The National Schools Commissioner (NSC), Dominic Herrington, recently paid a visit to Folkestone Academy, proudly announced on the Turner Schools Trust website, in yet another article expounding the school's brilliance, and explored below. Mr Herrington is also currently Regional Schools Commissioner for the South East so, although this is not mentioned, he may have come in that capacity. One can only speculate on the reasons for this unusual visit to a school which is part of a Trust recently described by several ex members of staff as being run like a personality cult ( You will find a profile of CEO Dr Jo Saxton with photographs from the TES back in October, centrally featured on the Trust's 'Latest' news items, displacing the NSC's visit).
Was it that the National Commissioner wished to see at first hand the issues that Turner Schools have created at Folkestone Academy and the two primary schools of the Trust, as detailed in various articles on this website and summarised below; or was it to look at the way the largesse that has been lavishly showered on this small struggling Academy Trust has been used and why it was needed in the first place; or was it the false claims of a severe shortage of places across Folkestone and Hythe in five years’ time in this article grandly entitled 'How Turner Schools is helping Kent meet the growing secondary school population'.
Overall, the Turner Schools website appears specifically designed to impress important people rather than target the population of Folkestone with children considering secondary school places.
The Trust’s CEO, very highly paid for such a small Trust, is certainly praised in the Trust’s Annual Accounts for her ability to attract additional funding, and her high profile status has certainly seen the school benefit financially, such as described here and via the link. On the other hand it also enables her to speak out in the TES about the real need to provide extra funding for schools in Coastal Areas on grounds of their poor performance although, as so often, some of the evidence about Folkestone does not stand up to scrutiny.
‘This week, having visited the academy, the National Schools Commissioner, Dominic Herrington, praised the progress that the school has made to date’.
Did he take into account:
The dire 2018 GCSE results after more than a year of Turner Schools being in charge, with the sixth lowest Progress Grades in the county, having fallen sharply from being in the top half of non-selective schools (somehow blamed on poor performance before Turner arrived!).
The removal of vocational courses in the Sixth Form in 2018, contributing to a fall of 45% in Sixth Form numbers in one year.
The need to employ five different headteachers in the two years the Trust has been in charge (including failure to lure any external candidate in spite of expensive national advertising for the most recent change).
The high turnover of teachers at 33% last year, three times the local average.
The sharp fall in intake at Year Seven, caused partially by the opening of Turner Free School, although some pupils have been lured away to schools in Dover, and others clamour to get into the only non-Turner non-selective school in the area at Brockhill in Hythe. This follows another fall in numbers at all three schools the previous year.
The highest fixed term exclusion rate in Kent by far, more than twice as many as the third highest and 300 more than the second (put down to seeking to raise standards in spite of previously condemning exclusion as failure of teaching quality). Mirrored by Martello having the second highest rate of Kent's 463 primary schools.
Many other false claims about the school exposed on this site (perhaps the NSC was persuaded by these in being pleased with the progress of the school).
The proposed new development at Otterpool, some miles out of Folkestone will come with its own secondary school, so no apparent issue there.
After the free school opened, KCC calculated there would be a shortfall of 451 secondary school places by 2024-25 across Folkestone and Hythe ‘if this action was not taken’. It has already been taken, the action being the increase in PAN of Turner Free School (TFS) by 60 places from September to 180, leaving a shortfall of just 151 across the five year groups in five years’ time, according to this data (Any deficit can be cleared at a stroke by returning Folkestone Academy to its previous PAN of 300, having been reduced to 270 in 2018 to try and hide the fall in numbers). However, September 2019 is already seeing Folkestone Academy’s intake crucified by the increase in numbers at TFS, and is already down to 186 offers for its 270 places with more to be lost by successful grammar school appeals and children finding school places elsewhere. Further KCC’s Folkestone and Hythe Forecast (pp 106-107) has always overestimated non-selective take up in this area because of the additional pupils being taken up by the grammar schools through the Shepway Test which pickes up some 200 pupils annually on top of those selected by the Kent Test. In any case, KCC believe that by 2024-25 there will be a shortage of just 30 Year Seven places across the area with no additional places created, and by 2026-27, there will be no deficit as a smaller cohort works through.
Since then there has been a continuous PR exercise to denigrate the school’s previous performance documented in various places on this site. There will be a surplus number of places at FA for many years to come unless the fortunes of TFS also decline under Turner Schools.