Shoreham Village School goes straight to Good

OFSTED has published its report on its most recent visit to Shoreham Village School and it makes for very happy reading.

The school was previously inspected in November last year and found to be making progress towards the removal of Special Measures. It has now gone straight to a Good rating, bypassing entirely the Requires Improvement rating.

While it is not completely unheard of for a school to make such rapid progress while coming out of Special Measures, it is most unusual. The Ofsted visit started as a Section 8 monitoring exercise (which reviews the progress of a school in Special Measures) but morphed into a full inspection as it became apparent to Ofsted that Special Messures were no longer applicable.

The report is also comprehensively favourable, with a Good rating in all areas. This is a great tribute to pupils, staff and governors, and to the galvanising impact of Gillian Lovatt-Young as head teacher. Ofsted says that "her uncompromising drive to raise standards, coupled with good quality training and development for staff, has brought about rapid improvements in teaching and achievement."

As I mentioned before, I was very encouraged by all that I saw on my last visit to the school late last year - it is good to see that the school has made such remarkable progress, to the benefit not only of staff, children and families, but also of the village.

Losing the 403 bus

The 403 bus, run by Arriva as a commercial service (i.e. with no subsidy from KCC), ceased to run north of Sevenoaks at the end of last week (the more southerly Tunbridge Wells to Sevenoaks route will continue to run). This provided a service up to Swanley, Dartford and Bluewater for communities in the Darent Valley such as Shoreham and Eynsford. However, Arriva concluded that the more northerly part of the route was insufficiently used and was not viable.

The 421 Go Coach service, which is a KCC subsidised service, continues to run from Sevenoaks, up through Darent Valley communities such as Oftord (not part of my division, thought very much part of the Darent Valley), Shoreham, Eynsford and Farningham to Swanley - and of course back. However, this runs only four times a day each way, ceasing by the mid-afternoon.

The end of the 403 is a clear loss of service to residents. I have discussed with Kent Highways as to whether there are any options for enhacing the subsidised service, whether it is the 421 or looking again at the 478 (now being run by Nu Venture, who have just taken it on), which used to serve Eynsford but does not do so at present. There are no immediate obvious options; at its simplest, the subsidised bus budget is limited and will not be increasing any time soon, so what would be effectively an addition to subsidised services is not easy to support or fund. Nonetheless, I will continue to search for possible ways to tackle this new and unwelcome development. I will post an update if there is further news.

Farningham Hill and other works

There are several favourable developments to report around Eynsford and Farningham. 

In the last few days resurfacing work has been under way on the A20 at Farningham Hill. The works stretch from close to the roundabout at the M25 junction to near the junction with London Road. They are much-needed but represent a major commitment by Kent Highways; it was a significant achievement on the part of our local Highways team to secure this at a time of severe competition for limited resources. The works should conclude on Monday.

Secondly, Kent Highways have committed to following up last year's resurfacing in the High Street in Eynsford by tackling the problems further north between Eynsford and Farningham. This resurfacing work should take place in the late summer or early autumn.

Finally, patching will take place to tackle the serious potholes in Bower Lane from 4 May, requiring a road closure for up to six days. This should be followed by surface dressing in 2016.