The number of children leaving Kent schools for Elective Home Education (EHE) in 2017-18 continues to increase sharply year on year, now up by 70% to 1310 over the past four years. Medway has seen its first fall in numbers for five years, to 226 families opting for EHE down from 278 in the previous year.
The figure of 830 Kent ‘Children Missing from Education’ (CME), with no known destination is way down on the 2292 of two years ago, with larger figures in some areas caused by families returning to their homeland, notably in Gravesham and Thanet, both home to large numbers of Eastern European families, and by Traveller families.
The four highest EHE schools are the same as in 2017-18, and are four out of the top six the previous year, yet no-one appears to question what is going on in these schools. They are High Weald Academy, losing 4.8% of its statutory aged population (11-16); Hartsdown Academy 4.1%, Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey, 3.6%; and New Line Learning Academy 3.4%, all losing on average more than one child from every class last year to home education. There were no schools in Medway losing more than 2% of their statutory roll to EHE.
I am still waiting census information to see if off-rolling continues, a practice whereby schools encourage pupils to leave in the final years before GCSE and A Levels, in order to boost their examination outcomes, but there are four schools with over half of their EHEs in Years 10 and 11 that may cause concern.
Many families positively and responsibly choose to home educate and there are plenty of resources to advise them, with some local groups identified here, happy to support those looking to Home Educate. KCC publishes a helpful webpage with guidance and local policy. However, too many others make this decision for more negative reasons explored in some detail in my 2017 article here.
It is perhaps surprising that of the CME children,496 vanished from primary schools, over half of the total. 88 of these were from Gravesham primary schools. I have talked to several local primary headteachers who confirm these are mainly children moving back to Eastern Europe and have also talked with headteachers with a large population of Travellers, in both cases losing children without being able to confirm their destination. However, for too many others there must still be concerns they have become victims of criminality.
Elective Home Education Kent and Medway 2018-19 | ||
| EHE | EHE % | |
All Kent Secondary | 829 | 0.99% |
| High Weald Academy | 12 | 4.8% |
| Hartsdown Academy | 26 | 4.1% |
Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey | 47 | 3.6% |
| New Line Learning Academy | 19 | 3.4% |
| Thamesview School | 23 | 2.8% |
| Orchards Academy | 14 | 2.7% |
| Sandwich Technology | 28 | 2.3% |
| Hugh Christie School | 16 | 2.1% |
| The Four Highest Elective Home Education Schools | ||||
| Hartsdown | High Weald | Oasis IOS | New Line Learning | |
| % EHE | 4.1% | 4.8% | 3.6% | 3.4% |
% Fixed Term Exclusions* | 73% | 32% | 78% | 23% |
% Places Filled Before LAA** | 59% | 61% | 43% | 44% |
Local Authority Allocations** | 101 | 42 | 79 | 79 |
* See updated article here.
** March 2019 Secondary Allocations data
Some years ago when I looked at schools with data such as this, it was relatively easy to forecast their demise and five have since closed. With academisation such a decision is far more difficult, but most recently both Pent Valley School and Oasis Hextable Academy closed in the last four years, poor leadership playing a major part in their failures.
No Kent secondary school has a high proportion of Children Missing from Education (CME) - children disappearing without trace for the Local Authority to follow up. The three Dover non-selective schools are all amongst the highest proportions, suggesting there may be a common factor there: St Edmund’s Catholic (2.6% of statutory population); Astor College (1.8%); Dover Christ Church Academy (1.5%). Others are Ebbsfleet Academy (2.3%), although well down on its previous highs for EHE, topping the table two years ago; Northfleet Technology College and Thamesview (both 1.5%, and both Gravesham; see the Primary School entry below)
There are a number of primary schools which, through no fault of their own, have seen a high proportion of children classified as Missing from Education. Many have returned to Eastern Europe; up to 7.7% of the statutory school roll in one case. Six Gravesham primaries are amongst the top 20 schools on the list. Traveller families also often move on without notice, one small school losing 23.3% of its school roll in this way.