Note: This is an update to a previous article, now deleted
At long last it looks as if the second part of the Sevenoaks grammar school annexe buildings will be built and occupied as originally planned, in response to a growing shortage of grammar school places in West Kent. A consultation document on the development of a separate annexe has now been published, which appears to provide a fairly straightforward progress to completion in 2021 for 90 boys in Year Seven, following approval of the girls’ annexe three years ago.
This will be an important increase in selective education places for West Kent. At present, grammar school qualified boys from the north of the District, who are not eligible for the super selective Judd and Skinners schools, have to travel up to 22 miles to TWGSB which is bursting at the seams as it keeps having to expand to meet local need.
Additional grammar school places are certainly needed to meet the increasing number of Kent children being assessed as selective due to a growing population. There is a forecast deficit of 242 places for boys and girls jointly by 2022-23 (see below). I have explored the non selective place issues several times previously, for example here.
Note: Originally it was called an ‘annex’, although the extra ‘e’ appears now to have become the norm.
You will find a considerable number of articles about the Sevenoaks Annexe(s) dating back to 2012 on this site. Place the word 'annex' in the search engine, top left hand side, front page. In my first full article, I wrote: 'There is a shortage of grammar school places in West Kent. The problem is that it is a shortage for boys in the north of the area - it is said that there are 49 boys displaced without any grammar school place in and around north Sevenoaks town, unable to gain access to Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys in the south. Clearly for these it would be ideal'. Nine years on, it looks as if it will happen!
Since the Sevenoaks annexe was conceived and championed by previous Leader of KCC Paul Carter as long ago as 2012, it soon switched from proposed management by Invicta Grammar School in Maidstone, to become a single annexe managed by two grammar schools, one for boys and one for girls. This fell when no boys’ school came forward at the time and so the Weald of Kent took on an annexe for girls only, with adjacent premises to be built for boys when a suitable sponsor came forward. Planning Permission for the additional premises was granted along with those for the first half, now in full use.
TWGSB has always been the obvious tenant for the new premises, and it may be that the change of heart has followed the retirement of the previous long serving headteacher, John Harrison, and the appointment of his successor, Amanda Simpson. TWGSB is one of the last remaining Local Authority grammar schools in the county, which although it means it has fewer freedoms than academies such as Weald of Kent, the proposal is easier to manage. For the proposal will be driven by KCC whose new Leader, Roger Gough, just happens to represent Sevenoaks as a County Councillor. National politics?????
The consultation also proposes that in addition, there will be improvements to the school’s main Tunbridge Wells site to ensure all pupils have access to the same standard of facilities regardless of the site they attend.
The Trinity School and the two grammar satellite provisions would work together to coordinate the most effective use of any shared facilities, both during and after the school day. This proposal has resulted in updated feasibility studies being produced to ensure sufficient sports facilities and external circulation and play spaces are available for all the schools on site.
There may be limited times when students from all three schools on site interact, such as sixth form students sharing common, social spaces. However, students will not be taught together. The schools will look to ensuring dining facilities are sufficient to ensure pupils from the boys and girls satellites will not dine together. Break times will be staggered and accordingly, sporting and outdoor facilities will be timetabled appropriately to avoid students mixing during the school day.
Two comments below (with my own thoughts) identify possibly the greatest objection to the proposal, which is the access to three establishments from a single narrow road.
The Consultation document notes that as the demand for places continues, KCC will likely seek new secondary provision elsewhere in the district.
Kent County Council has a rolling Education Provision Plan, most recently updated earlier this year. This states:
West Kent Selective Planning Group There are six schools in the planning group: Judd School, Tonbridge Grammar School, Weald of Kent Grammar School, Skinners' School, Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School and Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys. Demand for selective places is forecast to increase and exceed capacity throughout the Plan period, peaking at a deficit of 242 Year 7 places in 2022-23. In response to this demand, we will establish 3FE of boys’ selective provision at the Wilderness site as an annexe to an existing boys’ grammar school. Additionally, 2FE of girls’ selective provision will be required from 2020-21. Medium to longer term forecasts indicate that a further 2FE will be required in 2022-23 subject to the pace and scale of housing development |
, they appear to have been unable to find a chink in the legality of the Weald of Kent annexe on this site. As the Tunbridge Wells Grammar Boys project is of an identical nature, I do not see them making any further progress. Whatever, the future of this project will no doubt be made to be controversial but the objectors, who appear never to mention the interests of the local children at the centre of the proposal, might like to take these into account when mounting their inevitable challenge.