 3,000 secondary school appeals were heard last year, more than twice as many as any other Local Authority, and over four times as many as the large majority. Initial reports suggest that the number of appeals locally will be significantly higher for 2020. Seven local schools had over 80 appeals each in 2019, with two hearing 130 appeals, many panellists volunteering to hear appeals for a number of schools.  Now the schools are closed, the ranks of administrators depleted through the pandemic and its consequences, and no doubt many volunteer panellists pondering on whether to get involved due to the current uncertainties. In this case a decision to greatly expand the workload for each appeal, as spelled out in the new Regulations, appears foolish in the extreme and shows  a lack of awareness of the job in hand.

In particular the regulations bear down hard on appeals to be decided on the basis of written submissions only, their recommendations detailing an enormous extra administrative burden, surely impossible to deliver without the caveat noted below.    

 Overwhelmingly, the regulations appear to have been written by Civil Servants who regularly use Video Conferencing and clearly assume that the rest of the nation is equally comfortable with it. They make the assumption that appellants and panellists are more conversant with video conferencing than many Members of Parliament and media correspondents at Minister’s briefings, and that they will be using technology that is more effective than either of these. One of my correspondents wrote, ‘everyone is familiar with video conferencing through pub quizzes, etc’. It doesn’t take a moment to see that an appeal hearing in this mode is far more complex than these, with critical live exchanges between different members of the conference between at least six people, several of whom may never have encountered the concept before. Current practices see at least a dozen half hour appeal hearings per day on a tight schedule per school, so any hitch in the technology is going to throw this out of kilter, and be reliant on the clerk to solve problems of timing and rearrangement. The television programme 'Have I got News for You', currently conducted remotely, is a good example of how the content of a half hour programme  becomes greatly reduced in this mode. Therefore, in the case of video conferencing, the Appeal Panel and clerk will need to make a  choice of: holding fewer hearings each day to a very flexible timetable; curtailing discussion in each hearing; or rearranging appointments as the day goes on. All this in a very tight schedule for appeal organisers including KCC, which will inevitably have that reduced pool of volunteer panellists.   

I am conscious that the issues are most acute in the 38 Kent and Medway selective schools, which held 72% of the local 2019 appeals. These can become quite technical through examination of the evidence to justify  grammar school ability. However, quite simply the document washes its hands of problems, merely noting that panellists should only be appointed if they have the necessary equipment or facilities; no mention of expertise, confidence or specific training for remote hearings. Parents are dismissed with the patronising: ‘It is recommended that appeal panels bear in mind that appellants may be less familiar with this kind of meeting’. No explicit mention of the many who may have no experience whatever, nor the ability to manage conferencing.  

• The overriding principles governing all appeals are procedural fairness and natural justice.  I am sorry but this is simply not true.  In the case of video (or telephone, even more difficult to visualise) conferencing, a massive advantage falls to those comfortable with using the facility.
• TheSchool Admissions Appeals Codehas not been amended by these temporary regulations, and the vast majority of its requirements remain appropriate and must still be complied with.
• Where face-to-face hearings cannot take place, hearings should be conducted by telephone or video conference. Where telephone or video conference is not possible, appeals conducted entirely on the basis of written submissions are acceptable. At least  three Local Authorities have now decided on their policies (written 27/4): Somerset and Hertfordshire(Telephone Conferencing, details to follow 24th April update); also Northamptonshire which has  published this policy at face value without amplification. Most have not, although time is passing. The written submission option is relegated to being only acceptable when telephone or video conference are not possible. The clerk is required to contact all appellants preferably by telephone (seebelow) to establish if they have the necessary equipment. There is no mention of whether appellants are to be asked or assessed (how?) if they have the competence  or confidence to manage a conference hearing. Too many will sign up to the procedure through not wishing to  appear inadequate and perhaps damage their chances . This judgement by the clerk appears to be placing a great responsibility on him or her, who will in most cases have no training nor have been expected to have the ability to carry out this critical task.   
• Appeal panels must be transparent, accessible, independent and impartial, and operate according to principles of natural justice (Accessible? Natural justice?).The clerk must keep an accurate record of proceedings.
• Parents retain the right to raise a complaint of maladministration on the part of the appeal panel(one can only hope that the authorities have factored in the large increase in complaints and the resources need to manage them, including the large additional workload that will fall onto schools. However, the very low historical rate of success should mean they will be easy to deal with)
• The temporary regulations work to ensure that the appeals process can continue during school closures by removing references to ‘school days’.

• the parties will be able to present their cases fully; each participant has access to video or telephone facilities allowing them to engage in the hearing at all time; 
• the appeal hearing is capable of being heard fairly and transparently in this way.
• It is recommended that the clerk contacts appellants as soon as possible to explain the new, temporary arrangements for appeals and to establish whether they have access to the necessary equipment for telephone or video conference. Where possible, the clerk should contact the appellant by telephone.  Again, there appears no requirement to establish that the appellant has the skills or confidence necessary to participate in a video conference. I look forward to learning how clerks, especially those responsible for multiple appeal hearings will have the capacity to make up to a hundred plus telephone calls for each school!
•  Where appeals are to be heard by telephone or video conference, it is recommended that panel members are only appointed if they have, or can be provided with, the necessary equipment and facilities.Rightly so, but this introduces an additional filter on numbers. Again, there is no requirement that panellists have the necessary skills, confidence or additional training for this very different type of hearing.
• The admission authority must provide a presenting officer for a remote access hearing but, as set out in paragraph 2.11 of the Appeals Code, if no presenting officer attends the hearing, the panel can resolve the case using the evidence submitted by the admission authority if it is satisfied that to do so will not disadvantage the appellant. There is no such requirement for the panel to be satisfied for written submission cases (below).
• As set out in paragraph 2.12 of the Appeals Code, where an appellant fails or is unable to take part in the hearing at the arranged time, and it is impractical to offer an alternative date, the appeal may go ahead and be decided on the written information submitted. The appellant retains the right to be represented or accompanied by a friend in a remote access hearing.It appears from this that where appellants do not have the skills to access Video Conferencing, the Panel can simply ignore them and carry on regardless, in their absence. This would be grossly unfair, contrary to basic principles and likely to occur for some families in the large majority of multiple appeal hearings. The only concession is the patronising and dishonest advice (not requirement) to panels that: ‘It is recommended that appeal panels bear in mind that appellants may be less familiar with this kind of meeting’. Apparently lack of any experience is not to be considered according to this recommendation, for there is no mention of parents who have never taken part in a complex video conference, or have the necessary skills.

Every one of the 77 Kent and Medway secondary schools that held hearings in 2019 conducted multiple appeals. However, the sole explicit reference to these is  as follows:

• Where there are multiple appeals for the same school, the principles set out in paragraphs 2.18 to 2.20 of the Appeals Code continue to apply in relation to remote access appeals. These principles should be considered by the admission authority, clerk and appeal panel in deciding whether it is possible for multiple appeals to be heard on a remote access basis, and how they should be organised. Again, there is no advice on what should happen if a remote hearing is not possible for individual families, nor advice on how they should be organised, in sharp contrast to the detailed arrangements laid down for written submission appeals, below. 

There is nothing of the same prescriptive order for the government’s preferred route of using telephone or video conferencing, presumably drawn up by Civil Servants comfortable with the process, and so assuming that all will run smoothly. 

I am aware that government has consulted with Local Authorities over these regulations but fail to see that any notice has been taken of the above issues in these challenging times, missing the opportunity  to be flexible with the terms of the Appeals Code of Practice. This flexibility has already been used with time limits for hearing appeals, so the principle of holding to the Code inflexibly has already been broken. 

The one saving grace appears to be for appeals conducted through written submission, where 'admission authorities and appeal panels must exercise their own judgement in the circumstances of any particular appeal being considered'. 

I sincerely hope that is the case, lawyers permitting, for the alternative appears to be an unnecessary collapse of the system locally. 

My apologies. We believe the fault has now been rectified, and this article should confirm it by being sent to subscribers. Unless I learn something new in the next few days, I am now working on something completely different - Primary School Oversubscription and Vacancies 2020, with the parallel Kent article (traditionally my longest article of the year) to follow when I receive the relevant data. 

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 questions Was the £400,000 commercial (?) loan actually paid to the Castle Trust. If so, 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.

It has been pointed out that both Delce Infant School (June 2016, now Crest Infants) and St Peter's Infant School (Dec 2018) were found to be good in their Most recent Ofsted Inspection but the strong Key Stage One performances in 2016 have led to the same children now in Year Five being failed by the school according to the recent Delce Academy Ofsted. 

 I

You will find the equivalent article and data for 2019 here; a preliminary article here; the parallel Kent article for 2019 here (awaiting data for 2020); and Key Stage Two performance data here.  There is a survey of Kent and Medway Primary Ofsted Inspections here, and one on KS2 performance here.   

Eight schools have over a third of their places empty, the same as in 2019, headed this year by St John's CE Infants and Delce Academy (see below) both with 57%. Delce, Elaine Primary, Allhallows and Twydall have each been in the same situation for each of the past three years, which must be putting them under considerable financial pressure.

 Altogether 39 schools, well over half of the total of 69 primary schools have vacancies in their Reception classes, so plenty of spare capacity around. However, 74 Medway children were offered none of their choices (one fewer than in 2019) and have been allocated to other schools with vacancies by Medway Council, spread out across 18 schools, with 58  allocated to schools  in Chatham, Gillingham and Rochester where there are local pressures. 

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.

Historically, Greenvale Infants School has been linked with Phoenix Junior Academy (both schools on the same site) so that children pass seamlessly from one to the other, but they are now both transforming into separate all-through primary schools, with both sets of new arrangements to begin this September. Unlike the Delce disaster (see below), this appears to be a mutually agreed decision in line with Council policy, and generating an additional 15 places per year group.

Greenvale Infants, currently a two form entry school has reduced to one form of entry from September, but children joining the school this year will now follow through to Year Six. The reduction from two f.e. in 2019 has left the school 14 first choices oversubscribed. Phoenix Junior Academy is introducing 1.5 forms of entry at Reception this year, to balance the numbers, as approved by the Regional Schools Commissioner (Minutes Page Six after the proposal was initially rejected because of poor performance by the school). When the proposal works through, Phoenix Primary Academy will no longer admit pupils in Year Three. There was a proposal for the two schools to combine, but this was rejected by Greenvale. Phoenix, with no Infant reputation or experience, a recent Requires Improvement assessment by Ofsted (down from Good), and a critical review by the RSC, has made a slow start with 30 offers for its 45 places in September, 11 of whom are LAAs, the highest figure of any school in Medway.

Six schools were considerably oversubscribed with first choices for September, five of them being the same as last year, with All Saints CofE (close to Greenvale/Phoenix) shooting up in popularity, turning away 26 first choices. Swingate and Horsted Infants both remain very popular with 24 disappointed first choices. New Road Primary has also become popular this year, oversubscribed with 14 first choices, having had empty spaces in 2019. The four Medway schools with all three KS2 Progress subject grades Well Above Average, are all in Chatham and all have  high proportions of children reaching 'Expected Level' at KS2, although these successes have not yet worked through in popular terms. Three have been sponsored by Griffin Schools Trust an organisation of which I have been critical of in the past: Kingfisher Primary was oversubscribed by two disappointed first choices;  Lordswood has nine vacancies. Wayfield was removed from the Griffin Trust in 2016 after being placed in Special Measures (down from Good) and returned to Good last year under the Primary First Trust the Inspection Report being scathing about Griffin Trust performance. This performance shows the school has clearly completely recovered, and the reason it has 11 vacancies is because its intake number was increased from 30 to 60 for the second consecutive year. The fourth school is the New Horizons Children's Academy, opened in 2014, so the KS2 outcome is only the second achieved by the school's pupils. It also had the third best 'Expected Level' in Medway with 88% of all Year 6 pupils achieving this standard.  

The big loser is St Thomas More Catholic, with its 13 vacancies, down from oversubscription of 17 in 2019, surprising consider its outstanding KS2 performance last summer coming fourth in Medway with 87% of pupils at 'Expected Level'.  Walderslade and Wayfield both have vacancies this year, having expanded by 30 places to an intake of 60, after the PAN's were set. The school struggling most for numbers is St John’s CofE Infants, with fifty per cent of its places empty for the second year running. However, according to the October 2019 census it does pick up pupils through the year with 27 in Year R, after making just 15 offers on allocation. Also struggling is Luton Infants with 30% empty spaces following its third consecutive Requires Improvement Ofsted, in sharp contrast to the linked Junior School which has an Outstanding Ofsted assessment, a rare Medway Council school success.

Barnsole Primary, with its Outstanding Ofsted, has seen its KS2 performance tumble to become one of just three Medway schools to have all three KS2 schools to have all three KS2 subject Grades classified as Well Below Average. As a result it is being rebrokered to the Maritime Trust, based in Greenwich. These factors don’t appear to have affected its popularity greatly, it still being the second most oversubscribed school in Medway with 49 disappointed first choices. Other popular Gillingham schools are: The Academy of Woodlands (24); St Mary’s Catholic (12); Brompton-Westbrook (10); and Fairview Primary (9) which has thrown off the recent troubles that saw its numbers tumble last year. Burnt Oak has six first choices turned away in spite of an Ofsted Requires Improvement in 2018, down from Good. 

Five schools have vacancies, most again at Twydall, with 47% empty, still with consecutive  Inadequate Ofsted ratings, in 2014 and 2018, and a very difficult history. The others are: Oasis Academy Skinner Street (35%, and second lowest Medway percentage of pupils reaching 'Expected Level' at KS2); Napier Community Primary (27%, which may be improved next year following a Good Ofsted in January, up from RI); Featherby Infants (also Maritime Trust, 21%) and Saxon Way (12%, another Griffin School, although with two Good Ofsted's following Special Measures before Griffin took over).

Once again, six of the nine schools having no vacancies, although only two are strongly oversubscribed. Cliffe Woods has become the most popular school in Medway with a leap in disappointed first choices to 50 from 2019’s nineteen. Its Outstanding Ofsted may now be five years old, but it still has one of the highest KS2 performances in Medway with 86% of pupils reaching the Expected Standard, so this should be no surprise. Second most popular is the all-through The Hundred of Hoo Academy with 13 disappointed first choices, and third is the other local school Hoo St Werburgh with four. St Helen's CEP at Cliffe is on one of the extremities of the Peninsula so unlikely to attract pupils from outside its locality especially as the nearest neighbour is Cliffe Woods. The school has just   filled, although in terms of performance 90% of its pupils achieved the Expected Standard, the highest percentage in Medway (along with Pilgrim School).

Two of the three schools with a third or more of their places empty are Allhallows (PAN 30 children) and Stoke (PAN 20 children), both run by the Leigh Academies Trust after being re-brokered away from the failed Williamson Trust for January 2019. Last summer Leigh attempted to merge the two merge the two schools on grounds of their small numbers, effectively closing Stoke and bussing the children to Allhallows, but this was refused by Lord Agnew, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the School System. Allhallows had the lowest proportion of pupils reaching the Expected Level in the whole of Medway last summer and was one of just three schools with Well Below Average on all its three KS2 Progress Grades, with Stoke the fourth lowest (but a recent Good Ofsted assessment) the two schools having struggled academically for some years. St James CofE Primary Academy, on the Isle of Grain, is the third of these school, with a third of its places empty for a Planned Admission Number and with the third lowest proportion of Expected Levels in Medway, although Progress results were better.

There were just two schools significantly oversubscribed. The Pilgrim School turned away 24 first choices, being Ofsted Outstanding with 90% of children reaching the Expected Standard, the highest performer in Medway.  Next comes St William of Perth Catholic with 11 disappointed first choices. After them came St Margaret's at Troy Town and Balfour Infants, both turning away six first choices, and Halling Primary with three, another school with a very high proportion of children reaching 'Expected Level' at KS2, with 83%.

The only schools significantly oversubscribed  are Hilltop Primary, with twelve first choices turned away, and Temple Mill (11), run by the Howard Academy Trust, up to Ofsted Good from Special Measures, and one of the best set of Progress Grades at KS2 in Medway.

Elaine Primary School, brought to its knees under the abysmal Williamson Trust as explained here, is now making good progress under the Inspire Partnership after it was re-brokered. Whilst it has 27 of its 54 places empty, this is better than in 2019 when there were 35. It has gone from having the lowest proportion of children reaching Expected Level at KS2 in Medway in 2018, to being midway in 2019, with progress across the three core subjects just above average. Maundene School in Chatham,also part of the Inspire Partnership, has gone from second lowest performer in 2018, to achieving a very similar middle of the table profile for 2019. My comments on Inspire via the link above were very much on the lines of ‘unproven’, but the evidence of how it can turn schools round is now clear, as must be hoped for by the families of Delce Academy in Rochester, see above. Unfortunately whilst a school can be ruined in one year, it can take five or more to restore its reputation with parents, but this is a good start.

Bligh Primary, historically a sound KS2 performer has been re-brokered to The Maritime Trust, along with Barnsole (see above), as it joined it at the foot of the 2019 performance table, and saw the number of vacancies increase to 16%, second highest in Strood.

For 2021 or 2022 entry, the new all through Maritime Academy run by Thinking Schools Academy Trust will open, admitting 60 Reception age children, so all this may be put at risk as there is not a great demand for additional places locally at present, and the less popular schools will be under pressure.

In Rochester, see the Delce Academy story above. Delce currently has capacity for 160  pupils, with 30 reserved for pupils from the Infant section. The current Year Two of Crest and St Peter’s infant schools have a combined total of 89 pupils, along with 27 from the Delce's own Infant section. The fact that just 59 places have been offered, leaving 71 empty spaces must be very worrying, as there are at least 30 children who have found places elsewhere, with Balfour Junior, being just half a mile from Delce oversubscribed by just six first choices.

The other schools with vacancies are Hempstead Junior (23), possibly still re-building its reputation after the troubles of four years ago, Gordon Junior (20), Phoenix Junior (13), and Featherby Junior (9, most recent Ofsted Special Measures in 2017, before being taken over by Maritime Academy Trust .

Please note that although this article appears to be taking on a general view of the situation the website exists primarily to provide news, comment and information for Kent and Medway families. As the site appears at the time of writing to be the only public forum nationally discussing these matters, I would be most grateful to receive details of different practices being adopted. A survey I carried out using Google today reveals a large number of Authorities stating ‘We have been monitoring government guidance as to the impact of the Coronavirus’ but which appear still to be considering which way to go. You will find below, pages relating to Kent, Other Admission Authorities and the Welsh conundrum. Please note that I am not a lawyer, and opinions expressed do not carry legal authority in this or any previous article. 

This appears to be the simplified version of the written submission appeal structure laid down by government that I previously advocated, but which appears consistent with the regulations and which eliminates the multiple exchanges between the various parties spelled out here. It is also the approach being adopted by at least one of the three other main appeals groups that operate across Kent and Medway.

You may wish to look at the advice I give in previous articles as to what additional evidence to submit in such a case, here and here.

In neither of these cases is there any explanation of how the problems I have identified in previous articles will be resolved. Neither gives any indication yet of how the many appellants who find the concept difficult will have their situation resolved to make it fair for them. Neither as yet gives any indication of how ‘The chair should ensure the remote access appeal is held in private’, without any control or even awareness of what is happening at the appellant’s end of the telephone line, or even who is actually participating.

By way of compensation, the Welsh version of the Code scraps the ridiculously complex and unworkable requirements of the English version, reducing them to the short paragraph:

This provides the appropriate level of flexibility to enable appeals to take place as reasonably and fairly as possible, and it remains my view that this will be the route taken by the large majority of Admission Authorities

No inspections have been carried out since all schools closed on 20^th March due to the Coronavirus pandemic and just four Ofsted Reports have been published (all this week) since that date, for inspections carried out in the weeks before closure.  It is unlikely there will be any further Inspections this school year, and I will incorporate any remaining Reports as they are published. 

 The corresponding secondary and Special School articles are to follow, as is my article on 2019-20 Kent primary school allocations (still awaiting data). My report on the 2018-19 Ofsted performance  for primary schools is here. Every  primary school Ofsted assessment over recent years is also recorded in the Individual Schools pages for Kent and Medway primary schools. 

According to the rules, academisation wipes out any past OFSTED outcome, leaving them free from Inspection for a further three years unless there are exceptional circumstances. I continue to count them. The three most significant conversions in the past year are groups of primary schools in Deal and along the Thames Estuary, who see benefits from working together independently of KCC, along with three schools in the Wealden area who have all elected to join the Leigh Academy Trust.

One remarkable feature of so many of the schools where there have been changes, is the departure of the headteacher, the arrival of a replacement, or the deployment of a temporary head. In many cases improvement follows the appointment of a new headteacher, but history shows the Inspection Report too often carries a halo effect. It is hardly surprising that the role of headteacher is no longer regarded as a secure position in many cases, which can have a direct impact on recruitment. A school can also lose staff for many reasons, which can have a damaging effect on morale or the quality of education, completely out of its control. Several examples are quoted below.  

Academies are identified by (A) in relevant places in this article. 

Two KCC schools, Eastry CofE and  Sundridge & Brasted CofE, fell from Outstanding by two levels to Requires Improvement, along with another seven others which were downgraded by one level. Kent's first Free School, Tiger Primary, was the only academy which fell, to Requires Improvement. Ofsted also found concerns about three further KCC schools and one academy after Short Inspections, which will trigger further full inspections in the future after schools re-open.

In Medway where ten of the 13 schools assessed were academies, five have improved, and one deteriorated.  

For 2018-19 there were eleven schools which had a Short Inspection, with a Full Inspection to follow. For those with a strong performance, this is likely to see most of them re-classified as Outstanding, as happened to Ightham. The second inspections of the other eight with strong outcomes haven't yet taken place because of the school closures (or possibly are still in the small pipeline of unpublished outcomes). These are: Willesborough Infants, Ashford; Eythorne Elvington and Sibertswold CofE, Dover; Christ Church CEP (A), Folkestone; Oaks Primary Academy (A), Maidstone;  Amherst School (A), Sevenoaks; and St Peter in Thanet Junior CEP (A). 

The two where there were concerns were Ditton Junior and Smeeth, see below, were obviously regarded as more urgent and both were downgraded to Requires Improvement this year (see below). 

Ightham Primary School, Sevenoaks. The short Inspection of January 2019 noted: 'The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. Based on the evidence gathered during this short inspection, I am of the opinion that the school has demonstrated strong practice and marked improvement in specific areas. This may indicate that the school has improved significantly overall. Therefore, I am recommending that the school’s next inspection be a section 5 inspection'. The powerful full Inspection Report  which followed is brief, but is well worth reading in full as it crackles with praise in every word.

Eastry CofE Primary School, Sandwich, was found Outstanding in 2009. Ofsted records: ‘This school lost its way in recent years. This happened for many complicated reasons. Adults did not stop caring about pupils. They still wanted them to do well but different people had different ideas about what to do for the best…… The new headteacher is making sure that everyone is pulling together again, aiming to give pupils the best possible chances’. This school suffered from a previous government policy of not re-inspecting Outstanding schools but surely this is a situation where KCC should have intervened, although it appears they didn’t notice the problems.

Sundridge and Brasted CofE Primary School, Sevenoaks, has had a much faster and worrying decline being found Outstanding just four years previously in 2015. ‘Previously, the school has been a stable learning environment. Currently, the school is experiencing some turbulence due to changes in leadership. Pupils’ behaviour is not as good as it was, and teaching is not as strong as when the school was last inspected. Governors and officers from the local authority were slow to respond to this decline. However, the right actions are now underway to strengthen the leadership of the school and provide better training for staff and governors’. The school is one of Kent's smaller ones, with an intake of just 15 pupils along with Brook and Stowting, see below, and so subject to potential turbulence if teachers move on, or pupil numbers change. 

Knockhall Primary School, on the edge of Ebbsfleet has finally had a full Inspection since being placed in Special Measures as a KCC school in 2013. It then had the misfortune to be taken over shortly afterwards, by the subsequently disgraced (although much praised by KCC Officers) Lilac Sky Academy Trust, so evading a further inspection for three years. Even so, a Monitoring Inspection took place in December 2015, because ‘Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector was concerned about the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements, aspects of the personal development, behaviour and welfare of pupils and the quality of leadership and management in the academy’ surprisingly found all was well, although there were many complaints from parents, pupil numbers declined sharply and there was a high turnover of staff. After Lilac Sky was closed down by government, the school was transferred to Woodland Academy Trust in nearby Bexley in January 2017, my article identifying some of the issues that Ofsted had missed, so another three years would pass before an Inspection was due. This has raised it to Requires Improvement with Inspectors being optimistic about the future, although phrases like ‘Leaders should prioritise the work already started to ensure that all adults who teach phonics are knowledgeable and skilled’ do raise the eyebrows. However, parents are not convinced contrary to the Inspectors findings, the school having 53% empty reception spaces this year even though helped out by eight Local Authority Allocations, both figures being amongst the highest in Kent.

Four other Kent academies have improved, all to Good, making a total of five out of eleven inspected. They are: Morehall (A, Folkestone, in spite of having the largest proportion of vacancies of any Kent primary school at 73%, see here and other articles - apparently Inspectors hadn't noticed or asked about the vast number of empty spaces); Milton Court (A, Sittingbourne); St Gregory’s (A, Thanet); and Temple Grove (A, Tunbridge Wells).

Just four Kent maintained schools out of 37 have improved: Ash, Cartwright and Kelsey CofE (Canterbury); Bean (Dartford); Churchill CofE (Sevenoaks); and Long Mead (Tonbridge, now in Federation with Hugh Christie secondary).

The schools are, firstly: Eastry CofE and Sunbridge & Brasted CofE, above, which have both fallen  from Outstanding to Requires Improvement. Then come: Stowting, Ashford; Chevening, St Botolph CofE VA, Sevenoaks; and St Nicholas at Wade CofE, Thanet; all down from Outstanding to Good. Schools down to Requires Improvement from Good are: Brook and Smeeth, both Ashford; Halsted, Sevenoaks (64% vacancies in October); and Ditton CofE Junior, Malling.

The case of Ditton Junior School is especially notable as a year earlier it received a Short Inspection whose report warned that there were urgent priorities to address which would shortly be followed up by a Full Section 5 Inspection. The Report of this Inspection begins: ‘Pupils have mainly been resilient while the school has been through a tough few years with many changes in staff’ and includes: ‘In recent years standards have been too low in reading, writing and mathematics. When the governors appointed the current headteacher they did not realise the school was performing so poorly’: and ‘A significant minority of staff do not feel well supported by all leaders’. Given the warning of the Short Inspection, one can only wonder why the School Improvement team, The Education People, were not sorting these matters out as a matter of urgency. Parents are voting with their feet, with a sharp fall in take up last September, 30% of places being left empty.  

Smeeth Community Primary School also had a Short Inspection in  with the same warning, to which there was insufficient response. At that time, the school had an Acting Headteacher, and as so often with struggling schools, a turnover of staff. One can only speculate to what extent staff turnover is a consequence of poor leadership, or simply bad luck.

There is one other primary school whose standard has slipped, the Tiger Primary School in Maidstone, Kent's first Free School which opened in 2012. 'Leaders are aware that the quality of education requires improvement. They know what needs to be done and are starting to make the necessary changes. Many staff, including senior leaders, are new. Although pupils now receive a well-sequenced curriculum, improvements are very recent. The impact of the curriculum on improving pupils’ skills and understanding is still in its infancy. Teachers are hazy about how the knowledge and skills pupils gain in one year are built upon for the next. Staff do not always expect the best work from pupils. Pupils are often not achieving as well as they could'. The Tiger School is part of the Future Schools Trust which also runs Cornwallis and New Line Learning secondary academies, and nearly had these taken away last year, because of poor performance, but this is no longer happening. 

Downsview School in Swanley had a Short Inspection in January which found that: ‘The quality of education pupils receive is very variable. The many changes to leadership and staffing in recent years resulted in the school losing its way. Staff want pupils to do their best but people have had different ideas about how things should be done and initiatives have not always been seen through. Consequently, pupils have not achieved as well as they could and standards have slipped. The new headteacher has a clear vision about the improvements needed’ . It remains to be seen if sufficient support is now provided by KCC to turn the decline.

Marden Primary School, Tonbridge. The Inspection was in October. The school has now avoided the follow up Full Inspection by choosing to become an academy with the Leigh Academy Trust. It then has a three year period of grace before re-inspection. It will join neighbours  Paddock Wood and Horsmonden primary schools which controversially became part of the Leigh Trust last year.  

Rusthall St Paul's CofE VA Primary School, Tunbridge Wells. After a series of weaker inspection results, Requires Improvement and Satisfactory, the school finally achieved Good in 2016, but has now slipped again. Parents are voting with their feet for its 57% Reception vacancies in October.  

Horton Kirby CofE Primary School, (A) Dartford. The school previously had an inspection in 2015 when it was found to be Good. When it converted to become an academy as part of the Aletheia Anglican Academies Trust, this put off the next inspection until 3rd March 2020, just before all schools were closed, when inspectors found sufficient concerns to order a follow up inspection. This should take place some time next school year. 

Of the 13 schools inspected this year, 10 are academies. Half of these have seen an improvement in Ofsted Grades from Requires Improvement to Good, with just one going the other way. 

The five improved academies are: Kingfisher Primary School, Chatham; Napier Primary Academy: Gillingham; Stoke Primary Academy, Hoo Peninsula; Warren Wood Academy, Rochester; All Faiths Children's Academy, Strood. Each of the first four struggled under Medway Council, with both Kingfisher and Warren Wood having been placed in Special Measures in the past. All four have blossomed under academisation but struggled for numbers. These results may well see an improvement, although Kingfisher's turnaround now appears completed with parents having recognised its worth and it was oversubscribed for the first time this September. Stoke was initially taken over by The Williamson Trust which failed to improve it, and has now been re-brokered to Leigh Academies Trust. Leigh tried to close the school last summer, and move its pupils to Allhallows Primary, several miles away, bussing pupils there daily but this proposal was vetoed by government last summer. Warren Wood was one of the first schools I featured on this website, and I wrote an article in 2014, setting out its tragedy over the previous decade. It has since been taken over by what is now the Skills for Life Academy Trust and has seen numbers and academic performance rise year on year ever since. The final school in the list is All Faiths in Strood, which differs in character from the other four. For years it was an academically successful and very popular school until it went off the boil in a few years leading up to its Requires Improvement Ofsted assessment in 2017. A change of leadership where the new 'headteacher has built a committed team of staff who share his high expectations', has seen the school return to its previous high standard, although it is still not fully subscribed for September. 

Phoenix Junior Academy in Chatham, also with a chequered history, achieved Good in 2016 under its new headteacher, but has now fallen back  to Requires Improvement. It is in the process of changing to an all through school in parallel with Greenvale Infants as explained here, unpopular with parents with just 30 of its 45 places filled including 11 Local Authority Allocations for September, the highest figure in Medway. This Ofsted outcome won't help.  

The very high proportion of Good Ofsted results, reflects the schools chosen for inspection in this small sample, and not the actual figure across the Local Authority of most recent primary Inspections, which is 83%. 

Update Note: My article is primarily critical of the item in The Times, and four academy trusts who appear to have leapt in regardless, in their enthusiasm to follow the government's lead. The various comments below give different opinions on how to manage the crisis, as do views from headteachers in the local  media such as St George's Sheppey, St Peter's Aylesford, Skills for Life Trust, Kent Association of Headteachers, etc. Governing Bodies and headteachers of individual schools are those legally and morally responsible for the consequences of their actions, taking their own circumstances and the risks involved into account. Any view of my own from the safe sidelines is irrelevant beside these.  

The Times tries to make out that it is the teaching unions which are 'the enemy' in opposing the opening of schools, ignoring the multiple counter examples of schools and academy trusts featured in local and national media with a contrary view. I have spoken with the leaders of several of these in the past week and all are very worried about the safety of children, parents and teachers and their families, and the impracticability and safety of following the detailed government advice. None has  mentioned the unions. Even more importantly the British Medical Association, representing the country's doctors, has argued that the number of coronavirus infections remains too high to allow schools to run safely. 

I do not consider I have particular insights on this crucial issue of the health of the nation, but it is surely essential to maintained a reasoned approach, based as far as possible on evidence and with the consent of parents. Unbalanced and misleading articles such as this do nothing to help the debate.

For examples of my coverage of the misfortunes of the children educated at Copperfield Academy and Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey,  follow the links and my website search engine. 

This article follows up on my previous of 21^st April which explores some implications of a change of date. I use ‘Kent’ throughout to include Kent and Medway, except where I specify otherwise. I do feel so sorry for the children affected and their parents, many of whom must be suffering considerable stress because of the immense uncertainty in this unique situation. I also have enormous sympathy for the KCC Officers trying to guess the unguessable with regard to the timing of the Test.

The KCC website currently states that: ‘Parents will be informed closer to the time if any adjustments need to be made to the Kent Test as a result of the recent school closures for the majority of children’ and no test dates are published.

The Kent Messenger reports that: Medway Council says it is awaiting feedback from the Department for Education on whether any changes will be made to the test.

There are four main issues explored below: Setting of a Date; Preparation for the Test; the Effect on Disadvantaged Pupils; and Is the Kent Test necessary.

I do not see how ANY alternative date can be set with confidence whilst the possibility of subsequent waves of the pandemic exists. Is it likely that, for example, by December we shall be free of it, but what if not?

If the Test were to take place whilst the pandemic is in full flow, perhaps in a Wave Two, is it reasonable to expect all potential candidates to assemble to take it? If not, can it really go ahead as arranged?

The physical conditions for pupils to take the test will at present require social distancing along with other essential precautions. This may be achievable in most Kent schools, but becomes completely impracticable for around 5000 out of county applicants expected, nearly a third of the total, and from well over 500 different schools across the country. These normally take the test in large school halls in Kent where they can be properly invigilated. Will schools still want to host them? Just 400 of the OOC candidates were offered places in Kent grammars last year, less than 10% of the total who sat the test, but KCC still has an obligation to cater for them.

The turn around time from Kent Test on September 8^th this year to result publication currently takes five weeks, including Headteacher Assessments (In Medway the Test across 17/18^th September sees results arrive three weeks later, but then there are two more weeks whilst the Review process takes place). Realistically neither of these allow an alternative date that would allow decisions to be provided before the national closing date for secondary school applications, of 2^nd November.

The School Admissions Code of Practice comes as close as possible to require Admission Authorities to ‘take all reasonable steps to inform parents of the outcome of selection tests before the closing date for secondary applications on 2^nd November so as to allow parents time to make an informed choice of school’. However, whilst it can clearly be argued that this year is an exception, a later Test date carries its own problems, even assuming (which is not a given) that it is fairly virus free.

The later testing date requires most potential grammar school pupils to hedge their bets across the four schools applied for, not knowing whether they have passed the test or not, applying for both grammar and non-selective schools. It would make sense if this is to be the case if the number of choices could be increased to six, as in Medway, but this would require a further change in the regulations which may not be possible   

The three months that follow 2^nd November see a vast clearing operation as Local Authorities across the country work in a co-ordinated scheme with every individual secondary school to arrange for offers of a school to go out for every applicant, including the 18,000 in Kent and some 1,200 across the county boundary. If the Kent Test results are not known by 2^nd November then affected families will split their four secondary applications between grammar and non-selective schools, and somewhere along this process, around 5000 children will be awarded Kent grammar school places which would require the whole scheme to be re-worked. This may well be possible in theory. I don’t believe Government is going to change the national admissions scheme for the sake of Kent grammar schools!

Next: Preparation for the Test and Disadvantage

This change places greater importance on school work in these two subjects, or an alternative such as tutoring, whether through family, friend or commercially. Professional tutoring will certainly assist some pupils near the pass level, those looking for places at super selective schools and provide comfort for families that they are doing all they can for their children.

Unfortunately, the absence of schooling this year, especially for disadvantaged children, is inevitably going to make a difference in performance for many. Online or remote learning through school is critical, with teachers in most state schools working tirelessly to support their pupils. However, lack of the whole school experience will inevitably take its toll. This can be compensated for by parental support but where this is less effective or lacking children’s progress will inevitably suffer. Conversely, for many private schools, parents are paying to ensure their children receive explicit support for the Test, with commercial tutors surely enjoying a boom year. I am personally aware of the additional stresses being placed on some children as parents seek to compensate, and have serious concerns these may be too great for some.  

Kent County Council promoted a policy of encouraging social mobility via grammar school through supporting children on Pupil Premium in 2016, in which I became involved. However, it appears to have had no overall success at all since then, the proportion of disadvantaged pupils being admitted since then remaining constant at 10%, although hiding some remarkable swings with Simon Langton Girls admitting over three times as many Pupil Premium children as five years ago, at 27 and Dartford Grammar a third as many at eight. The 10% figure is far higher than many other grammar school areas or individual schools,  including a 4.5% from 80 grammar schools selected with care by Comprehensive Future, and a claimed '22 grammar schools that failed to admit a pupil premium child in 2017',

It is surely inevitable that this year a much more sizeable gap will open between the haves and have nots, and I can’t see a way through it. The evidence is that in most years the Headteacher Assessment has compensate for the gap to an extent, but success here depends to a great extent on the quality of schoolwork over the previous six months which will be lacking this year. Sadly, I don't see the 10% Kent figure replicated for 2021 entry, although Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education is quoted in SchoolsWeek as saying:  "We’re going to be looking at working with local authorities who have grammar school systems in their area as to how best we can ensure that children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are not disadvantaged as they look at taking the 11-plus in the future.” I look forward to learning the strategy to achieve this, although I would be amongst the many who welcome such an initiative. 

Next: Is the Kent Test Necessary and Final Thought

Two new academies are in the pipeline as explained here. The Maritime Academy, for all ages and sponsored by the Thinking Schools Academy Trust, was planned to open in September 2019, but is now on target for 2021, which has created this year’s pressures.  The Leigh Academy Rainham was also approved by government in 2017 for opening in 2019, but again should come on stream next year. Good news for St John Fisher in 2020, but worrying for the following year!

You will find the parallel article on Medway grammar schools here, with the Kent articles to follow.

Please note that there will be some 'churning' as successful appeals for grammar school places remove some children from the non-selective schools. There were 81 successful appeals at Medway grammars last year (up from 66 in 2018), but over half were for girls at Chatham Grammar, see table below. There were also 32 appeals heard at four Medway non-selective schools (down from 34) taking pupils from less popular schools, 19% of those heard being successful, see below. 

Notes: * Refers to schools that apply a Fair Banding Test, see below for details. 

The school is also unable to hold its natural recruiting area amongst Catholics and Catholic Primary schools (the latter according to families I have advised), with the two closest Kent Catholic schools offering 36 places to  children from Medway. The prospectus quote: 'we have a proud history of providing a world-class education for students from faiths and none' hardly fits the facts!

The school’s Catholic ethos is unequivocal: “The Catholic School is not just an environment providing a series of lessons. It aims to meet the needs of the young people today in the light of the Church’s faith in Jesus Christ. This means that a school’s Catholic character is witnessed to in all facets of its life. For the school to be truly Catholic this vision must be shared by all concerned with its work.”

Six years ago, one of my clients took Medway Council to the High Court  and won a case  with what has been described as an esoteric conclusion but is certainly of exceeding complexity (I defy any lay person to understand it). The commentary quoted above states: 'The judgement repays consideration for its analysis of the law governing the teaching of, and curriculum-setting for, religious education in schools and academies. This was about religious teaching in state schools'. One side effect was that  it forced Medway Council to find an alternative non-religious school for the family's son to attend, on the grounds that he should not be forced to attend a faith school with a strong religious ethos. If this is upheld again, families could win cases to one of the two Walderslade schools in the South of Medway with the Council being required to pay transport costs.