The main themes of 2019 allocations to non-selective secondary schools in Kent are the increased pressure on places following a 4.6% increase in numbers, and the increased polarisation of choices. KCC has worked hard with individual schools to provide additional places in some areas, with 497 extra places being provided in the non-selective sector, although 113 were removed from schools since 2018 allocations, for different reasons. After allocation there were just 434 vacancies out of the 13,708 available, a total of 3.2%, down from 3.9% in 2018.
Six Districts were left with no non-selective vacancies at all, in spite of the extra places added in: Ashford; Canterbury; Dartford; Gravesham Maidstone; Sevenoaks. However, there will be considerable churning in the next few months, following successful grammar school appeals, appeals in the more popular schools and waiting list promotion in some of these areas.
You will find a list of the most oversubscribed schools below, led by St George’s CofE Foundation School in Broadstairs as in 2018, this year followed by King Ethelbert School also in Thanet.
Just 12 of the 68 schools have vacancies at this time. Nine schools each have over 40 Local Authority Allocations (LAAs). Each of these, identified below, has been the subject of concern expressed in previous articles on this site. One school, Holmesdale which had 41% vacancies in 2018 before Local Authority Allocations, has seen this soar to 60% for 2019 with several other schools seeing a rise of over 10% in their vacancy rate.
I look more closely below at the most oversubscribed schools and those with most vacancies, together with the situation in each District, along with the impact of out of county applications.
PLEASE NOTE This annual survey of Kent non-selective places is the second largest article I produce each year (the largest is the parallel survey of primary school allocations). I am happy to accept there may be corrections or expansions needed, together with helpful comments, which I will incorporate if these are pointed out. |
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One problem I have is that KCC has introduced a new set of rules in data publication that redacts information relating to small numbers, although I consider there is no danger that individuals can be identified. As a result, I am delaying the updating of Individual School Information until I can obtain this information, although there is still much reported on each school, including the number of first choices.
You will find my initial and more general thoughts here, with the parallel article on grammar schools to come. I look at individual Districts further down the article, with direct links at:
Oversubscription
I am using a different measure to my usual one at this time, because of the KCC redaction. This simply compares the number of first choices to the number of places available, producing the same first four schools as in 2018. The next four were also the same as in 2018, The rise and rise of Meopham is especially of note, with the school expanding by 30 places this year, partially to meet demand across Gravesham with other pupils across the Borough being sent out to Ebbsfleet (see below). Just two new arrivals in the list, the small Hadlow Rural Community School together with St Gregory's Catholic Comprehensive, in Tunbridge Wells. The pressure in Tunbridge Wells (see below) has been eased a little by the addition of 180 new places across the three town non-selective schools but there are still major problems now and in the future. In one sense this is a slightly misleading picture as, for some of these schools, their popularity is increased by a desire to avoid a school with perceived difficulties. Some commentators seek to criticise such parents for chasing popular schools, but the reality is often very different.
| Most Oversubscribed Kent Non Selective Schools 2019 |
| | 2019 Places | 1st Choices | 1st Choices per place | Appeals | Appeals Upheld |
St George's CofE (Broadstairs) | 217* | 390 | 1.80 | 50 | 4 |
| King Ethelbert | 150 | 266 | 1.77 | 29 | 11 |
| Fulston Manor | 210 | 341 | 1.62 | 42 | 5 |
| Valley Park | 270 | 431 | 1.60 | 67 | 6 |
| Trinity Free | 180 | 257 | 1.43 | 27 | 7 |
| Hadlow Rural | 75 | 104 | 1.39 | 19 | 5 |
St George's CofE(Gravesend) | 180** | 248 | 1.38 | 13 | 3 |
| Meopham | 170* | 226 | 1.36 | 0 | 0 |
| St John's Catholic | 196 | 244 | 1.24 | 12 | 4 |
| St Anselm's Cath | 190 | 223 | 1.17 | 28 | 10 |
| Bennett Memorial | 300* | 349 | 1.16 | 24 | 1 |
| Herne Bay | 265 | 305 | 1.15 | 0 | 0 |
| Wrotham | 165* | 186 | 1.13 | 0 | 0 |
| Dartford Sci & Tech | 150 | 169 | 1.13 | 1 | 1 |
| Wye Free | 128* | 143 | 1.12 | 18 | 2 |
| Together with another six schools with more first choices than places available |
Notes: * School with Increase in Places 2018 - 2019
** School with decrease in places 2018-2019
i have included the appeal data, which you will find for all Kent schools in the Individual Schools section, with an overview here, as a guide to the potential challenge facing parents who wish to appeal. However, you will see from the Individual School data that whilst the pattern of outcomes for some schools is fairly constant, others can change sharply, often as a result of some change in the school circumstances.
Vacancies
The table includes all schools that have more than a third of their places empty upon secondary allocation, before KCC placed Local Authority Allocated Children (LAAs), who are children with no school of their choice, in them. Apart from New Line Learning (NLL) and Astor College, each one has featured in a recent article of concern, signposted in the District analysis below.
Most remarkable is the polarisation referred to above, which can be seen by comparison of the table below with the equivalent 2018 article. This exposes starkly the sharp decline in applications to nearly all the schools in both lists, apart from High Weald which heads both tables. These range from Oasis Sheppey the same in both tables with 43% to, unsurprisingly, Holmesdale which has leapt from 41% to 60% vacancies before Local Authority Allocations are taken into consideration.
I have this year included an additional column, '% Loss 2018' which looks back to 2018 data. I have compared the March allocation figure with the number of Year 7 children who actually turned up, according to the October school census. The two tables contain almost all the same schools heading them up. The losses will have come from children taking up places at alternative schools where vacancies have developed (or in some cases private schools), together with an indeterminate number leaving for Home Education, rather than send their children to these schools. These include Ebbsfleet Academy, which has offered to children in Shorne, on the Medway border and grammar qualified boys unable to access local selective schools because of the high number of London children given places in the two Dartford grammars. Along with High Weald and Hayesbrook, the other two schools in the Brook Learning Trust, the three present a frightening picture of lack of confidence in their offering, taking up three of the five highest percentage vacancies before LAAs. High Weald and Ebbsfleet are both in the top four schools to lose children to Elective Home Education or simply vanishing from the scene during 2017-18. The Brook Trust also provided the school support for Holmesdale School on its downward spiral last year.
| MOST VACANCIES IN KENT NON-SELECTIVE SCHOOLS ON ALLOCATION 2018 |
SCHOOL | PLACES | PLACES OFFERED | FIRST CHOICES | % VACS PRE LAAs | LAAs | % LOSS 2018 |
| High Weald | 150 | 101 | 51 | 61% | 42 | 53% |
| Holmesdale | 180 | 128 | 61 | 60% | 56 | 15% |
| Hartsdown | 180 | 175 | 46 | 59% | 101 | 38% |
| Ebbsfleet* | 150 | 197 | 91 | 58% | 83 | 31% |
| Hayesbrook | 151 | 130 | 46 | 50% | 55 | 49% |
| NLL | 180 | 180 | 87 | 44% | 79 | 31% |
| Oasis Sheppey | 390 | 302 | 175 | 43% | 79 | 13% |
| Astor | 210 | 122 | 107 | 42% | 5 | 27% |
| Royal Harbour | 200 | 241 | 92 | 39% | 88 | 13% |
| Folkestone | 270 | 186 | 155 | 34% | 9 | 27% |
Note: *The Ebbsfleet Academy intake was increased by 47 places to absorb all the Dartford LAAs.
There are many connections between schools in these two tables, as families seek to avoid some of those in the table above, to chase places elsewhere making them even more popular.
District Survey
KENT NON-SELECTIVE SCHOOLS ON ALLOCATION 2018: DISTRICT OUTCOMES |
DISTRICT | PLACES AVAILABLE | | VACANCIES | LAA* |
Ashford | 1298 | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| Canterbury | 1165 | 0 | 0 | 64 |
| Dartford | 1120 | 0 | 0 | 83 |
| Dover | 915 | 3 | 106 | 6 |
| Folkestone & Hythe | 886 | 2 | 87 | 18 |
| Gravesham | 1100 | 0 | 0 | 26 |
| Maidstone | 1405 | 0 | 0 | 129 |
| Sevenoaks | 585 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Swale | 1365 | 1 | 88 | 79 |
| Thanet | 1158 | 2 | 14 | 189 |
| Tunbridge & Malling | 1136 | 2 | 73 | 136 |
| Tunbridge Wells | 1170 | 1 | 49 | 42 |
Note: KCC is not currently releasing data for individual schools where numbers are less than 5. This is only relevant in this table to the number of LAAs, which are likely to be greater than the figure quoted for each District.
Out of County
Because of KCC's invalid restriction on numbers less than five (invalid because individuals cannot be identified from a Local Authority) I am unable to complete this section at present, but will do as soon as I have the information.
However, I do know the largest numbers: Knole Academy 64 (62 from Bromley); Homewood 55 (all from East Sussex); Bennett Memorial 40 (38 from East Sussex); Wilmington Academy 37 (all from Bexley); Holmesdale 23 (all from Medway); Aylesford 22 (all from Medway); St Simon Stock 16 (all from Medway); Leigh Academy 15 (11 from Bexley); Dartford Sci &Tech 13 (all from Bexley); St John's Catholic 12 (11 from Medway); and Trinity School 11 (all from Bromley).
259 Kent children have been offered Out of County Non-Selective Places: Bexley 53 (St Catherine's Catholic 19, Haberdasher's Aske's Crayford Academy 12, St Columba's Catholic Boys' 11); Bromley 21; East Sussex 68 (Uplands 51); Medway 41 (Greenacre 12, Walderslade Girls 11); Surrey 62 (Oxted 59).
For 2018: 366 out of county children were offered places in Kent non-selective schools, with 291 going the other way.
The main traffic was between: Medway (104 in, 22 out); Bromley (89 in, 15 out); East Sussex (81 in, 129 out); Bexley (66 in, 63 out); and Surrey (1 in, 68 out).
All schools full, including Homewood in Tenterden, with its massive intake of 420, including 55 from East Sussex, topped up with the small figure of 19 LAAs the total in the District. The pressure on places can be seen with all five schools agreeing to take in extra places above their Published Admission Number: Homewood 30 more to 420; John Wallis CofE 30 to 240; North 25 to 240; Towers 27 to 270; and Wye 38 to 128. Wye is the most oversubscribed with 143 first choices for its 128 places. The last three named have all had problems in the past, but appear to have overcome them, Ashford families being spoiled for choice with all five schools having a Good Ofsted.
There are new schools in the pipeline to cater for future housing developments, assuming sponsors come forward, but the first of these at Chilmington Green is not due until 2022!, so existing schools will need to expand further to pick up the shortfall.
Every school is full on allocation, with Herne Bay High taking in an extra seven pupils and St Anselm's another 10. Most oversubscribed schools as usual: St Anselm’s Catholic (223 first choices for 190 places), Herne Bay High (305 for 265) and Canterbury Academy (220 from 210). Spires Academy is building under its new sponsors with just 7 LAAs well down on previous years. The big loser is Archbishop's which appears to have lost its way with the highest number of LAAs at 38, and disappointing GCSE performance over the past three years. The opening date for the new Free School, sponsored by nearby Barton Court Grammar has slipped to 2020. Pressure on places will probably be eased a little as Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar traditionally admits a high number of girls on appeal.
Every school is currently filled, including Ebbsfleet Academy, although this position will change considerably when the new 4 f.e. Stone Lodge School opens in September, admitting children outside the normal admissions programme mainly drawn from the other Dartford secondary schools, and not included in this data. This will hit Ebbsfleet Academy in particular which as technically increased its intake by 47 to 197, but purely to absorb the 83 LAAs that have been sent there. Otherwise it would have had 34 empty spaces. As my table above shows, it is likely that a large proportion of these will fade away as families opt for Stone Lodge and other alternatives, so will see an even greater fall than in 2018 when 31% of its proposed intake vanished before term started. In 2017-18, Ebbsfleet had the 4th highest proportion of children whose families opted for Elective Home Education or simply vanished, It is one of the three Brook Academies, all of which feature in the top five Kent schools in terms of vacancies before LAAs are added in. In 2016-17, a quarter of its intake dropped out between Years 7 and 11, second highest in the county. One of four Tough Love Academies i
n the county, clearly very unpopular with families. The pressure on places has probably been further eased by expansion of nearby Orchards Academy in Sevenoaks (see below).
Just two of the four other schools had more first choices than places: Dartford Sci & Tech (169 for 140 places), and Leigh Academy (250 for 240 places) showing that choices are well spread around. Leigh Inspiration Academy appears to have lost some of its initial shine as a new school. With Ebbsfleet Garden City expanding at great pace, the new school should ensure sufficient capacity in the District, until 2021-22 when another new secondary school is planned.
I exclude Duke of York’s Royal Military School in Dover from all Kent statistics, as it is a boarding school with a core military family intake, most not using the Kent admissions scheme, starting from a low base in Year 7, over half of whom come from outside Kent. It has been completely rebuilt at a cost of over £24 million for an intake of 104 places, making 28 offers this year, although numbers build outside the Kent admissions scheme through the year. For 2018, it made 21 offers for its 104 places, turning down 10 families who placed it as first preference, probably children from non-military families considered ‘not suitable for boarding’. This turned into a total of 54 by the time of the October census. Has had a highly controversial recent history, but a change of leadership appears to have settled this down. It is unclear whether past scandals are still being investigated. Dover is, as usual, the District with most vacancies, but the proportion is falling year on year, down to 12%. As usual, Sandwich Technology School is full, as also is St Edmund's Catholic School for the first time in many years, having rebuilt its reputation since being placed in Special Measures in 2013. However, Astor College, which has had a difficult time in recent years including two DfE warnings about low standards, has 88 vacancies. It has now changed leadership, having been run by the same CEO as Duke of York's for some years, but appears to be sinking further. In 2018 it was helped out by a large number of LAAs, possibly from Folkestone, but no longer. The sharpest fall in intake at 39% since 2018 it has, along with Folkestone Academy, lost far more children than any other schools in the county. Presumably all shifting to St Edmund's.
Goodwin Academy, in Deal, having been financially crippled with staff lay offs by the appalling previous sponsors SchoolsCompany has now been taken over by Swale Academies Trust and is building its reputation in brand new buildings.
The two Folkestone schools, Folkestone Academy (FA) and the new Turner Free School are both run by the problematic Turner Schools academy trust. The decision to expand Turner Free School by 60 places to 180 has hit FA badly, with its intake falling by 31% since last year leaving it with nearly a third of its places empty. One can only speculate why Turner Schools decide to badly undermine its own FA in this way. Brockhill Park in Hythe has exacerbated the problem by expanding its own intake by 21 places to 256, while the rural Marsh Academy continues to recruit well with 177 offers for its 180 places. It is likely that some families from the Marsh, drawn to Brockhill in the past, can no longer access it, because of the flow from Folkestone.
All six schools are full, with Meopham not only increasing its PAN by 30 places, but still being the eighth most oversubscribed school in Kent. All this before its recent Outstanding Ofsted. It is just one of three Gravesham schools in my table above of the most oversubscribed schools in the county, headed up by St George's CofE, and also St John's Catholic Comprehensive. KCC is investigating possible sites for a new secondary school in the next few years. Children from across the Borough offered LAA places at Ebbsfleet Academy, including a number from Shorne on the Medway border.
No vacancies in any of the seven schools with Valley Park, run by the assertive Valley Invicta Academy Trust (VIAT) being the .fourth most oversubscribed school in the county, with 431 first preferences for its 270 places. Two schools Cornwallis Academy andNew Line Learning Academy had 129 LAAs between them, and will be the big losers after grammar school appeals. They are run by the struggling Future Schools Academy Trust which was planned to be merged with (taken over by) the Every Child, Every Day Academy Trust back in September, although this does not appear to have happened yet. Cornwallis, the most oversubscribed school in Maidstone when I began my appeal business appears to have been run into the ground by its leaders. Its completely new premises were recently described to me as ‘huge, plazas instead of classrooms and fish bowl science labs. Not a good learning environment for easily distracted children’. In 2018, the four Maidstone grammars had 194 appeals upheld, no more than ten at Maidstone Grammar from pupils who were already grammar qualified. There will therefore be a ripple effect as those appeals take place with the stronger schools replacing losses from those further down the chain.The remaining four schools are all oversubscribed, with Lenham School, which had been failing for years under KCC control with large numbers of vacancies year on year, having been taken over by VIAT. One consequence has been a 19% loss of pupils from the current Year 11 over the last four years, the largest fall in the county.
A new Free School, the Maidstone School of Science & Technology, also to be run by VIAT, is to open in 2020 to meet the pressures caused by major housing developments in the town . This follows years of delay because of planning objections on traffic grounds, as it is situated on a right angled bend in a narrow road adjacent to Valley Park and Invicta Grammar schools. This will see over 3,000 pupils converging on the spot when it is up and running. Uniquely, the new school is to be supported by a private school in Asia, the School of Science and Technology, Singapore. Even with the growth in the town, the 180 pupil intake will cause enormous damage to the numbers going to Cornwallis and NLL.
Three schools, but no vacancies each having expanded this year by a total of 105 places on top of the 2019 PAN. Trinity Free School has really established itself, with 257 first choices for its 180 places. Knole Academy is full by virtue of offering 62 places to Bromley children, a number of whom usually find local preferred schools before September. It has had a difficult few years, being run by the highest paid headteacher in Kent, but she retired at Christmas, leaving the new head a job to do, but presumably on a far lower salary. Orchards Academy in Swanley continues to be popular, also thriving on the closure of Oasis Hextable a few years ago, offering places to all its 110 first choices, offering another fifteen places on top of the agreed 135 at the last moment, all LAAs, presumably to ease the pressure on nearby Dartford.
Four of the five schools oversubscribed, with Fulston Manor third most popular school in Kent for the second consecutive year, with 341 first choices for its 270 places. Westlands, also traditionally popular, has eased the pressure by taking in an additional 45 pupils bringing its intake up to 330 this year.
Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy not only has 88 of its 390 places empty, but 79 of its offers are to LAAs. Many of these will be Isle of Sheppey families desperate to avoid the school who do not include it in their applications, but finish up being allocated as the other Swale schools are full. This year the pressure is even more intense with families to the south of Sittingbourne being allocated LAA places at Oasis Sheppey. A number of previous articles, most recently here, highlight the issues. At 43%, third highest percentage of vacancies in Kent before LAAs added in, behind the two other unpopular Tough Love Academies. Second highest percentage of children leaving for Home Education in County in 2016-17, at 3.3%, the school reportedly suggesting this to complainants as a solution. Something needs to be done about the mismanagement of this school, but no one seems to care. The Kent Schools Commissioning Plan 2019-23 reports: 'The forecast surplus places (for Sheppey Academy) are a result of the increasing number of children travelling off the Isle of Sheppey for their education. In 2014 there were 126 students (4FE) living on the Island who attended a Sittingbourne non-selective school. This increased to 177 (6FE) in 2017. If this trend continues then an estimated 185 children will be leaving the Island by 2023.'. It also proposes: ' We will continue to press for access to the North Sittingbourne (Quinton Road) development to establish a new secondary school to meet the predicted need from 2022-23'. This has already slipped from 2021-22 in the 2018 Plan and I cannot recall any new school built on time in recent years, so more problems next year!
I am regularly asked about the chances of appeal from Isle of Sheppey to one of the mainstream schools. Oversubscription figures for Fulston is in the chart on Page 1. Westlands although oversubscribed managed to avoid any appeals in 2018. Sittingbourne Community College and Abbey School, Faversham (easy ride on train) are a few places oversubscribed, but neither appears to have needed appeals either in 2018. Well worth a try with a late application if necessary, if you can't face OISA. Some families desperate enough to avoid the school Home Educate with some 150 families on the Island trying this at present! This should not be happening. Girls might like to try Rainham School for Girls in Medway.
No vacancies at present in four of the six schools, with St George's Cof E and King Ethelbert being the two most oversubscribed schools in Kent. At the other end of the scale, are Royal Harbour with 88 LAAS for its 250 places but still with nine vacancies in spite of being the only Thanet school to expand this year (by 50 places) and Hartsdown 101 LAAs for its 180 places, still with 5 vacancies. These 189 families who have no school of their choice make up an astonishing one in every six applicants to a Thanet non-selective school, by some way the highest figure for any District. The root of the problem is that the two schools are intensely unpopular with many local families for some years, so many families plan their applications accordingly, with high levels of disappointment. The problems were exacerbated after no suitable sponsors could be found for a proposed new six form entry Free School, but a new secondary Free School has now been commissioned on the site of the former Royal School for the Deaf with the Howard Academy Trust from Medway being confirmed as the successful sponsor. The School should open in temporary accommodation in 2020 with 120 Year 7 places, and in 2021 on the new site as a 6FE school..
Hartsdown Academy, one of my three Tough Love Academies almost appears to seek controversial headlines, an article last year covering just one of these. 24 children from the school left for Home Education in 2017-18, third highest percentage of any school in the county, only below Oasis Sheppey and High Weald (see below). Lowest performing school in Kent on Progress 8 and Attainment 8. Many non-selective schools lose numbers before September, some through successful grammar school appeals. In the case of Thanet the four popular ones each fill up from Hartsdown and Royal Harbour, also taking on extra pupils through appeals. In September, Hartsdown began the year with just 112 pupils for its 180 places, having lost 38% of those offered places in March 2018. The new school will hit this hard.
The District is long and thin, stretching from Aylesford in the North to Tonbridge itself, with a very mixed picture for its schools. Most popular proportionately is the small Hadlow Rural Community School, with its land based specialisation, its intake of just 75 being by some way the smallest in Kent. It received 104 first choices. Three schools have filled, including struggling Aylesford with 25 LAAs.
I have written extensively about the avoidable disaster that is Holmesdale , its Special Measures the only secondary school in Kent, second worst GCSE Progress 8 in the county, fourth highest vacancy percentage in Kent at 29%, and 56 LAAs amongst other statistics. Remarkably, 23 children from Medway choose the school another 21 choosing Aylesford, although there are much stronger schools in their own Authority.
Last year I wrote about 'the puzzle that is Hayesbrook'which was clearly highly unpopular with local families, although high performing. However, the 2018 GCSE results lost that cachet, and the multiple signs of dissatisfaction have increased and are set out plainly here. The school's 50% vacancies before adding in the 55 LAAs are the fifth highest in the county, and even more tellingly, for the 2018 intake, 49% of those offered places did not turn up in September, second highest figure in Kent. Hayesbrook is part of the Brook Learning Trust, along with High Weald Academy in Tunbridge Wells and Ebbsfleet Academy in Dartford. These three schools all feature in the top five in the county in the table above for vacancies before LAA allocations. None of this explains why Hayesbrook is so disliked.
Where do the LAAs come from, the only other Tonbridge school admitting boys, Hugh Christie, just about filling, so not there. The village of Hadlow, a few miles out of town is one possibility but if so, many unsuccessful applicants have chosen no Tonbridge school. The only solution I can see is that these are overspill from the Tunbridge Wells debacle, see below, living to the north of the town who presumably won’t be happy at this solution to their problems. Hillview, the Tonbridge girls school, also filled.
The crisis in secular non-selective provision in Tunbridge Wells is set out clearly in my 2018 article, which explains how a new school was lost through lack of a sponsor, and drawing on the Kent Commissioning Plan for 2018. The 2019 Plan is much less clear about the problem, stating that: 'the strategic response to this demand is a proposed 6FE expansion of an existing school or a new school from 2021-22'. There is no explanation how this is to be achieved, and the idea of expanding an existing school by 6 FE, is mind boggling. There are no clues as to how a new school is to come about, given the failure of the previous project, outlined in my 2018 article. In any case we have no example I can recall in recent years of a new school being built an open on time because of the complexity of setting up a new Free School and finding a sponsor for it. It is as if the authors of the Pan have no idea how this 'strategic response' is to be brought about.
Already another 180 places have been added since the 2018 admission numbers were set, 60 each at Bennett Memorial,St Gregory's Catholic, and Skinners Kent Academy. The problem is exacerbated because the two church schools do not recruit on the basis of locality and so draw in children from way out of the town, including 40 from out of county for Bennett and 10 for St Gregory's, nearly all from East Sussex.
42 children from the south of the town have been sent to High Weald Academy in Cranbrook, twenty miles away. Up to 55 boys to the north have been allocated Hayesbrook in Tonbridge. Both these schools are from the poorly performing Brook Academy Trust, along with the controversial Ebbsfleet Academy in Dartford. It is likely that because Hayesbrook is in the south of Tonbridge, it is the nearest overspill secular school for TW boys from whichever part of town who fail to get into SKA. Girls can't get into the partner Hillview as it is full of local children. That leaves predominantly girls bound for High Weald.
Last year 82 children Kent children, who would nearly all have been from from Tonbridge Wells District found places at Beacon Academy, Crowborough but none for 2019, suggesting that Beacon was full this year. However 51 children are going to Uplands Community College, Wadhurst (probably with some from the Cranbrook area of the District) and some of the 9 to Robertsbridge Community College. Some of these will be travelling by choice to full comprehensive schools.
In spite of its increased numbers, Bennett Memorial is still considerably oversubscribed with 349 first choices for its 300 places. Skinners Kent Academy is the only secular school in the town, a situation unique in Kent and even after its increase in numbers it will have turned first choices away. Also unique in Kent, all three non-selectives (along with two of the three grammar schools) have an Outstanding Ofsted.
Some families will be looking to school appeals to secure a place. The 2018 outcomes are as follows:
| Tunbridge Wells N/S Appeals 2018 |
| | Appeals Heard | Appeals Upheld |
| Bennett Memorial | 24 | 1 |
| St Gregory's | 24 | 7 |
| Skinners Kent Academy | 38 | 24 |
This can only be a rough guide to outcomes in 2019 as circumstances at each school can change and the number of applications for each school has risen considerably.
Some of the Tunbridge Wells families will have put the oversubscribed Mascall’s School in Paddock Wood as a back up, with 38 of its 240 places going to lower preferences.
Certainly, High Weald Academy is seen as a school of last resort by many, and I have written about it elsewhere. The statistics in this article are similar to those for 2019, The 42 families (up from 32 in 2018) whose children have been placed there mainly because of the shortage of secular places in Tunbridge Wells, and now face a round journey of some 30 miles daily, cannot be happy. The most revealing figure in my table above is the new column that shows over half of the children being offered places in March 2018, had found alternative schools by the following September.
The school is being substantially rebuilt at a cost of some £15 million, although it is a puzzle to many why it was chosen under the government priority, as it does not currently appear viable in terms of numbers. However, presumably government is anticipating that the new buildings will turn this round under the current leadership of Brook Learning Trust.
The 2018 Commissioning Plan stated
There is significant pressure for Year 7 places across the Borough that rises from a forecast deficit of 121 places in 2018-19 to a peak of 245 in 2022-23. There is particular pressure in the urban areas, with approximately 8FE deficit of places forecast in central Tunbridge Wells for the September 2018 intake, based on published admissions numbers. The forecast demand indicated in the table above is skewed by surplus capacity in Cranbrook, which is outside of the historical travel to learn distance for children resident in Tunbridge Wells Town. Consequently the pressure on places in Tunbridge Wells Town will be approximately 3 FE greater than indicated in the table. It was previously anticipated that the majority of the central Tunbridge Wells demand would be met by a new 6FE free school from 2018/19. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) had agreed to undertake purchase of the identified site in conjunction with TWBC and KCC. No Wave 12 application was submitted to sponsor the free school. This alongside the ESFA’s change in policy around speculative land purchases, has meant that a new school could not be delivered before 2020 at the earliest, necessitating the expansion of existing schools for 2018-19 and 2019-20. In order to address the demand for Year 7 places we are working with existing Secondary schools in the Tunbridge Wells urban areas to offer 190 temporary Year 7 places in 2018-19, leading to 4.3FE permanent provision and 120 temporary places for 2019-20. During the 2017-18 year we will finalise proposals to establish a further 6FE of provision from 2020-21. |
For some reason this is downgraded in the 2019 Plan to
| The place pressure is forecast to continue to increase through the Plan period, reaching a peak of a -241 Year 7 place deficit in 2023-24. The strategic response to this demand is a proposed 6FE expansion of an existing school or a new school from 2021-22. We will also commission a 1FE permanent expansion of Mascalls Academy for 2020. These proposals will provide sufficient non-selective places until at least 2022-23, at which point new expansions will be linked to additional place pressures driven by the Local Plan developments. In the longer-term, new development will necessitate two new 6FE secondary schools at a sites to be identified through the Local Plan process. A |
So the problem remains the same, the solution lying in the mysterious and unidentified 'strategic response'!
Tunbridge Wells Conclusion
In other words, KCC does not know either where the places are coming from or where they are going to place non-selective children who don’t qualify for faith schools, an issue that is not even mentioned!!
