This article covers the opening of ten new primary academies, with a further eleven primary school proposals to become academies in Kent and Medway over the past five months.
I also look at academies under pressure because of falling rolls – Swadelands, Hayesbrook, New Line Learning and High Weald; more secondary headteachers lose their jobs – together with the numbers crisis at Kent’s first UTC.
Two new secondary schools are now on the stocks in Maidstone and Dartford, and the number of all through academies for pupils aged 4-19 is doubling to four, with Kent's two St George's CofE secondary schools expanding to take in at primary age.
I also cover a range of grammar school issues in Maidstone, West and North West Kent, and Chatham......
The three Tenterden primaries, Tenterden Infant and Junior Schools, and St Michael’s Primary have all converted, and joined the Tenterden Schools Trust in conjunction with the local comprehensive secondary school, Homewood.
There are also two new converter Academies on the Isle of Sheppey; Halfway Houses and Minster in Sheppey Primary Schools, which are working together in the new Island Learning Trust.
The Pilgrim School in Borstal, Rochester, has become the lead (and to date only) school in the Pilgrim Trust, set up as a multi-academy Trust. Deanwood Primary School in Gillingham is being sponsored by the Howard Academy Trust and Balfour Junior Academy has also opened.
New converter applications in progress are, from Kent: Lamberhurst St Mary’s CofE; Stone St Mary’s CofE, Greenhithe; Horton Kirby CofE, Swanley; St Ethelbert’s Catholic Primary, Ramsgate; and St Teresa’s Catholic Primary, Ashford. From Medway: Barnsole Primary, Gillingham;Hoo St Werburgh Primary; Miers Court, Gillingham; Riverside Primary, Gillingham; St Margaret's Infant School, Gillingham; Thames View Primary, Gillingham.
The four Kent schools in trouble are: Swadelands (see below), now being taken over by Valley Invicta Trust as a sponsored academy, with just 39% of its places occupied; Hayesbrook, Tonbridge, 40%; New Line Learning, Maidstone and High Weald, Cranbrook, Academies, both with 48%.
The Brook Learning Trust runs both Hayesbrook, sliding rapidly from being oversubscribed just a few years ago, and High Weald, which has struggled for numbers over too many years and remains the one school that has bucked the closure spectre so far. Both schools have a Good OFSTED rating and are two of the higher performing schools at GCSE, so I remain unclear of the reasons for their decline in popularity. New Line Learning (NLL) has never thrown off a negative image in spite of its modern purpose built premises. One factor may be that, along with the neighbouring Cornwallis Academy (also on the slide) forming the Future Schools Trust, both are designed with large open learning spaces which have also proved unpopular in many other newly built schools.
The Valley Invicta Academy Trust, also in Maidstone, currently in the news over the Invicta Grammar Sixth Form scandal, is sponsoring the new school of Science and Technology in Maidstone. The proposal has expanded to six forms of entry, and building has now been approved to start in September/October this year for opening in September 2018. This is likely to be disastrous news for NLL. The Trust is also taking over the troubled Swadelands school (see previous article) and is in discussion with the high performing Eastborough Primary School to join them as a converter academy.
A year ago, I wrote about the casualty rate of secondary headteachers at non-selective schools and at least three more have joined them this school year. I feel especially sorry for the head of High Weald Academy who I believe never stood a chance and went at Christmas. This was in spite of managing to build GCSE results up to some of the highest in Kent in 2015 although these dipped, not crashed, for 2016 . The short termist football manager syndrome, is well and truly embedded into education, with results being everything. The head of the partner academy, Hayesbook, similarly ‘left’ last summer in spite of good performance at GCSE. Less surprising was the departure of the Principal of NLL.
Two schools bidding to be academies, but blocked by the PFI issue (and subsequent articles) are Holmesdale School in Cuxton, and The Malling School. The then strong Holmesdale took over struggling Malling School in a Federation, but in recent years the positions have reversed with Malling turning in good GCSE results and a Good OFSTED. It is perhaps therefore no surprise that Malling School has de-federated and the head of Holmesdale fell on his sword over Christmas, the school recently declining sharply in popularity and performance. I am told that at least one other head has gone over Christmas, having been suspended from their post.
I have previously been highly critical of the proposal by the Holcombe Grammar School to go co-educational, but it has also suffered from losing boys, in this case to Sir Joseph Williamson’s as well as Rainham Mark. Holcombe's published rationale for the change makes no sense and a recent letter to parents suggests the school has put back its plan to a change in September 2019. Spineless Medway Council has now withdrawn its opposition, which I fear may now leave the change as the only viable option for the area, effectively reducing opportunities for both boys and girls.
The Medway UTC has a less ambitious PAN of 120 although expanding to 150 in 2018, and filled for 2016 admission, attracting 120 students into Year 10 from other local schools, including apparently some from grammar schools (the two Chathams?) this year, creating a much firmer base.
Meanwhile in Gravesham, Gravesend Grammar (boys) is clearly regretting its expansion to 174 places a few years ago, seeing a surge to over 40 out of county boys joining it annually as a result and changing the nature of the school. It is therefore reducing its intake to 150. Perversely, for Sixth Form admission, it abandons any residential priority and gives priority to the highest GCSE scorers, no matter where they live, which will inevitably reduce opportunities for students wishing to transfer from local non-selective schools. At the same time Mayfield Grammar, the equivalent girls’ school, has been granted basic need funding to expand its intake from 145 to 175, following a request from KCC for extra places to be made available. This will inevitably open up the school to out of county applications. Surely only one of these contradictory proposals in Gravesend can make sense? Gravesend Grammar will also be coping with the fall out from its partner Federation Academy, Whitehill Primary, whose previous headteacher has been permanently banned from teaching.
My article on the scandal at Invicta Grammar School, which annually gets rid of large numbers of students at the end of Year 12 in order to improve its A Level league table position, has been read by an unprecedented 20,000 visitors in less than a month. The only response from the school so far has been to falsely claim that all 22 leavers voluntarily chose to go half way through their A Level course last summer, as disproved by the large number of testimonies at the foot of the article. Current Year 12 students must be wondering what the policy will be this summer. According to school statements, it should be that no one is to be forced out although volunteers to leave are encouraged. We shall see!
For those wishing to keep abreast of scandals in academies across the country, the Simon Langton Girls Grammar School Parents Forum provides an often local perspective, whilst the online blog SchoolsWeekis an investigative set-up, often breaking major stories.