Eynsford: resurfacing the High Street

The High Street in Eynsford, especially the section outside the school, has been left in a poor state, with many large potholes, since the severe winter weather.

I have for some time been discussing with Kent Highways their proposals for tackling the problem. There have been suggestions for jet patching work pending more thoroughgoing repairs, and more recently a proposal that resurfacing work would be done in May.

Kent Highways are now proposing carrying out the works, which will require a road closure, in late July. This would take advantage of the school holidays as well as higher road temperatures at night, which will be more suitable for the material that will be used. In addition, carrying out the works in July will yield a significant financial saving by comparison with May -  a material consideration when the resurfacing budget for Sevenoaks is stretched pretty thin.

The section to be resurfaced will run southwest from the junction with Mill Lane to the Baptist Church. Temporary repairs will be carried out in the meantime to improve the surface for road users prior to the full resurfacing. While there may be concerns that temporary patching is inefficient, my understanding is that the cost invoked is much smaller than the saving yielded by carrying out the main resurfacing work in July.

As of this evening, the holes that need temporary patching have been marked out with white lines. These short-term works should be carried out within seven working days.

Weald of Kent consultation: a setback, but options remain

Towards the end of last week, the Governors of the Weald of Kent Grammar School reported back to parents and staff, while also writing to Kent County Council, about the results of their consultation on the school moving to becoming co-educational (post of 11 March).

Following a response from parents that showed limited support for the move to co-educational status, the Governors decided to step back from this proposal. This has clear implications for the Sevenoaks grammar annexe, since back in December the Education Secretary's sticking point had been that WoK's (and Invicta's) earlier proposals had been for a co-educational annexe in Sevenoaks, with the original schools remaining single sex - which, in the eyes of the DfE, meant that what was proposed was a new grammar school, prohibited under current legislation.

Nonetheless, the Governors also stated that they remained strongly interested in provision in Sevenoaks, and wished to work with KCC and others to find alternative ways forward.

There are two main possibilities. The first is to address the concern, felt by many Weald parents, that the creation of a 6FE (Forms of Entry) coeducational annexe in Sevenoaks, while moving the existing 6FE of girls provision in Tonbridge on to a coeducational basis, would create large-scale extra provision (an additional 6FE) for boys in West Kent, but none for girls. KCC's view was that this would not necessarily be the case - coeducational schools do not always split 50-50 on gender lines - but this concern must nonetheless be addressed more fully and systematically than hitherto.

Secondly, it might be possible for WoK to expand its girls provision on the Sevenoaks site, and look for another school as a partner in providing boys' places. Many of these options were examined when - before I took on the Education portfolio - KCC discussed the Sevenoaks issue with grammar schools across West Kent. Nonetheless, it is well worth pursuing again.

Thus, as I emphasised in the media interviews I gave on Friday, the news from WoK undoubtedly represents a setback for the proposals for a Sevenoaks grammar annexe, but it is most certainly not the end of the road.

Sevenoaks grammar annexe: Weald of Kent co-ed consultation

Weald of Kent Grammar School is consulting on becoming co-educational. The consultation closes on 21 March.

Just before Christmas, Education Secretary Michael Gove turned down the proposals from Weald of Kent and Invicta Grammar Schools for establishing a Sevenoaks grammar annexe (post of 13 December). A key factor in his thinking was that both were single sex schools, and that it was therefore impossible to see the proposed coeducational facility in Sevenoaks as anything other than establishment of a new school.

Clearly the Weald's consultation, if it leads to the school becoming co-educational, offers a way of answering the Secretary of State's concerns. There is still a long way to go in terms of the Sevenoaks grammar annexe, not least the planning process for the Wildernesse site, but this is nonetheless a very welcome development in the efforts to tackle the shortage of selective places in West Kent and the anomaly of the lack of Sevenoaks provision.