Holmesdale school families have been failed by Kent County Council and the school’s governors and leaders ever since the Ofsted Report of March 2014 found the school to be Good. Since then the school went into a spiral of decline up to and after it was placed in Special Measures by Ofsted in February 2018, which I explored in detail in a previous article here. My analysis included critical areas of decline over the interim that should have alerted KCC to the problem, but they failed to act and pupils' futures were sacrificed.
Subsequently, the school had an Ofsted Monitoring Inspection in July which found that ‘leaders and managers are not taking effective action towards the removal of special measures’. Unsurprisingly, the Provisional 2018 GCSE results showed that Progress 8, the key government measure of performance, was -0.86, officially ‘well below average’ and the second worst in the county. Amongst then many issues identified, The Ofsted Report refers to major concerns with persistent absence, hardly surprising perhaps with the poor quality of education being offered. These are amongst the factors I identified leading up to the Special Measures finding. Most shockingly, Holmesdale had lost 34% of its Year 7 roll by the time they reached Year 11, by some way the highest figure in the county. The headteacher has chosen to leave at short notice, for Christmas, and there are reports of severe staff shortages for January.
Also, since February 2018 there has been unacceptable wrangling between KCC and various other bodies over who should supply school improvement support, which was only resolved at the end of November, so that the school was left rudderless in between and went downhill further.
The Monitoring Inspection reported the school’s own perception of how GCSE performance was going: ‘According to the school’s own information, since the previous inspection, there have been improvements in the progress pupils are making. However, the school has not yet done enough to shore up assessment processes, so they are reliable. The school’s own information indicates that results for the current Year 11 will be better than last year’s GCSE results’. This was written shortly after those same GCSEs were taken. How wrong can you be! Both Progress 8 and Attainment 8 GCSE outcomes fell further on 2017 performance, Progress 8 to become second worst in the county (fourth worst in 2017). Yet still KCC took no effective action in the interests of pupils, to tackle this crisis.
Three Deputy Headteachers are also reported to have left the school since February.
And then there is the GCSE performance! You will find historic data here.
Eventually KCC appears to have given in and invited Swale Academies Trust to take over provision of school Improvement work, which began as late as 26th November, less than a month before the end of term. By now, teacher departures which have not been replaced amount to nine vacancies for January, yet another crisis for the school and its children, although SAT is large enough to redeploy staff from other schools in the short term to fill these temporarily.
This situation has all the hallmarks of another school in a downward spiral, similar to those of Chaucer Technology College and Pent Valley Secondary. Both were also the responsibility of KCC who failed to spot their decline, and both now closed and are being replaced by new schools. Coincidentally, SAT was brought in to try and save but, but in effect deliver the last rites on the two schools.
However, this is unlikely to happen for Holmesdale, as it is part of the Private Finance Initiative, and so would incur massive costs amidst legal issues, see below.
Back in 2013, I published an article explaining the problems of PFI schools becoming academies, in that they left KCC holding the enormous long term debt incurred by their creation without any oversight of the institution. The figures quoted by Shepway Vox are eye-watering, with £200 million paid to the contractors for Kent’s 11 PFI school between 2010 and 2018 (more previously), and at least £400 million still owing. There will also be considerable issues with premises ownership, which lie with the PFI contractor, who will have no educational interest in resolving difficulties, instead being driven by profit and security of their investment. My article was precipitated by KCC allowing what is now Ebbsfleet Academy to academise without a fuss. I had been lobbying extensively for some time time, seemingly alone, with KCC finally accepting my view and refusing to allow any of the others to become academies in a stand-off that still exists.
So, when Swale Academies Trust, upon taking control of The North School, Ashford stated in 2016 that it would become an academy, it is no surprise that no progress appears to have been made. Now, it has lost a government grant for £80,000 for converting a failing school to an academy, as The North has a Good Ofsted Report. The same article in Schoolsweek, in September this year, quotes KCC as saying:’ Kent council said the PFI contracts at both schools predated academy legislation and “do not lend themselves to the conversion process”, adding the issues potentially left the council facing an “unacceptable and significant risk”’. Similarly, when Holmesdale submitted an application in 2011 at a time when it was a highly successful school, this made no progress.
The new twist now is that Holmesdale is under an Academy Order, so government requires it to academise (as presumably The North did in its turn), but without legal and financial assurances to KCC and presumably the offshore finance company that owns the premises, it is difficult to visualise the next step.
It will certainly bring in new staff to strengthen current provision, but faces a difficult time with low school numbers leading to a difficult financial situation. The PFI situation will ensure the school remains open (as distinct from Chaucer and Pent Valley) so in one sense the only way is up.
At the very least, the last eleven months of indecision and failure to protect the education of the pupils currently at the school, should come to an end.
In any case, Kent County Council needs to analyse why its School Improvement service has failed so badly in this case.