I was interviewed on BBC SE last week, and KMTV this evening about the latest scheme dreamed up by Comprehensive Future and Joanne Bartley to destabilise the now well-established, Weald of Kent Grammar School Annexe in Sevenoaks, although the main target is probably to damage the chances of the proposed new annexe in Whitstable/Herne Bay intended to meet the needs of this rapidly growing area.
Apparently the organisation is ‘looking into the possibility’ of seeking legal advice on its false claim that the Annexe is a separate school, although the two bases, like other split site schools in Kent, share the same headteacher and governors, with staff and leadership operating across the two sites, with the same culture and curriculum, pupils who apply to the school and not the site, a major investment in building, and most importantly 360 children already in the annexe who know they are ‘Weald of Kent’ girls.
‘A new grammar school has been created in Sevenoaks and it is illegal. There is no other way in which the Weald of Kent’s ‘satellite’ may be viewed’ (Quote from Comprehensive Future). The Weald of Kent annexe will not be illegal until and if the courts pronounce it so, and the likelihood of that appears negligible. Clearly, there must be a short sightedness that stops alternative views being taken, for they certainly exist and stand up. |
This as they say is 'fake news’ missing the essential ingredient of legal authority, probably with the main target of halting the provision of sufficient grammar school places for children in the rapidly expanding areas of Whitstable and Herne Bay, as emerges from the pronouncement of the organisation.
Surely, given that Kent is a selective authority, committed to providing places to all children identified as of grammar school places, Comprehensive Future should first suggest an alternative scheme to meet the very real need for girls’ grammar school provision in Sevenoaks whilst selection remains official policy, with 90% of girls offered places at Weald of Kent this September being local to the area. Personally, I would have thought it best to get the legal advice before running yet another scare story, for the organisation and Jo Bartley, now its Campaigns Officer, have tried and failed many times previously over the past four years to get rid of or destabilise the annexe. I have lost count of the numerous published FOIs to for example schools, KCC, Weald of Kent and government seeking to probe weaknesses, all without success.
Without the annexe there would certainly be a serious imbalance of imbalance of selective places in West Kent where there are 580 places available for boys, the vast majority from Kent, as Judd and Skinners have changed their admission rules to give priority for Kent boys in return for new buildings enabling them to expand, and Tunbridge Wells Boys also expanding. These initiatives have enabled a total of 580 places allocated for this September, the vast majority to local boys. This would have been matched by a chronic shortage of places for girls, with just 500 available for the year group this September if there had been no annexe
KCC has also tried to keep the balance for non-selective schools, the new Trinity School on the same site as the Weald Annexe providing another 180 places and Knole Academy expanding, although some children from Edenbridge were still offered places at High Weald Academy in Cranbrook. Meanwhile I have exposed the limitations of the Free School programme in Tunbridge Wells and previously, with no new school being possible in the near future to meet the current pressing need.
On the back of this non-news, Comprehensive Future attempts to sabotage what appears its main target; stopping the provision of much needed additional grammar school places in Whitstable and Herne Bay. Two schools, Barton Court Grammar in Canterbury and Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar in Faversham have made bids to set up an annexe under the Selective Schools Expansion Fund , previously discussed here (with links to other articles). Once again, the organisation comes forward with no alternatives for providing sufficient grammar school places in an area of shortage in a selective authority.
By all means campaign against the existence of grammar schools as a whole, or of new grammar schools in currently comprehensive areas, but it is wholly wrong to try to damage the current selective system and the education offered by publishing ‘fake news’ stories in this way. Sadly, as I have demonstrated previously, this is not an uncommon tactic. Spot the errors in the linked article!