Most people appreciate that Kent's grammar school system favours children from middle class families, since along with those kids of innate ability, many parents buy their children's way into the grammar schools system, by paying for additional tuition or using fee paying schools to coach their kids to pass the eleven plus, now to add to that injustice, it seems West Kent and Tonbridge Schools in particular, are accepting kids from just about anywhere within the south east, which must be detrimental for the local community.
The grammar school system is irrational, in that it chooses, those that it considers, most likely to be successful in public examinations, several years ahead, rather than maintaining a competitive system that encourages children to have aspirations, Kent unlike most authorities places roughly 80% of students, at eleven into an sort of second rate educational cul de sac.
Anyhow that is not the point, it seems wrong that in the west of the county, grammar schools are with our money, choosing to ignore local children, and instead creaming off kids from Greenwich, Lewisham, Bromley, East Sussex, Bexley in all 268 children from outside KCC.
Still fortunately for those who live in West Kent, help is at hand, according Kent on Sunday, who’ve reported that Kent supremo and leader Cllr Paul Carter, is not one to see the people of West Kent suffer, in a tough stance, it looks like someone's gonna have to pay for this and surprisingly not for the first time it might well be the residents of East Kent, that will lose out as Paul Carter pledges to make sure that West Kent has the right number of grammar school places and is quoted as saying "if necessary reduce down the number of grammar school places in East Kent".
Still it seems to me Paul Carter ought to do the right thing and talk to those schools in West Kent and ask them what the hells going on, or perhaps since these schools are quasi-independent apart from needing our money maybe Cllr Carter could see if its not possible to starve them of funds in some way, since their quite happy to take money from the community and then reject local kids in favour of outsiders who have contributed nothing to their running cost.
East Kent is often overlooked, so its no surprise that Kent’s top Tory boy would make East Kent pay just to sort out his mates in West Kent,
You are right here about Tonbridge schools taking the best from cross border. Many local children who pass the Kent test have to travel miles to get into a grammar school, and this is only if you put another grammar school on your application selection. Even with the introduction of the Freedom pass for the up to 16 year olds, the amount of traffic generated cant be very green. Tonbridge High Street is one of the most polluted in the country. Its not just the grammar schools in Tonbridge, there is a big difference in league table position of the other secondary schools making the best popular with children traveling from afar.
ReplyDeleteIn non-selective counties they still have problems with children not being able to go to their nearest secondary school.
Some counties try a lottery system of allocation to stop the more well off moving into advantageous catchment areas. But I guess this cant be worse than the unfair selective system used in Kent.
Paul Carter and his party have had plenty of time to get this problem sorted. Its not a new problem. As usual he will be looking for somebody else to blame for this situation. But maybe for once he will take responsibility for not getting on the case earlier than just before the county elections are due!
Chatham house and Clarendon will both have reduced entry nos in Sept 2009 - 90 each instead of 120 so it is happening already - in the name of federation!
ReplyDeleteSorry meant to say Sept 2010 - reduced nos from then!
ReplyDeleteThere are serious issues here for all concerned, but I cannot let this pass without the observation of how nice it is to see Tony defending grammar schools - clearly our debates over the last year or two have not been in vain!
ReplyDeleteChatham/Clarendon federation is a recognition of a simple fact: there are fewer children to fill schools of all types than there were spome years ago. When in trhe Cabinet I spent much time trying to get others to understand a simple truth. If when school rolls are falling you shut high school places, and allow the grammars to scoop lower down the scale, to the 30th percentile instead of the 25th, for example, you are likely to create failure in both schools. You dilute to an extent the standards of the grammar, and remove a vital strand of ability at the top end of the high school. THus, forms must close in appropriate ratio as rolls fall, 1 grammar class to every 3 high school classes, to maintain the best for both.
The problem with this is although true, if the rolls climb back, then the government do not allow new grammars, so classes lost may be lost forever. As we lose classes here, in West Kent there is still a shortage. That does not mean I endorse the raiding of east kent places for west kent children: rather we should be putting kent children onto kent schools first.
This is probably a blip, brought on as much by recession as anything else. But it is a serious matter to many parents in both east and west kent, and requires a proper, integrated solution, not a throw away line to a press conference.
Paul Carter's pledge to effectively recalibrate places was repeated at KCC's cabinet meeting on Monday. It'll be interesting to see how this manfests itself. KCC itself is somewhat fettered by the Government's legislation on admissions and its prohibition on the expansion of grammar school provision. The only way to do something is take away places from one part of the county where schools are under-subscribed and somehow "add" in those places where they are deemed to be needed.
ReplyDeletePaul Carter's pledge to effectively recalibrate places was repeated at KCC's cabinet meeting on Monday. It'll be interesting to see how this manfests itself. KCC itself is somewhat fettered by the Government's legislation on admissions and its prohibition on the expansion of grammar school provision. The only way to do something is take away places from one part of the county where schools are under-subscribed and somehow "add" in those places where they are deemed to be needed.
ReplyDeleteChris I detest grammar schools with a vengeance but I'm not so blind as to not accept that some of the kids are above average but I'm also a realist and I know that parents don't spend hard cash on fee paying schools or tuition for the fun of it.
ReplyDeleteThe Grammar school system is corrupt and destroys ambition, removes goals and hope, and statistically is a failure.
That said two other issues Tonbridge schools pretending to be something there not and of course as ever East Kent being sold down the river.
Paul the impression I get is that West Kent Tories see KCC as a gentlemans club for them, its seems very wrong that they should be even considering taking places away from East Kent.
Surely Carter and KCC ought to have some leverage with Tonbridge Schools
If Chris Wells thinks thinks "This is probably a blip, brought on as much by recession as anything else.." then he has not check out what has been happening for at least the last 8 years. I have had grandchildren going to secondary schools in Tonbridge during that time as well.
ReplyDeleteBut there again maybe its another case of looking for somebody to blame for KCC failings!
Paul Carter cannot think its a blip otherwise he would not be spending time on the issue unless its just point scoring in the election run up.
While we are on education Paul Francis reports into today's KM:
ReplyDelete"Classroom standards in primary schools in Kent have shown further improvements, according to official government figures.
But they remain below the national average in the core subjects, based on the results for Key Stage 2 tests - the SATS taken by all 11-year-olds in 2008."
Paul, this must be an April Fool! Maybe somebody can explain why KCC lags behind in this prosperous part of the country?
Anon 9.02, I am not seeking to blame anybody else. Perhaps I expressed it badly. There has been an issue ofr this sort for some time in parts of West Kent, but generally of manageable proportions. My sense is that this year it is of greater size, because of the additional pressures, and higher than usual out of area applications.
ReplyDeleteKCC has made enornous strides in improving educational achievement in recent years. Key stage 2 remains stubbornly low compared to other improvements. One reason is the 11 plus. Key stage 2 sats are held in May each year, long after m ost children already know their results and school choice, and have less motivation to take part in SATS exam fever, they do not see the relevance of the papers, whichare percieved by many as about the judgenment of the school, not themselves - their efforts have usually been earlier in the selection process.
After secondary schooling, we surge ahead again. It may yet turn out to be a variation in a system which is not designed for selective areas, as there are so few left!
Surge ahead, I dont think so. Kent has some of the worst performing secondary schools in the country. It may also have some of the best but maybe thats down to the high achieving 270 cross border interloppers who went to non Kent junior schools. Yes that 10 classes!
ReplyDeleteIf you average out last years stats Kent is only average in the secondary performance tables.
I can never understand why the top 25% is selected. One argument is that they cant be disrupped by the not so able. There would be an outcry if the bottom 25% were selected to have a disadvantaged education.