The key measure is Progress 8 (full table here) which looks at progress from the end of primary school to the end of Year 11, comparing pupils to others nationally, who begin from the same starting point, with Medway above average at 0.05, against a National average of -0.03. There is a single floor standard which schools are expected to achieve, which turns out to be -0.5, and all secondary schools exceed this. Highest rated school by this measures is Rochester Grammar, followed by non-selective Thomas Aveling and Brompton Academy.

The 39 page Report gets off to a slow start as it reviews over 1000 pages of written evidence, and that of 10 oral witnesses, but becomes extremely hard hitting as it reaches the conclusion and decision on Page 36. Although the Hearing lasted ten days last month, Ms Porter chose not to attend the final two days.

Many questions remain about how she was allowed to wreck these two schools (and damage two others), which I explore below, although both are being rebuilt under wise leadership, to be happy schools with a strong future ahead of them.

The National College decision was made primarily on evidence from Kings Farm, but Whitehill suffered for much longer, its dire reputation and notoriety leading to the ‘anywhere but Whitehill’ syndrome I have described elsewhere, encountering it frequently when advising local parents, a syndrome which also dominated some local Nursery Schools at school allocation time. Matters at Whitehill eventually came to a head in October 2015, over a year after she was removed from Kings Farm, when the Gravesend Grammar School Academy Trust (GGAT) was served with a Pre-Termination Warning Notice for the school, warning that it would be closed unless standards improved. Amazingly, Ms Porter was still employed by the Trust as Executive Head of Whitehill up until 30 November 2015, attending Trust Meetings as a Trustee. This was in spite of a belated investigation by GGAT in August 2015, whose results are unpublished, although she had taken leave of absence shortly before the Warning was issued.

It is very difficult to quantify the damage caused at both schools, together with two others that KCC considered Ms Porter was qualified to lead out of difficulties. One problem was that during this period, her leadership was championed by a particular KCC Officer, in roles first as North West Kent Area Officer, then as Principal County Primary Adviser. After he subsequently ‘left’ KCC, he was astonishingly employed one day a week as a paid Consultant to Whitehill Primary School, based in the school and carrying out duties unclear to staff at the time.  

Any direct mistreatment of children is only partly covered in the Panel Report, because of limited evidence, but the way that some were exposed to danger through poor safeguarding is made clear. However, the two grievance procedures spell events out in some detail, especially the way they were allegedly referred to over and over again in disparaging terms both to their faces and about them to teachers. 

Indeed, nearly another year passed before any apparent action was taken, when GGAT employed an 'experienced Inspector' to look at potential issues, but amazingly she noticed little amiss apart from some issues around KS1. GGAT’s response to the Regional Schools Commissioner’s (RSC) requirement to explain what had gone wrong, written in November 2015, confirms the school had not been aware of problems until the summer of 2015, a whole year after Ms Porter had been removed from Kings Farm Primary. Even then all they required was a Report from the headteacher! No mention of the concerns expressed by a number of staff to Trustees, that were simply referred back to Ms Porter, resulting in those staff being placed in an impossible position, the all too common fate of whistle blowers. 

It remains a mystery to too many people in the schools and local community as to what the spell comprised of, that was cast over too many people for so long. Was it fear or is there something else?

Then there is the role of KCC. The alleged problems at Westcourt, Ms Porter’s first Executive Head post, are well documented, but no action was taken. At Raynehurst, now known as Tymberwood Academy, staff were appalled when Ms Porter allegedly swept in and binned large number of resources, including staff private property, an action similar to that alleged at both Kings Farm and Whitehill. It may be that KCC had delegated all its responsibilities to the lead officer in the events described in my series of articles on 'Disappearing Heads’, but surely there should have been some monitoring of his actions. His appointment as a live in Consultant to Whitehill Primary School after his sudden departure from KCC remains an enigma, especially as the GGAT response to the RSC places considerable blame on KCC (represented by this very officer) for its misplaced faith in Ms Porter.

Recent Activity

Until at least September 2016, Ms Porter has been running a Service in Medway, providing specialist screening and tutoring for children and adults with learning difficulties, including Dyslexia, Irlens and Dyscalcula. Ironic, given the emphasis placed in the report on the poor treatment of SEN pupils, underlined by staff comments in the two Grievances. The Panel decision has no legal effect on continuance of this provision!

The three Tenterden primaries, Tenterden Infant and Junior Schools, and St Michael’s Primary have all converted, and joined the Tenterden Schools Trust in conjunction with the local comprehensive secondary school, Homewood.

There are also two new converter Academies on the Isle of Sheppey; Halfway Houses and Minster in Sheppey Primary Schools, which are working together in the new Island Learning Trust.

The Pilgrim School in Borstal, Rochester, has become the lead (and to date only) school in the Pilgrim Trust, set up as a multi-academy Trust. Deanwood Primary School in Gillingham is being sponsored by the Howard Academy Trust and Balfour Junior Academy has also opened.

New converter applications in progress are, from Kent: Lamberhurst St Mary’s CofE; Stone St Mary’s CofE, Greenhithe; Horton Kirby CofE, Swanley; St Ethelbert’s Catholic Primary, Ramsgate; and St Teresa’s Catholic Primary, Ashford. From Medway: Barnsole Primary, Gillingham;Hoo St Werburgh Primary; Miers Court, Gillingham; Riverside Primary, Gillingham; St Margaret's Infant School, Gillingham; Thames View Primary, Gillingham.

The four Kent schools in trouble are: Swadelands (see below), now being taken over by Valley Invicta Trust as a sponsored academy, with just 39% of its places occupied; Hayesbrook, Tonbridge, 40%; New Line Learning, Maidstone and High Weald, Cranbrook, Academies, both with 48%.

The Brook Learning Trust runs both Hayesbrook, sliding rapidly from being oversubscribed just a few years ago, and High Weald, which has struggled for numbers over too many years and remains the one school that has bucked the closure spectre so far. Both schools have a Good OFSTED rating and are two of the higher performing schools at GCSE, so I remain unclear of the reasons for their decline in popularity. New Line Learning (NLL) has never thrown off a negative image in spite of its modern purpose built premises. One factor may be that, along with the neighbouring Cornwallis Academy (also on the slide) forming the Future Schools Trust, both are designed with large open learning spaces which have also proved unpopular in many other newly built schools.

The Valley Invicta Academy Trust, also in Maidstone, currently in the news over the Invicta Grammar Sixth Form scandal, is sponsoring the new school of Science and Technology in Maidstone.  The proposal has expanded to six forms of entry, and building has now been approved to start in September/October this year for opening in September 2018. This is likely to be disastrous news for NLL. The Trust is also taking over the troubled Swadelands school (see previous article) and is in discussion with the high performing Eastborough Primary School to join them as a converter academy.

A year ago, I wrote about the casualty rate of secondary headteachers at non-selective schools and at least three more have joined them this school year. I feel especially sorry for the head of High Weald Academy who I believe never stood a chance and went at Christmas. This was in spite of managing to build GCSE results up to some of the highest in Kent in 2015 although these dipped, not crashed, for 2016 . The short termist football manager syndrome, is well and truly embedded into education, with results being everything. The head of the partner academy, Hayesbook, similarly ‘left’ last summer in spite of good performance at GCSE. Less surprising was the departure of the Principal of NLL.

Two schools bidding to be academies, but blocked by the PFI issue (and subsequent articles) are Holmesdale School in Cuxton, and The Malling School. The then strong Holmesdale took over struggling Malling School in a Federation, but in recent years the positions have reversed with Malling turning in good GCSE results and a Good OFSTED. It is perhaps therefore no surprise that Malling School has de-federated and the head of Holmesdale fell on his sword over Christmas, the school recently declining sharply in popularity and performance. I am told that at least one other head has gone over Christmas, having been suspended from their post.

I have previously been highly critical of the proposal by the Holcombe Grammar School to go co-educational, but it has also suffered from losing boys, in this case to Sir Joseph Williamson’s as well as Rainham Mark. Holcombe's published rationale for the change makes no sense and a recent letter to parents suggests the school has put back its plan to a change in September 2019. Spineless Medway Council has now withdrawn its opposition, which I fear may now leave the change as the only viable option for the area, effectively reducing opportunities for both boys and girls.

The Medway UTC has a less ambitious PAN of 120 although expanding to 150 in 2018, and filled for 2016 admission, attracting 120 students into Year 10 from other local schools, including apparently some from grammar schools (the two Chathams?) this year, creating a much firmer base.

Meanwhile in Gravesham, Gravesend Grammar (boys) is clearly regretting its expansion to 174 places a few years ago, seeing a surge to over 40 out of county boys joining it annually as a result and changing the nature of the school. It is therefore reducing its intake to 150. Perversely, for Sixth Form admission, it abandons any residential priority and gives priority to the highest GCSE scorers, no matter where they live, which will inevitably reduce opportunities for students wishing to transfer from local non-selective schools. At the same time Mayfield Grammar, the equivalent girls’ school, has been granted basic need funding to expand its intake from 145 to 175, following a request from KCC for extra places to be made available. This will inevitably open up the school to out of county applications. Surely only one of these contradictory proposals in Gravesend can make sense? Gravesend Grammar will also be coping with the fall out from its partner Federation Academy, Whitehill Primary, whose previous headteacher has been permanently banned from teaching. 

My article on the scandal at Invicta Grammar School, which annually gets rid of large numbers of students at the end of Year 12 in order to improve its A Level league table position, has been read by an unprecedented 20,000 visitors in less than a month. The only response from the school so far has been to falsely claim that all 22 leavers voluntarily chose to go half way through their A Level course last summer, as disproved by the large number of testimonies at the foot of the article. Current Year 12 students must be wondering what the policy will be this summer. According to school statements, it should be that no one is to be forced out although volunteers to leave are encouraged. We shall see! 

For those wishing to keep abreast of scandals in academies across the country, the Simon Langton Girls Grammar School Parents Forum provides an often local perspective, whilst the online blog SchoolsWeekis an investigative set-up, often breaking major stories.

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Educationally I have found 2016 the most depressing I can recall. Too many news articles illustrate examples of a breakdown in accountability, personal greed and ruthless hunger for power, loss of integrity including ‘alternative facts’ that are allowed to stand without challenge by those who should stand up for the rights of children and teachers, all encouraged by partisan and political policy making to support polemic ideas, at the expense of rather than the support of educating the next generation. However, measured against this I must acknowledge the work of the large majority of dedicated teachers, headteachers and governors still drawn to a profession and vocation crucial to the future of this country, committed to providing the best education possible, and who keep going despite all.

I have been drawn into many of the issues covered, by parents (and in some cases members of Governing Bodies, teachers and headteachers informally) seeking advice, and my telephone consultancy has never been busier. Can I also thank the many people who keep me informed of what is going on in our county; your information is invaluable. 

In the information pages of the site, after Kent Grammar School Applications come: Kent Special Schools & Units (awaiting a serious update); Kent Secondary School Admissions; Medway Grammar School Applications; Kent Grammar School Appeals; Kent Secondary Statistics on Admissions & Appeals; In Year Admissions; and Primary School Admissions, many of these items being drawn on by media to illustrate stories. These popular choices from the 150 pages of information provided show the insatiable appetite for hard-nosed information and advice on securing school places, and the important gap this website fills in the information provided elsewhere. It is an enormous task trying to keep these pages up to date, and I am currently overhauling the Individual School Information Pages for Medway (finished) and Kent, just started. I am always happy to respond to requests for additional or more recent information if relevant. There is also a large News Archive Section where I move older items which may still be of interest. Way out in front of these is an article I wrote in 2014 on the controversial closure of Chaucer Technology College in Canterbury, which has attracted an astonishing 159,423 visitors since then. Seven(!) other articles on the school's decline and fall have averaged over thirty thousand hits each confirming the interest shown in this debacle. There are also 61 Newspaper Articles I have written, mainly for Kent on Sunday.   

Anarticle I wrote about ‘alternative facts’ (which preceded Trumpism) relating to grammar school matters, has attracted considerable attention although the content of the websites concerned has changed considerably as a consequence.

The Sevenoaks grammar school Annexe will be opening in September, having attracted much press comment since the original seriously flawed proposal was put forward in 2012. I have reported on  developments ever since, but have chosen to ignore the many rather pointless efforts to scupper the current scheme first proposed two years later.

In spite of alarmist media stories about the pressure on grammar school places especially in West Kent, there has been sufficient capacity in the system to date, eased this year by additional classes of entry being added at The Judd and Tonbridge Grammar Schools.  Far less attention has been made to the harmful effects of the London overspill into North Kent grammars that I have followed and regularly reported. The surge started in Dartford, but has now followed through to Gravesend and increasingly into Medway, especially concerning to local children seeking places through appeals, more so since my 2014 article. 

Six of Kent and Medway’s 38 grammar schools now offer their own admission tests as an alternative way of entry, increasing pass rates, at least 14 more offering some or all of their places to high scoring children. The two Dartford grammar schools have both responded enthusiastically to the attraction of high scoring London children, and now also limit local places to the best performers. Other grammar schools have gone in the opposite direction, the super-selective Judd School and the two Wilmington grammars now giving priority to Kent children.

Overall, through own school tests and an increase in successful grammar school appeals, the proportion of children in Year 7 at Kent grammar schools has continued to rise inexorably to 31.2% this year up from 2015-16’s 29.9%, making the best estimate for out of county children.

I have covered and contributed to the extensive and welcome debate on widening admissions to Kent grammar schools led by Kent County Council in 2016, which is now leading the way with a policy containing explicit proposals towards improving social mobility in grammar schools. This has also contributed to an increasing number of over-subscribed local grammars including the three West Kent super-selectives making some places available for children on Pupil Premium.

The worst case of variety in Kent is undoubtedly the Leigh University Technical College, Kent’s first new 14 – 19 school intended to provide a semi-vocational education backed up by business and Higher Education. In its third year of operation, the UTC only attracted 38 students into Year 10, filling just 25% of places, a pattern replicated in many other parts of the country. However, by contrast the new Medway UTC managed to fill this year.

I have exposed several examples of the lack of accountability on the website, but there are of course many good Academy Trusts that have not forgotten their prime responsibility, providing the best education possible for their students. Unfortunately, these do not receive public recognition often enough, OFSTED and school league tables only offering a partial picture. So I, like many other commentators, focus on the controversial examples of which there are too many in the county as elsewhere. Profit making at the expense of educational provision is increasingly more blatant, with some owners and leaders of Trusts taking much needed funds out of academy budgets, forcing economies, a common one being the shedding of expensive (experienced) staff and replacing them with expendable NQTs, Teaching Assistants or non-qualified staff.

Academies appear by definition to be self-interested, looking after their own with the result that they don’t have to worry about other children in the community. One negative result is that exclusion results can be high, and there are increasing examples of older children being  encouraged to ‘home educate’ to avoid dragging down GCSE results. Almost certainly, the worst local example of self-interest is the Learning Schools Academy Trust in Medway, whose previous Chief Executive and head of The Rochester Grammar School departed after allegations of unprofessional conduct, with a pay-off reported to be £80,000. One of its schools, Holcombe Grammar (previously Chatham Boys’ Grammar) is proposing to become co-educational, a by-product threatening the future of Chatham Girls, although the latter may now be saved by the London effect. Holcombe’s paperwork for the proposal makes clear it has no interest in the prospects of what was previously its partner school.

One recent Report is of a new build academy, recently taken over by a profit orientated Academy Trust, that is strongly encouraging parents of SEN children to look elsewhere. Sadly, they are not alone as some academies seek to focus on attracting the highest performing pupils.  

I am regularly contacted by parents of children who have run into difficulties at their academy, but can get no satisfaction. If the academy chooses not to take not of a concern, the only route is to complain to the Department of Education which rarely takes an interest in such local matters.

Such problems are not of course confined to Academies, and the current massive disaffection at Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School, which failed in its attempt to become an academy has surely reached a climax since my last article in July, as the result of an investigation commissioned by KCC has been handed to governors. For an up to date but partisan view, see here. 

All this is against a backdrop of national figures showing a worsening picture with a steady fall across the country of numbers being awarded first preference, and a rise in the number with no school of their choice to go to. This is in spite of a government spokesman quoted in the Times Educational Supplement today who falsely stated: ‘The proportion of parents getting a place at their first choice of school remains stable, and last year almost all parents got an offer at one of their top three preferred schools’. He needs to get out more!

In both Kent and Medway, the proportion of  unsuccessful first choices is inflated when compared with other Authorities, as it includes a considerable number of families who have put a grammar school first, although their child has not qualified through the Kent Test.

Most of the additional Kent children who have been offered their first choice will have benefited from schools willing and able to expand creating a further 215 places in grammar schools and 528 in non-selective schools (however 136 of these were in schools which did not fill any of them!).  74 places have been removed by schools that no longer need them. None of this is a comfort to the 616 children who have none of their choices (but see end of paragraph), although many of these situations will be resolved in the churning that follows over the next few months. This includes around 800 appeals expected to be successful, creating places elsewhere that are often snapped up through re-allocation. Last year some 200 other children were offered places at oversubscribed Kent schools they had appealed to, even before the appeals took place. Even the number of 616 is itself misleadingly high, as it includes many children who put just one or two schools on their list and will have made alternative plans such as a Private School if unsuccessful. Other families will have wrongly assumed they would be offered their only choice. Just nine of the reallocations were to grammar schools, although a number of the others will be grammar school to non-selective, especially in Dartford to Ebbsfleet Academy. I have already been contacted by some of the latter unfortunates. 

You will find last year's slightly more upbeat article here. 

 The following table shows nearly three thousand Kent children not taking part in the process, including SEN children with an Education, Health Care Plan who are allocated to Mainstream or Special Schools by a different process, and those looking to their private schools for their secondary education.  

So what next? If you are not awarded the school of your choice, then certainly go on the waiting list for every school you have applied for and still wish to consider. You have the right to appeal to any and every school for which you have been turned down. My article on 2016 appeals should be taken as guidance only, a classic example of the warning of taking data too much to heart being Chatham and Clarendon Grammar in Ramsgate, where after a 24% success rate in 2015, the school changed its Appeal Panel provider and saw nearly double to 47%, as they sought to admit more children.  You will also find plenty of free advice in the appeals sections of this website at: Kent Grammar Appeals; Medway Grammar Appeals; and Oversubscription Appeals. There is also copious grammar school appeal advice on the 11 plus Exams website, although it is not necessarily Kent specific and in any case often written for out of county candidates who have different expectations and perceptions, so be careful. 

Obviously, you should talk to your primary school who should be able to offer advice and, if you are not sure of the school to which you have been allocated, ask for another visit, which is likely to be as an individual rather than with the crowd who were there on Open Day. 

 You also have the option of making a late application for a fresh school, called an In Year Application from 16^th March in Kent, or go on any school’s waiting list after 28^th April. Details here (page 20). You can apply for as many schools as you wish through this process.  Every year we see a considerable ‘churning’ effect as children take up places off the waiting lists, as children win appeals at higher preferences, and some unhappy families remove themselves from the state system, so don't lose hope!

Medway is far more convoluted and parents and I often find it difficult to pin down a shifting procedure especially with late grammar school applications, the Admission Booklet being of limited assistance. The phrase ‘at the discretion of the Student Services Management Team’ is used too often in discussion. 

I regret I have retired from my Personal Appeals Service, being the only Kent and Medway appeals specialist I am afraid. I still offer a Telephone Advisory Service which provides an initial hard-nosed information and advisory assessment. 

Parental Letter to Medway Council (slightly edited for clarity)  

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We have moved to Cuxton from Bromley November last year. The area attracted us with beautiful views, nature and peace and quiet. We are first time parents so have not done much research on schools assuming that our 5 year old will easily get a space at Cuxton Infant School, like he would in Bromley. 

To our horror we discovered that not only Medway council is desperately struggling with school admissions (process took us way beyond normal period) but also that the area overall has problems with primary schools - many of them are inadequate or require improvement. There is clearly a primary school crisis in Medway that is not being addressed. 

My son ended up having to go to a school 3 miles away from where we live (I do not drive so lost any opportunity to drop him off or collect him and interact with his school) and we had to settle with the school Requiring Improvement as we were given no choice by Medway council. 

You SHOULD NOT be even considering building any residential housing on Sundridge Hill, along Station road or near cinema complex until you: 1) sort out your school admissions process - you have to employ more competent, honest people following the process!! we had your staff lie to us just to get rid of us and not do their job, 2) improve primary schools - there is clearly a shortage of good schools, 3) make everyone moving into this area aware of the dire situation that primary schools are in before they move. 

I am considering writing to Ofsted and Local Government Ombudsman about my concerns - I believe they should monitor the situation and prevent you from building housing without creating the right infrastructure (schools, GPs, roads), and include a warning in capital red letters for anyone considering Medway/ Cuxton that schools are in a horrible state and people should consider moving elsewhere. 

As much as I enjoy living in Cuxton, I am now considering moving elsewhere and do regret leaving Bromley - as my little one's school situation was so much better before moving. You are not doing your job in respect of primary schools and so should absolutely not increase population in this area without considering improving existing/ creating good schools, creating new GP surgeries, expanding roads and addressing the rest of the infrastructure. You are creating a mess otherwise and not developing the area. 

I will update this item as and when the complainant receives a response.

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 Both Kent and Medway are subject to government pressures to expand house-building development programmes, but appear to have a different approach to providing the infra-structure to support these, especially with regard to schools. Kent has a well publicised and comprehensive School Commissioning Plan up dated annually that currently sets out its proposals for new provision over the next few years, 2017-2021. It accompanies this by a pro-active approach to looking for ways to create additional places year on year. Medway Council certainly had one for 2011-16, as required by Legislation, but this is no longer a statutory requirement and I can find no further trace of any such plan, although a number of ad hoc decisions on expanding provision. As an idea perhaps they should think about planning for the future, or at the least share their thoughts with their constituents.

The performance of Medway's primary schools has been appalling for as long as I can remember, current 'strategy' being to get rid of them all as academies as soon as possible, which does of course do nothing to improve the standards of those that remain with the Council.

Both these issues feature strongly in the list of the nine most visited news and blog items since 2011 that refer to Medway Council. Clearly the older items have had greater opportunity for visits: They are: What Can I do about Medway Council? - a remarkable coincidence (2013, 65,165); Five shocking OFSTED Monitoring Reports for Medway controlled school (2014, 62,209);  What can I do about Medway Council? - Continued (46,353); Medway’s education problems mount as OFSTED Inspections carried out (44.235); Medway Test 2013 & last year's debacle (2012, 44,102); Medway Council (sort of) reports the appalling fall in the standards of its primary schools, as measured by OFSTED. (2013, 37,132); Medway Test and Review both discriminate sharply against boys and younger children (2013, 37,018); OFSTED Annual Report: Medway worst but one of the 152 Local Authorities in the country; Kent 133rd. (2013, 32,824). There are of course newer articles continuing to identify the Authority's failings coming up on the ratings which you can if you wish find on my search engine.

I will shortly be publishing my annual survey of oversubscription and vacancy levels in Kent and Medway secondary schools following allocation this month, identifying key pressure points more closely. My recent article on secondary school allocations identified some of these, but this article specifically addresses some of the possibilities for new schools, with many priorities already addressed in the Kent School Commissioning Plan 2017 – 2021. The figures look far more conservative than the initial statement, so it is be unlikely that Kent will only benefit from one or two extra allocations in the next few years, although others of the possibilities below may already be covered by the alternative forms of capital funding. 

You will find my initial thoughts on several of the grammar school possibilities here (including expanding the Sevenoaks Annexe to admit boys and a Coastal Grammar at Herne Bay/Whitstable expanded here) and   other secondary possibilities below. At present I would refer browsers to the Commissioning Plan for details of proposed new primary and Special school provision, but plan to cover this shortly.

Meopham School as a grammar????? To date the Swale Academies Trust has not withdrawn this ridiculous proposal, but would government actually be foolish enough to back it?

Three of these in one sense are not new places at all, replacing failed and closed schools: Chaucer Technology College, Canterbury; Oasis Hextable Academy, Sevenoaks - but close to Dartford; and Pent Valley, Folkestone. In Maidstone the new school will put another unpopular school at risk.  

The Plan also includes a need for further new schools in Ashford (2022); Gravesham (2019); Sittingbourne (2019); Thanet (2019); and Tunbridge Wells (2018!)

Gravesham will need 7 new forms of entry by 2019. There appears little scope for enlargement of current schools which is continuing to happen in most Districts, so this should equate to a new school.

Sittingbourne is seeing considerable pressure on places, although there are vacancies at the unpopular Oasis Sheppey Academy, so a new school would be welcomed by many, KCC forecasting a need for 4 FE in the town by 2019.

Tunbridge Wells has an urgent need for a new 6 FE non-selective Free School in  by 2018 (!) as identified by KCC,  so there is a massive issue in providing a site by then. The likelihood is that if a sponsor can be found it will need to open in temporary premises, as all the other current secondary Free Schools in Kent have begun their existence.  

I now know of six career teachers (including my wife who attended Whitelands from 1964-1967) who are all thrilled with this belated recognition of their service to education, and are also looking forward to a reunion on the day. The dual purpose of this article is both to encourage readers who know of other teachers or retired teachers entitled to the Honorary Degree, to be awarded at the Ceremony for the Conferment of Honorary Degrees at the Royal Festival Hall to make them aware of it, but also to commend the concept to other relevant institutions. 

This follows an extensive period of open warfare, on the one side by a group of parents, intent on exposing evidence about allegations of maladministration, unlawful action, financial irregularity, and bullying of staff by the HT, generating over twenty complaints by teachers to KCC amongst a total of some 200 complaints about a wide variety of issues also including the large turnover of staff, and straightforward poor management. KCC was clearly unhappy with events at the school, hence the commissioning of the Investigation and a verdict of maladministration over the aborted application to become an Academy (see below and previous articles). You will find some of these allegations on the Simon Langton Parents Forum, although many were personal and not considered appropriate for the public domain. On the other side were the HT, several senior staff, and a group of governors who either denied the allegations, conceding no fault, or completely stonewalled them.

The proposed KCC action which triggered the resignation became public on Friday when a member of staff who was aware of it foolishly talked about the decision, which was then reported on Facebook. It is unclear whether the Governing Body endorsed taking disciplinary action as Mrs Robinson had several supporters amongst a divided membership that also saw a large turnover, and has had three Chairmen over the past two years. Any such discussion now becomes irrelevant with the resignation, which has been accepted. , 

Back in May last year I wrote: ‘What is clear is that there is an unprecedented breakdown of relationships between many parents and staff on one side, and the Headteacher and Governors of the school on the other. I cannot see how the school can go on without massive change internally, and it is going to take a long time for its reputation to heal. Without passing judgement, I cannot see how the headteacher can continue in post, having completely lost the confidence of so many parts of the community.’  The subsequent ten months have unbelievably seen a further decline with too many of those in authority prepared to stand on the sidelines.  

We know there were over 200 complaints considered by Professor Craig, including a large number relating to staff bullying. In the absence of publication of the Report, I would expect a response to be provided for each of these individually, at the very least confirming their validity or otherwise. So many people have been hurt and allowed to have been hurt by those in authority, in some cases amounting to abuse. This should surely not be brushed under the carpet; the victims are entitled to be heard.

The Governing Body is clearly complicit in many of the events that have taken place. They worked with the headteacher on the Academy application, a process that generated false information and required dubious financial juggling to secure the Academy Order, as explained here. The failures of the process were heavily criticised by KCC, surely itself a warning that something was going badly wrong at the school. The GB shot down so many warnings from parents and staff unquestioningly defending the headteacher even when it was evident she was out of step. Mrs Robinson’s letter of resignation states ‘I have been under a great deal of pressure over the course of the past year with the ongoing public challenges to my professionalism’. Indeed, there have been many such challenges from parents determined to establish the truth of what was going on, but on the surface none from a Governing Body who appear to have utterly failed to carry out their responsibilities by offering challenge.

‘Kent County Council will be supporting the Governing Body to ensure that there are robust interim leadership arrangements put in place until a new Headteacher is appointed’. The only way this can be achieved is by looking for an interim leader from outside the school in order to secure the confidence of the staff, for the current Senior Leadership Team is surely too tarnished by its connection with and support of Mrs Robinson.

It would clearly be inappropriate to comment on the abuse allegations until the School’s legal action is concluded. 

Families who are concerned about issues of abuse may wish to contact Whistleblowers UK or official channels for advice. 

Whilst each cohort shows a steady increase as older pupils transfer in to the school, in most years, the number of Year pupils arriving in Year Seven is approximately double the March allocations. This suggests that in September, the number arriving could be around 24, although the current  bad publicity is surely bound to reduce this further to a long term non-viable figure. It is also reported, but not confirmed that some families have removed their children from the school which will add to the pressures. 

In spite of the shrinking numbers, the academy's financial viability may be secure because of an annual grant from the Ministry of Defence, totalling £891,858 in 2016 for 'Ministry of Defence Military Ethos'. That is an awful lot for ethos! 

 Note: the initial allocation figures for all Kent secondary schools reports that 3251 children, 19.5% of the total, did not get their first choice school on allocation. This figure is misleading as 887 of these were children who put grammar schools in first place but had not been found selective and so were ineligible, this becoming an irrelevant choice. They should therefore be deducted from the figures, reducing the figure to some 14% of children overall in Kent who did not get their first legitimate choice, a much lower figure than in many parts of the country.

Note*: ooc - Out of County

Dartford Grammar School for Girls which, a few years ago, did give priority to local girls, has now gone down the same route, and as a result is the second most oversubscribed grammar school turning away 188 girls most from London Boroughs.  23 of their 55 ooc girls are coming from Greenwich or Lewisham, and the pass mark for local girls is also climbing fast, to 347.

Both of the Wilmington Grammar Schools made a clear statement two years ago when they gave priority for 90% of their places to local children, but because there are still not enough locals to fill all available places (a situation that will change rapidly as the Ebbsfleet Garden City blossoms) are also taking in a large London intake many making them their first preference schools, the Boys admitting 60, and the Girls 57. Wilmington Girls rejected 58 grammar qualified girls (making it the sixth most popular in Kent) and the Boys, 43.

There are calls from some political circles for another grammar school in Dartford, which would of course simply attract another grammar full of children from London. I am not sure this is the point of the new government plan.

The two Gravesend Grammars appear to be going down different routes with regards to admissions; the boys' school having expanded to 175 is filling up with ooc boys, offering places to 43. 14 of these live in Thurrock, presumably planning to cross the Thames on the passenger ferry. The school is clearly unhappy with the ooc situation and is reducing its intake to 150 for 2018 entry. For September 2017, all but one grammar qualified boys placing the school in first place were offered places. Mayfield Grammar introduced an additional route to admission via the Mayfield Test in 2015, seeing 16 girls arrive by this route in 2017. The school has expanded its intake by 25 places to admit 170 girls this September, suggesting there will be some 10 available on appeal,  but still turned away 22 first choices. 

Next comes The Skinners School, oversubscribed by 143 first choices, most of its ooc’s coming from East Sussex, followed by 11 from Bromley. The school, on a restricted site, remains at five form entry, but has increased its Planned Admission Number (PAN) by five places to 155. This may have severe implications for appeals, as previously the average number upheld has been five, but with those places already allocated, will the Appeal Panel be willing to raise class sizes above 31?

The Judd School, which changed last year to give priority to Kent children for 90% of its places has increased its PAN for the second time in five years, to 180 boys, in exchange for capital funding from KCC to accommodate this. Even with 30 extra places awarded, 102 grammar qualified fist choices lost out and the school’s cut off score for admission for local children rose slightly to 364 (up from 362), confirming the school’s popularity continues to swell. Meanwhile the bar for the out of area children soared to an aggregate of 400, which will have included just 19 ooc's, 15 from Bromley.

Meanwhile Weald of Kent Grammar at last opened the long delayed and controversial annexe in Sevenoaks. This has admitted 90 girls, but overall the school has only offered places to 30 more girls than last year, when it expanded its intake on the single site in preparation for the annexe. Some forecast it would lose out in popularity but, even with the enlarged intake, the oversubscription level rose from 33 to 44 in 2017. The school offered 13 ooc's, all but one from East Sussex. It is not clear how the school allocated places between the two sites, but there appear to have been no public concerns surfacing, suggesting that families are happy with the way the school has handled this. 

With the additional places offered for girls through the annexe and at Tonbridge, focus naturally turns to the pressure on boys’ places in West Kent. Judd’s decision to give priority to local boys and to expand has clearly helped, and this year Tunbridge Wells Boys’ Grammar has also offered to another 30 boys taking its total up to 210, although 26 first choices were turned away. The school remains very much a Kent provider, with just two ooc's offered places. Tunbridge Wells Girls’ has resisted inducements to enlarge, but has offered an additional five places this year, taking its PAN up to 145. As with Skinners, this may have significant implications for appeals, as the school has previously argued strongly that it is unable to go above this number, seeing some 7/8 only get through.

For some reason, presumably political, Maidstone Grammar has had a £4 million expansion programme to take its intake up 30 places to 205. The school gives priority to boys achieving at least a mark half way between the pass mark and the maximum marks available in the Kent Test, and living in named parishes. It is now no longer oversubscribed with first choices, but the second boys' grammar school in Maidstone, Oakwood Park, has lost 30 boys because of this expansion. It is currently running with 65 spaces before appeals, the highest figure for any Kent grammar. So with so many surplus places in the town, why was this capital expansion given such priority? 

The second highest vacancy figure in Kent is at Maidstone Girls’ Grammar with 42, whilst the controversial Invicta Grammar, remains full only by virtue of reducing its intake by 18 girls to 192. Between them, the four Maidstone grammars admitted an astonishing 164 children on appeal in 2016, which will have led to considerable churning amongst the non-selective schools.

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Educationally I have found 2016 the most depressing I can recall. Too many news articles illustrate examples of a breakdown in accountability, personal greed and ruthless hunger for power, loss of integrity including ‘alternative facts’ that are allowed to stand without challenge by those who should stand up for the rights of children and teachers, all encouraged by partisan and political policy making to support polemic ideas, at the expense of rather than the support of educating the next generation. However, measured against this I must acknowledge the work of the large majority of dedicated teachers, headteachers and governors still drawn to a profession and vocation crucial to the future of this country, committed to providing the best education possible, and who keep going despite all.

I have been drawn into many of the issues covered, by parents (and in some cases members of Governing Bodies, teachers and headteachers informally) seeking advice, and my telephone consultancy has never been busier. Can I also thank the many people who keep me informed of what is going on in our county; your information is invaluable. 

In the information pages of the site, after Kent Grammar School Applications come: Kent Special Schools & Units (awaiting a serious update); Kent Secondary School Admissions; Medway Grammar School Applications; Kent Grammar School Appeals; Kent Secondary Statistics on Admissions & Appeals; In Year Admissions; and Primary School Admissions, many of these items being drawn on by media to illustrate stories. These popular choices from the 150 pages of information provided show the insatiable appetite for hard-nosed information and advice on securing school places, and the important gap this website fills in the information provided elsewhere. It is an enormous task trying to keep these pages up to date, and I am currently overhauling the Individual School Information Pages for Medway (finished) and Kent, just started. I am always happy to respond to requests for additional or more recent information if relevant. There is also a large News Archive Section where I move older items which may still be of interest. Way out in front of these is an article I wrote in 2014 on the controversial closure of Chaucer Technology College in Canterbury, which has attracted an astonishing 159,423 visitors since then. Seven(!) other articles on the school's decline and fall have averaged over thirty thousand hits each confirming the interest shown in this debacle. There are also 61 Newspaper Articles I have written, mainly for Kent on Sunday.   

Anarticle I wrote about ‘alternative facts’ (which preceded Trumpism) relating to grammar school matters, has attracted considerable attention although the content of the websites concerned has changed considerably as a consequence.

The Sevenoaks grammar school Annexe will be opening in September, having attracted much press comment since the original seriously flawed proposal was put forward in 2012. I have reported on  developments ever since, but have chosen to ignore the many rather pointless efforts to scupper the current scheme first proposed two years later.

In spite of alarmist media stories about the pressure on grammar school places especially in West Kent, there has been sufficient capacity in the system to date, eased this year by additional classes of entry being added at The Judd and Tonbridge Grammar Schools.  Far less attention has been made to the harmful effects of the London overspill into North Kent grammars that I have followed and regularly reported. The surge started in Dartford, but has now followed through to Gravesend and increasingly into Medway, especially concerning to local children seeking places through appeals, more so since my 2014 article. 

Six of Kent and Medway’s 38 grammar schools now offer their own admission tests as an alternative way of entry, increasing pass rates, at least 14 more offering some or all of their places to high scoring children. The two Dartford grammar schools have both responded enthusiastically to the attraction of high scoring London children, and now also limit local places to the best performers. Other grammar schools have gone in the opposite direction, the super-selective Judd School and the two Wilmington grammars now giving priority to Kent children.

Overall, through own school tests and an increase in successful grammar school appeals, the proportion of children in Year 7 at Kent grammar schools has continued to rise inexorably to 31.2% this year up from 2015-16’s 29.9%, making the best estimate for out of county children.

I have covered and contributed to the extensive and welcome debate on widening admissions to Kent grammar schools led by Kent County Council in 2016, which is now leading the way with a policy containing explicit proposals towards improving social mobility in grammar schools. This has also contributed to an increasing number of over-subscribed local grammars including the three West Kent super-selectives making some places available for children on Pupil Premium.

The worst case of variety in Kent is undoubtedly the Leigh University Technical College, Kent’s first new 14 – 19 school intended to provide a semi-vocational education backed up by business and Higher Education. In its third year of operation, the UTC only attracted 38 students into Year 10, filling just 25% of places, a pattern replicated in many other parts of the country. However, by contrast the new Medway UTC managed to fill this year.

I have exposed several examples of the lack of accountability on the website, but there are of course many good Academy Trusts that have not forgotten their prime responsibility, providing the best education possible for their students. Unfortunately, these do not receive public recognition often enough, OFSTED and school league tables only offering a partial picture. So I, like many other commentators, focus on the controversial examples of which there are too many in the county as elsewhere. Profit making at the expense of educational provision is increasingly more blatant, with some owners and leaders of Trusts taking much needed funds out of academy budgets, forcing economies, a common one being the shedding of expensive (experienced) staff and replacing them with expendable NQTs, Teaching Assistants or non-qualified staff.

Academies appear by definition to be self-interested, looking after their own with the result that they don’t have to worry about other children in the community. One negative result is that exclusion results can be high, and there are increasing examples of older children being  encouraged to ‘home educate’ to avoid dragging down GCSE results. Almost certainly, the worst local example of self-interest is the Learning Schools Academy Trust in Medway, whose previous Chief Executive and head of The Rochester Grammar School departed after allegations of unprofessional conduct, with a pay-off reported to be £80,000. One of its schools, Holcombe Grammar (previously Chatham Boys’ Grammar) is proposing to become co-educational, a by-product threatening the future of Chatham Girls, although the latter may now be saved by the London effect. Holcombe’s paperwork for the proposal makes clear it has no interest in the prospects of what was previously its partner school.

One recent Report is of a new build academy, recently taken over by a profit orientated Academy Trust, that is strongly encouraging parents of SEN children to look elsewhere. Sadly, they are not alone as some academies seek to focus on attracting the highest performing pupils.  

I am regularly contacted by parents of children who have run into difficulties at their academy, but can get no satisfaction. If the academy chooses not to take not of a concern, the only route is to complain to the Department of Education which rarely takes an interest in such local matters.

Many (but certainly not all) secondary academy headteachers are on inflated salaries at a time when their schools are facing severe financial cuts - similar to some leaders in other state systems such as Local Government, universities, the NHS etc. However, I identified three local primary headteachers with salaries of over £100,000, two running smaller schools, the third and highest paid at over £155,000 p.a., an astonishing and indefensible sum, leaving his post after two of the the three schools for which he was responsible deteriorated sharply under his leadership.    

Such problems are not of course confined to Academies, and the current massive disaffection at Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School, which failed in its attempt to become an academy has surely reached a climax since my last article in July, as the result of an investigation commissioned by KCC has been handed to governors. For an up to date but partisan view, see here. 

This is an expansion of my previous article on allocations, published at the beginning of March here. You will find an article describing the grammar school situation below, with Medway to follow. You will find 2016 non-selective data here.

Kent has seen an extra 576 net places put into its non-selective schools since 2016, to meet rising rolls in several areas, although it is clearly becoming increasingly difficult to provide places in schools that families want their children to attend.

The number of pupils offered their first choice rose by 87, but the number being offered none of their four choices also increased, by 188 children to 616.

There will be considerable churning between now and September, as children drop out of the system, and through waiting lists and successful appeals (126 out of 357 non-selective appeals in 2016) which all create spaces to be filled.

The District sections describe the picture on allocation day March 1^st. Between now and September, many more places will become available after successful grammar school appeals. 

Notes for details below:  (a) PAN is Planned Admission Number, the figure which determines how many places a school can offer before it is technically full; (b) OOC refers to Out Of County children seeking or being offered places in Kent schools (c) LAAC is a Local Authority Allocated Child, one placed by KCC in a school they did not apply for, as they received none of their application preferences.    

Herne Bay High School is as usual heavily oversubscribed, turning away 52 first choices, its popularity underlined by having 95% of its offers going to first choices, the highest percentage in Kent.

Dartford has been under pressure since the sudden closure of Oasis Hextable Academy two years ago. By contrast, the Leigh University Technical College, for 14-18 students choosing a vocationally oriented school, has failed to attract half of its planned intake in any of its first three years since opening, dropping to a disastrous 25% this year. The rescue plan is to ditch the core philosophy and recruit primarily at age 11, so the Inspiration Academy at Leigh UTC has rapidly come into being, proving a popular choice and attracting its full complement of 120 places. However, this has damaged Ebbsfleet Academy for, although performing well academically, it has never been popular and now has 40% of its new Year Seven places empty, the only non-selective school in Dartford with vacancies. The percentage would be smaller but the school has increased its PAN by 18 places for some strange reason. Many of these should vanish with further developments for the Ebbsfleet Garden City, although another new school has been proposed for the town probably for 2020. The Inspiration venture gives Leigh academies control of 80% of non-selective places in the town, unfortunate if a child falls out with one of the schools! Although Leigh Academy itself is still the most oversubscribed school, turning away 41 first choices, this figure has been falling steadily year by year from a figure of 193 rejections in 2012. It is followed by followed by Longfield Academy, 25; Inspiration, 9; and Wilmington Academy 6. Between them the three Leigh Dartford Academies offered places to 54 Bexley children, Dartford Science and Technology College adding another 17. It is likely that the large majority of the 72 Kent children taking up places in Bexley schools come from the Dartford District.

Astor College, Duke of York’s and SchoolsCompany Goodwin Academy  in Walmer, all appear disaster areas, the first two being closely linked and having been run by the same Executive Principal until last summer. The SchoolsCompany Goodwin Academy which fell from Outstanding to Special Measures a few years ago, has now scrambled out of it but  clearly still inspires little confidence in families. It has 43% of Year 7 allocation places empty, the second highest percentage in Kent. This figure will increase as other more popular schools see vacancies arise. Astor College, which was issued with a government Warning Notice eighteen months ago for persistently low standards and failure to address them has also lost public confidence with 40% of its places empty.

However, the school with the highest percentage of empty desks in Kent by far is the Duke of York’s Royal Military School, a boarding Academy in Dover sponsored by The Army. The school has recently completed a £25 million building project built for an Admission Number of 104. The problem is surely related to the highly controversial reputation it carries which has now risen to the surface again. This has seen its intake sink to 12 Year 7 pupils on allocation at this stage, half the previous lowest figure, although historically this number increases considerably up to three times the original figure, with children transferring in at older age groups. This would still leave it two thirds empty. The school is able to reject pupils if it considers them unsuitable for boarding, and has refused places for 14 applicants by this process, although it identifies as a priority ‘Children at risk or with an unstable home environment’. No doubt its annual grant for 'Ministry of Defence Military Ethos', totalling £891,858 in 2016, assists any financial pressures but amounts to a lot of ethos.

GRAVESHAM

The third Sevenoaks District school is the much underrated Orchards Academy, which had the fourth highest Progress 8 GCSE performance of any non-selective school in Kent. In spite of this, it still had 25 vacancies for its 120 places, losing many children to Knole.

SHEPWAY

Given the pressure on places at Brockhill it is no surprise to see the third Shepway school, Marsh Academy at New Romney, filled for the first time, and even be 20 places oversubscribed.

A new four form entry Free school, described as ‘fully comprehensive’  is proposed by Turner Schools, for the site of the closed Pent Valley school planned to start in 2019, although government bureaucracy appears to be delaying all progress on opening new schools, which is producing a number of critical situations.

Hadlow Rural Community School, another new Free School in its fourth year of operation, has now established itself and is oversubscribed for the first time, turning away 20 first choices. This is clearly having an effect on the Tonbridge Schools, with Hayesbrook, a consistently high performing boys’ school at GCSE with 35 vacancies, 23% of its PAN. In addition, Hayesbrook has been given 36 LAACs, the sixth highest figure in Kent. This must all be very worrying for the Brook Learning Trust, the multi-academy trust that runs Hayesbrook, Ebbsfleet Academy (see Dartford above) and High Weald Academy (see Tunbridge Wells below), all three of which have difficulty attracting pupils.

Hillview School for Girls has just filled as usual, but Hugh Christie, the town’s mixed school filled with 82% of its offers going to first choices, but was then allocated an additional 30 LAAC children, taking its total intake up to 191. I am unclear why the town has so many LAACS, 66 between them, more than nearly every whole District in Kent. Where were they all trying to go, especially when there does not appear a poor school in the town? But see Tunbridge Wells below.

High Weald Academy in Cranbrook is still struggling badly for numbers, having made just 57 offers for its 180 places, including 20 LAACs, over a third of the total. This is another sharp fall from 2016, when there were 75 offers with just 7 LAACs, and it is difficult to see how the school will survive.

The final school in the area, Mascalls in Paddock Wood, remains popular and as usual filled this year mainly with first choice applications, confirming parental confidence in the school.

OUT OF COUNTY

You will find further information on Individual Medway Secondary Schools here, currently being updated.

You will find my preliminary article on allocations published at the beginning of March here, including cut-offs for super-selective grammars, for Medway secondary schools in 2016 here and also a parallel article for Kent selective schools. 

Even so, the process was again still seriously flawed, with the Medway Test itself producing a pass rate of 24.3%, 827 pupils, well above the target percentage of 23%. This was clearly compensated for by allowing only 25 children through on Review, out of 158 Medway candidates, just 0.7% of the total roll, against a target of 2%, the two figures together producing the exact target outcome of 25%.

As a result of the pressure on places, I anticipate that the level of success at appeal is going to be fairly low across the board I am afraid.

Overall there were just 6 vacancies in one Medway grammar school on allocation.

Chatham Girls' Grammar has increased its PAN by eight places to 150, although it has not quite filled, at 144 offers. This is 57 places up on the 2016 figure and will be a welcome relief to the school which has struggled on low numbers for years and faces the further threat of Holcombe Grammar School becoming co-educational (see below). The CGSG numbers are boosted by 36 girls being awarded places from outside Medway, 21 from Kent, and 15 girls who qualified through the Kent Test. I suspect many of the remainder, all from London Boroughs, will fade away when they discover the school is not near the railway stations, which may create spaces for strong appeals.

Fort Pitt Grammar School keeps its intake tight at 120 girls. As a result there were just two offers to OOCs, both from Kent, probably siblings. Some years back the school was able to admit 180 girls and presumably could again if it wished. 33 first choices oversubscribed, keeps appeals tight with just 4 successes out of 51 in 2016.

Holcombe Grammar School, previously Chatham Grammar School for Boys, increased its PAN from 120 to 128, filling them all, but taking in a large number of second choices, and 40 from outside Medway including 17 from London Boroughs. There are also 15 boys who qualified through the Kent Test. Last year the school had 28 vacancies! I suspect the school’s proposal to go co-educational in 2019 will go through now, although as this year’s data confirms, and as explained here, it will severely reduce opportunities for boys in Medway on a prospectus that is seriously flawed. I forecast that in 2019, if this goes ahead there will be grammar qualified Medway boys without places, but no one seems particularly bothered and Medway Council n ow supports the proposal. Impossible to estimate appeal numbers, as the school has claimed it is able to expand up to an intake of 180  if it becomes mixed, so there is presumably room.

RMGS is making a radical change to its oversubscription criteria for September 2016, scrapping its super selective admission rules and replacing them by residential nearness to the school, after a number of exceptions. This will certainly remove the heartbreak of children living very close to the school losing out to children living as far away as London, but with higher scores. I have known many of these over the years and in my view the change, which goes in the opposite direction to league table chasers, is to be heartily applauded.

The main movement is up and down Bluebell Hill, with 49 children offered places at Aylesford School and Holmesdale Technology College in Snodland. Travelling the other way 19 children are going to Greenacre Academy and Walderslade Girls’ School. The choice of Kent schools is somewhat surprising as these are two of the lowest performing schools in the County in terms of progress, whereas Greenacre and Walderslade are much better especially in attainment.

25 presumably Catholic children are travelling to St Simon Stock in Maidstone, and St John’s in Gravesham, most of the others also to Gravesham schools.

If it weren’t for the 60 net flow outwards, Medway non-selective schools would also be under considerably greater pressure. 

Official statements are in normal type, the italics are my comments.

A press release by the Leigh Academies Trust, Kent’s largest chain, identifies their three new schools and includes the following:

Barton Court Academy Trust Free School– a new non-selective free school providing 1,050 school places for 11- to 19-year-olds in Canterbury. It is proposed this will open in 2019 as a five form entry mixed school on the site of the now closed and adjacent Chaucer Technology School, much reported on elsewhere on this website, Barton Court winning over an alternative bid from Christ Church University, with its strong record of turning round Dover Christ Church Academy. BC has recently taken over Charles Dickens School in Broadstairs, after it failed its OFSTED.  BC notes: There is considerable demographic pressure on secondary school places from 2017 onward. A new 5 Form entry secondary school will be needed for Canterbury and the local area by 2019’  as explained here. There is not currently a shortage of places in local grammar schools.

This article does not attribute any of the tactics described to any particular school. However, there is evidence that some families remove their children from main-stream schools as an alternative to a threat of permanent exclusion (see below – Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy).  It is now some years since I highlighted the then high level of permanent exclusions in Kent, and this figure has since fallen sharply with considerable government pressure to see permanent exclusion as a last resort.  

I have followed this data through for all Kent secondary schools, looking at pupils leaving their schools between the 2014 September Year 10 Census and the 2016 January Year 11 Census. Schools adopting an off-rolling tactic need to remove them from the school roll before the January Census in Year 11, otherwise they show up in the school’s examination statistics. 

The table below identifies those schools with the highest figures for off-rolling, by number and percentage.  Two other schools with a higher than average pupil loss are: Meopham School, part of Swale Academies Trust; and The North school, Ashford, also run by Swale Academies.

 One of the tactics to remove students from a school roll is to transfer them wholly to Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) for young people with behavioural difficulties. However, the great majority of pupils placed in PRUs remain on the host schools’ registers, and so are not off-rolled and are not included in the table below. Families in such a situation should ask for their child to remain on the host school roll, but appear not always to be informed at some schools that this is an option. There is just one PRU that stands out by its large proportion of complete transfers. Swale Inclusion Unit (PRU) saw its Year 11 roll swell from six to 38 students between September 2015 and January 2016. 

In total, 293 Kent children disappeared from school rolls between the September 2014 census and the cohort that sat GCSEs in 2016. A net figure of 59 arrived in other schools. Between September 2015 (I don’t have the 2014 data) and January 2016, another 39 children were enrolled at the six PRUs as their main base, more than doubling, up from 31 children, 32 of them at Swale Inclusion Centre. It is reasonable to conclude that most of these children came from the three Swale schools in the table above.

Schools adopting an off-rolling tactic need to see pupils leave the school roll before the January Census in Year 11, otherwise they show up in the school’s examination statistics. A few may have moved home, a few may have transferred to other schools some by encouragement or, all included in the 59), whilst many if not most of the rest will have been allowed or encouraged to take up ‘Home Education’, Kent having by some way the largest cohort of Home Educated children in the country.

High Weald Academy is of special note, with nearly one in five students disappearing before GCSE, by some way the highest percentage in the county. Whilst this is no doubt contributory to the school’s high GCSE performance, it is clear that parents are aware something is wrong at the school which has the highest vacancy rate in the county. 

Government is at present placing pressure on Local Authorities to ensure that all young people aged 14-18 remain in education, training or employment with training, but clearly the practice of off-rolling in its different guises seriously damages young people’s employment and life chances and the Ofsted initiative should at least see schools scaling back this process.

The Academy has now introduced a controversial and simplistic tough new disciplinary code to improve standards of behaviour. Rightly it begins with a Rewards Policy, but then degenerates through a detention system ‘the detention system is non-negotiable’ via a mechanical route to ‘Reflection’ and Exclusion'. Reflection, which will for example be imposed for a pupil arriving at detention five minutes late, requires pupils to sit in a room and ‘Reflect’ on their behaviour for a whole day, an utterly unrealistic expectation that a day of boredom will improve matters. Quote: ‘Reflection is a large room where children sit and do nothing, they are only allowed to go to the toilet’.

Government Advice on Behaviour and Discipline in Schools states with regard to internal exclusion: 'Schools should ensure that pupils are kept in seclusion or isolation no longer than is necessary and that their time spent there is used as constructively as possible'. The school, in a letter to the local Member of Parliament, states that its policy of Reflection is compliant with this advice, although it appears to meet neither of these criteria. For no work is set in Reflection, so the pupil is deprived of any form of education, and there is no constructive action to tackle any problems, underlying or otherwise, leading to the sanction. A process of Internal Exclusion is itself not uncommon, and makes sense where a pupil needs to be removed from what may be a difficult class environment for disciplinary reasons ‘in order that learning and teaching for the majority of pupils can continue uninterrupted’ according to older advice from the Department of Education. However, it is clear that many of those who find themselves in Reflection are not guilty of any such interruption and so it is clearly not an appropriate punishment. Therefore this all surely opens the school to legal challenge.

There is no opportunity built in for challenging any of the automatic penalties which can therefore rapidly escalate out of proportion to the original offence, and examples of ridiculous cases are highlighted in local and social media and in the enclosed thoughtful letter of complaint to the Secretary of State. The letter, whose content shines through with a frustrated belief in the value of a good education, was signed by 24 families who are part of a Parental Group of over 200, indicating the large scale of concern. It also makes allegations about the recent Ofsted Inspection. 

For one parent who complained, the reported view of the Principal is that ‘it’s a bit like going shopping you go to Sainsbury’s and if you don’t like it you go to Asda instead’. A very patronising view, given there is no practical school alternative, with all five Sittingbourne secondary schools, the only ones realistically accessible from Sheppey, full. Another family who took up the MP’s advice to see the headteacher, were reportedly told their child should fulfill a Reflection they considered wholly unfair, face Exclusion, or consider Home Education. They have now acted on the latter advice and like too many other families have withdrawn their children from the school. They have found a local Home Tutor, in what would appear to be a growing business but what a failure of the education system for all the children affected.

The Report purports to make proposals to increase the proportion of children on Free School Meals being identified as suitable for grammar school, although this should surely have been indicated in the title, and some of its ideas would have precisely the opposite result. The central proposal of change to achieve this, by changing the assessment process for suitability to grammar school, would actually introduce an additional and unnecessary unfairness for all children into the process, and remove the current requirement for children to reach an appropriate standard in English and maths.

Kent County Council produced a highly regarded Report last year prepared by a Select Committee of KCC on 'Social Mobility and Grammar Schools' (SMGS) published last year, which contains a range of excellent Recommendations that have been adopted in full by the Council and are currently being worked through. These Recommendations in my view offer a far more rational way forward than the mixed bag contained here, although oddly the EDL Report contains no reference to them. However, as I can see no chance of the EDL Report being adopted for the reasons below, I am disappointed it has gained such publicity.

The BBC article highlights the statement that 12% of Free School Meals children passed the Kent Test in 2015 when compared with 30% of their better off classmates. Cleverly, the Report omits the important qualification 'of those children who took the test', rather than using data for all children in the age group, which exaggerates the differential, for in the 2015 Test, the one being 'analysed', just 20.0% of all Kent children in the age group passed the test as my analysis at the time shows. It is a false, misleading and irrelevant comparison as it takes no account of the relative abilities of the two groups of children, nor of the make up and proportions of the sub-groups who chose to apply for the Test. Instead, I look at an appropriate measure of success at gaining grammar school places for children on Free School Meals (FSM) below, taken from SMGS, and comparing children with similar abilities, which is important OBJECTIVE evidence and so should surely have been quoted in the Report but was not.

The Report makes great play about the unfairness of some children with an aggregate score of 320 not getting a grammar school place as they have failed to show grammar school ability in one or more elements. Quite correct; that is the point of setting a minimum standard in each subject to ensure grammar school entrants have an appropriate background across the board and so able to meet the wide academic demands of the education offered in grammar schools. The conclusion about the Kent Test that: “The test is identifying children who are (highly able) all-rounders, then, rather than children with particular aptitude in only one or two areas” is clearly meant as a criticism, but is indeed at least partially correct, although I have seen many children in the second category with basic skills across the board awarded grammar school places, so is false in that respect.  

HTA takes into account: children’s work; a piece of written English completed at the same time as the Kent Test; a reference from the Primary Headteacher; and the marks in the Kent Test. Most importantly it can also be used for the school’s headteacher to explain personal circumstances that have played a part in underperformance, which can feature any element of disadvantage. It therefore allows a second chance for those who may have underperformed in the Kent Test and for disadvantaged children. Instead the Report proposes replacing this by lowering the pass mark, which of course simply has the effect of re-introducing this same rightly hated ‘one chance only’ effect for a different group of children.  

The EDL Report acknowledges that HTA is biased in favour of children on Free School Meals showing that it does work for disadvantaged children, but then criticises it because it delivers insufficient numbers, so it is unclear why it wishes to abolish it. Surely, on this basis, the way forward would be to extend HTA. The Report quite rightly criticises some primary school headteachers for failing to offer appropriate support to children who ought to be put forward for HTAs, perhaps like KEN because they do not believe in the selective system. However, it is clear that selection in Kent is here to stay for many years and headteachers have a responsibility for ensuring the best for their pupils. I have worked with too many families where primary headteachers have failed their pupils in this way to be blasé about this problem. The solution is surely to challenge such schools by those in authority to ensure they make the system works effectively, not undermine it. Indeed, the SMGS identifies work with primary schools as a priority. This includes amongst the 15 sensible recommendations: “Urge all Primary Headteachers to utilise Headteacher Assessment Panels within the Kent Test process to advocate for those most academically able children supported by the Pupil Premium”, along with powers to do so. You will find my own comments here.   

The section concludes with a proposed surrealistic outcome for parents, whereby instead of the straightforward pass/fail decision they are provided with at present, they will receive a report from KCC with: ‘alongside the letter stating whether the child had passed the 11-plus, parents are given an additional piece of information – the probability that they have been misclassified by the test’, still obsessing about correctness. I just don’t get this, although the Report talks about a concept called Classification accuracy. The information might include, as per the examples given: ‘one parent might be told their child had passed, and yet the probability she should, in fact, have failed was 39%. Another would be told their child has failed, but the probability he should have passed was 47%’. Quite what the point of this is I cannot see, I don’t believe in it in this context, and what parents are supposed to make of it is completely beyond me. Subsequent school appeals take many important factors into account, and I really cannot visualise this one being of any conceivable interest to Panels.

‘It’s also worth noting that passing the 11-plus is not enough alone to gain entry to any grammar school of choice’. Of courseit is not! The outcome with regard to places is no different for the rules for any oversubscribed school of any type, so why suggest it is different and of interest unless one is showing bias, but succeeding in further discrediting the Report.  

Given that the New Grammar School policy now looks likely to come to fruition with a Conservative victory in the forthcoming election (I have grave reservations about the policy), I presume this analysis is ostensibly designed to advise the new institutions on the way forward. However, it is clear they will be of a different character to our present grammar schools with a built-in commitment to supporting disadvantaged children, so little here will apply. Kent is a county with grammar schools operating a single base system of admission, although there are a variety of add-on differences. This is not transferable to individual institutions with individual selection processes operating to the new rules within a comprehensive school set-up. However, it may serve to warn those institutions of the perils of its recommendations. Finally, I consider the analysis is far too flawed, with too many false conclusions and errors to be useful. In practice it is clear there is a different agenda. 

I can see that it has whipped up considerable anti-grammar school feeling in parts of the media which may well have been its aim. Typical is the report in The Times, which claims amongst other misinterpretations that: ‘Only children doing exceptionally well in all three papers will be given a place at grammar schools’, which is clearly a nonsense.  I make no judgment about the rights or wrongs of the selective system here, I have simply looked at the facts.

I operate alone and part-time, producing this in short time, in order to respond to the issues raised, but I accept to late to influence them. As a result, I also accept that I may well have made errors myself in this analysis, and if so am happy to correct them.

The links will take you to further details about individual: Kent Primary Schools;Medway Primary Schools; Kent Secondary Schools; Medway Secondary Schools, although some sections are in process of updating. You will also find summary tables below. 

The seven Outstanding schools are: The Brent, Dartford; Cliftonville School, Thanet; Green Park Community and Temple Ewell CofE Primary, both Dover; Loose Primary, Maidstone; Queenborough, Sittingbourne; and Whitstable and Seasalter Endowed CofE. Cliftonville is an Academy, sponsored by The Coastal Academies Trust, converting in 2013. Temple Ewell, an academy sponsored by Aquila, the Anglican Diocese of Canterbury Multi-Academy Trust was placed in Special Measures in 2012 and converted in 2014. The two Loose Schools, Junior and Infant, have had a rocky past, until coming together as one in 2014. Pleasingly, many of these are from socially deprived parts of the county, proving that the suggested correlation between OFSTED outcomes and affluence of neighbourhood is limited.

St Stephen's Primary School in Tonbridge was the only school to be found Inadequate, being placed in Special Measures. The practice of cancelling OFSTED assessments at Academy conversion helps performance records considerably as such schools are not re-inspected for at least three years after conversion. They can have been already as many as five years before conversion without an inspection! For Kent the list of these schools includes 11 recently converted or sponsored primary academies who were found Inadequate in their most recent inspection as county schools and so not counted in Kent’s official figures (Kent has, quote: ‘one school in a category of concern, out of a total of 545 schools that have a current inspection result’). The schools are: Kennington Junior and Beaver Green in Ashford; Knockhall and Westgate in Dartford; St Mary of Charity in Faversham; Istead Rise and Rosherville in Gravesham; Oaks Primary Academy (previously Oak Trees) in Maidstone; Brenzett and St Nicholas CofE (New Romney) in Shepway, and Lansdowne in Swale;  There were also eight Outstanding schools not included in the official figures!

The OFSTED Inspection Report of Leigh UTC does raise concerns about the quality of some OFSTED Inspections, coming to its very positive comments based on just 102 pupils and shrinking, in Years 10 and 11 as described here. With a Year 10 group of 38 students, presumably split into two groups, and a high student staff ration, it is surprising that OFSTED didn't notice or comment on these falling numbers or the very favourable staffing ratios in coming to its conclusions. I have recently also commented on both Isle of Sheppey Academy here and High Weald here in a recent article.