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Review of the Year 2015; and looking forward to 2016 - my services
Kent on Sunday has published my personal Review of the Year, reproduced in full here. It will come as no surprise that it is introduced as: "As pressure grows on teachers, is 2016 going to provide any...
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Medway Council keeps secret its views on Chatham Grammar Co-Ed Bid
The issues surrounding Chatham Grammar School for Boys’ proposals to go co-educational and also to redefine the way “grammar school ability” is determined are obviously of considerable importance to...
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Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy: Further turmoil as yet another Principal...
In its time Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy has been the most troubled school in Kent, my previous article also providing links to earlier references.That article, entitled “Problems in Secondary Schools...
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Hempstead Junior School - Headteacher Suspended
The headteacher of Hempstead Junior School in Gillingham has been suspended after an extraordinary series of recent events, as described below, following a controversial time as headteacher since her...
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Chatham Grammar School for Boys; decision made to go co-educational
Update: Medway Council's objections published in full here. Chatham Grammar School for Boys is to admit a co-educational intake for September 2017, subject to approval from the Regional Schools...
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Academy, Free School and UTC News, February 2016.
As I was preparing to publish this article, local academy news is overtaken by the ideological decision to force all schools in England to have converted or started on the route to become academies by...
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Oversubscription and vacancies in Kent Grammar schools on allocation for...
This article looks across Kent to the key oversubscription and vacancy situations in grammar schools. Main pressure points are in West and North West Kent, led by Dartford Grammar, 226 first choice...
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Oversubscription and vacancies in Kent non-selective schools on allocation...
This article looks across Kent to the key oversubscription and vacancy situations in non-selective schools District by District. Thanet with its six schools (after Marlowe Academy was closed last year)...
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Leigh Academy UTC plans to extend downwards to cover age range 11-14.
The Leigh Academy Trust is proposing to extend the age range of the Leigh UTC (University Technical College) to cover the age range of 11-14 with the support of KCC, to increase the number of secondary...
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Medway Council: Not in the Public Interest
I have covered the unstoppable move by the Thinking Schools Academy Trust (TSAT) to turn Chatham Grammar School for Boys into a co-educational school in previous articles. One thing above many others...
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Medway Secondary Allocations 2016: Oversubscription and Vacancies
You will find the initial Medway Secondary school allocation figures here, showing that 84.3% of Medway children were offered places at their first choice school, with just 2.6%, or 77 children,...
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Inspire Special Free School, Chatham - Medway's only Free School, in Special...
Updated with Government Press StatementInspire Special Free School, the only Free School in Medway, based in Chatham, has been placed in Special Measures by OFSTED following an Inspection in January,...
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Compulsory Academisation
I think my views on compulsory academisation are clear from comments in articles I have written recently on a variety of topics, as this is a proposal that now appears to pervade everything to do with...
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Academy & Free School News, April 2016
Seven new primary school academy proposals; compulsory academisation; two new secondary Free Schools announced on site of Chaucer Technology College and in Thanet; academy takeovers of Community...
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Kent and Medway Primary Allocations 2016
Kent County Council will rightly celebrate the primary school allocation figures below, sent out today. For even with an additional 591 Kent children in the system above 2015’s figure, the number of...
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Headteacher of Hempstead Juniors Quits School
In a brief letter to parents, the Co-chairs of Hempstead Junior School report that "Mrs S Smith, Headteacher since September 2013 has now retired from Headship and has now left the school". This...
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Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School:Controversy over Academisation
Updated 14th MayThe story below is growing and growing. You may wish to consult the Facebook Forum to see developing views, or an article in Kent on Sunday which attempts an analyis of the key issues,...
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Government U-Turn on Compulsory Academisation: Kent's view
Following the government’s U-Turn on compulsory academisation, Paul Carter, Chairman of the County Councils Network and leader of Kent County Council, has written a politically astute article in the...
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Whitehill Primary, Astor College, Spires Academy, Cornwallis Academy, New...
Six Kent and Medway schools have now been issued with Notices about standards in the year to 25th March 2016, a disturbing proportion of the 48 Notices issued nationally in that year – hardly an...
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Kent Reception and Junior School Allocations 2016: Oversubscription and...
I have now received a school by school breakdown of Reception and Junior school allocations for Kent for September 2016. As last year, these show a sharp contrast between pressure on spaces in urban...
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