I was invited on Radio Kent yesterday, to comment on the effects on schools of the decision by Redbridge Council to purchase Howe Barracks in Canterbury to house 208 of the families on their Housing Waiting List. Canterbury City Council also tried to purchase the premises but were outbid, so local homeless families have been deprived of this accommodation. Not surprisingly, there is concern about pressure on local services including schools.
In the past two months I have carried out surveys of Kent’s Primary and Secondary school allocations, for each District in Kent, looking at oversubscription and vacancies, the summary position for Canterbury is that at the time of allocation of places, there were 74 vacant spaces at Reception Year and not one for Year Seven in non-selective schools.
However, as always, the situation is more complex than this, as explained below…..
As it happens, two of the three are under a mile from the Barracks, and are the nearest schools, so there is clearly spare capacity in East Canterbury, and there should be no problem finding places. On allocation for Reception in April there were 20 out of 30 places left empty at Parkside, and 23 out of 45 at Pilgrims Way.
The third school is St John’s CofE, just over a mile away, with 31 vacancies out of 60. The school has recently come out of Special Measures, but the other two are performing relatively well. It appears that some of the remaining part of the Barracks site is to be developed with 500 additional houses to be built, which would surely provide a much greater pressure.