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Follow-Up to Park Crescent Academy, Margate
The news Website Kent Live has reproduced much of my recent article on the problems with the new planned Park Crescent Academy in Thanet, along with a statement by Kent County Council supporting the...
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Coronavirus Ramblings
I have previously refrained from commenting on general education issues relating to Coronavirus on this site, as you will find plenty elsewhere, and I have preferred to stick to matters relating to...
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School Leaders in Kent and Medway on salaries of over £150,000
Updates: The entries on the third page, Other Trusts, are still being updated and extended, following enquiries, as this article is attracting considerable interest (from headteachers?). I am now...
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Kent Test: KCC Fails in its Commitment to do 'All That is Practical and...
Kent County Council has now released further details to primary schools about the Kent Test taken in local schools on Thursday 15th October. As I feared and explained in a previous article, there are...
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Resignation of Clive Webster, CEO of Kent Catholic Schools Partnership
After a period of some five months of being ‘unexpectedly away from his duties’, Clive Webster CEO of the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership (KCSP) has resigned with effect from 23rd September,...
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Lilac Sky Schools Academy Trust and SchoolsCompany: Why is the Government...
The appalling stories of these two Academy Trusts, eventually closed down by the government, both demonstrated shocking management practices, with a great deal of money vanishing along the way. Both...
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Chatham Grammar: Desperate Dunce's Cap
What is wrong with the following? Note: Chatham Grammar (no 'School in the title) is the new name for Chatham Grammar School for Girls.First of all, notice the elementary mistake in this advertisement...
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Complaints to the EFA and Ombudsman about School Admission Appeals
It is three years since I last published an article on this subject. It began: I am regularly asked regarding possible complaints about Admission Appeals to academies and Free Schools, and respond that...
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Elective Home Education & Children Missing from Education in Kent 2019-20
In the first three weeks of September this year, 502 Kent families withdrew their children from school to Home Educate, compared to just 201 in the whole of September last year. This is wholly...
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Sir Paul Carter, CBE, was appointed Knight Bachelor in Birthday Honours List
Sir Paul Carter’s well-deserved honour is mainly in appreciation of his 14 years as Leader of Kent County Council for services to Local Government, but I have known him for over 20 years in the field...
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Ofsted Inspections Taking Place in Kent Primary Schools on Kent Test Day today.
Back in the summer Amanda Spielman, the Chief Inspector of Schools, informed schools that Ofsted would carry out visits through the Autumn Term ‘to get some insight on how schools and other providers...
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Exclusions in Kent Schools, 2019-20: Astonishment and Predictability.
The astonishment features two Kent secondary schools, Hartsdown and Folkestone Academies, who have been at the top of the fixed term exclusion lists over the previous four years. Hartsdown has seen its...
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Changes in the Secondary Admission Application Procedures: Kent and Medway
The Kent Test was delayed for a month this year because of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, as explained here. Along with this change, Kent County Council increased the number of choices...
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Kent and Medway Councils and Free School Meals
Update: 30th October: To leave no doubt as to KCC's position, the Council has issued a progress report on its FSM Voucher Scheme, reproduced below. KCC has just released the excellent news that the...
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What’s Happening at The Rochester Grammar School
A few years ago, The Rochester Grammar School was one of the most oversubscribed grammar schools across Kent and Medway, with a strong sixth form and proud of its Thinking Schools philosophy. It has...
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Medway Test 2020: Initial results and analysis
The scandal of the gross imbalance between opportunities for girls and boys at Medway grammar schools has reached its greatest height so far this year. It is created by a much higher proportion of...
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School Appeals: Kent and Medway 2020
This article looks at Year Seven and primary school admission appeals in Kent and Medway. 2020 has seen a very different way of conducting appeals because of coronavirus, which I have explored in...
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Dismissal of Kent Headteacher for Gross Misconduct
It was announced today that the Headteacher of St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School in Sevenoaks, Mrs Claudia Aquilina, has been dismissed for gross misconduct by her employers, the Kent Catholic Schools...
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Needless School Closures and Coronavirus
Matt Dunkley, Corporate Director, Education and Young People's Services for Kent County Council, has managed to upset a wide range of Kent headteachers, with a comment as politically insensitive as...
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Griffin Schools Trust in Further Trouble
Back in August, I wrote an article entitled 'Griffin Schools Trust: A Danger for Pupils?' about the Trust and one of its schools, Stantonbury International School in Milton Keynes. The school was at...
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