Buses: Go Coach-KCC agreement on Sevenoaks routes

As I mentioned in my previous post, Kent County Council officers are working with bus operators to find replacements wherever possible for routes that are under threat for September. Following discussions with our officers, Go Coach have brought forward proposals for Sevenoaks and the surrounding area that should make a real difference, especially to many school journeys.

We have set up a page on our website to keep residents up to date on developments and announcements about routes. You can find the link to the Go Coach route plan here. We’ll issue a more detailed account of it in the coming days.

Opening the Boys Grammar Annex in Sevenoaks

During the week I attended the formal opening of the Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys (TWGSB) annex in Sevenoaks. The annex had its first year of entry in September. 

I was asked to speak, along with the Chair of Governors, Dr Philip Drew (pictured with me along with the plaque recording the opening of the annex) and Sevenoaks MP Laura Trott. Among those who attended were Sir Michael Fallon and Sir Paul Carter, who as the then MP for Sevenoaks and then Leader of KCC respectively, did an enormous amount to promote and bring forward both the Weald of Kent and TWGSB annexes. So did Andrew and Sarah Shilling, and Ed Walker, who kick started the initial campaign for grammar provision in Sevenoaks. The event ended with a ‘thank you’ from a group of Year 7 students and a tour of the annex.

In my remarks, I commented on the long journey that had got us to this, and emphasised the courage of both Weald of Kent and of TWGSB - and in particular head teacher Amanda Simpson - in making the big commitment to their respective annexes in Sevenoaks. With three schools on this site - Trinity, Weald and TWGSB - along with expansion at Knole, secondary education in Sevenoaks has been transformed over the last decade.

On-demand bus services for Sevenoaks

Bus operator Go Coach, working with Kent County Council, will be replacing many of its services in and around Sevenoaks (including the villages of Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley) with an on-demand service. The services involved will be the 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 8. The new service, branded as go2, will operate on a three month trial.

Go had already worked on some schemes for 'demand responsive' bus services with KCC, including plans to address the replacement for the 421 in the heart of Shoreham village. The collapse in demand for bus journeys as a result of the Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the search for new approaches and new solutions. KCC worked with Go Coach and its delivery partner ViaVan to develop the scheme and has given it some start up financial support.

go2 will cover the whole of Sevenoaks District, as well as journeys to NHS centres such as Pembury hospital. Booking will be via an app, which will also enable users to track the bus's movements to assess arrival times. The service will be available from 6am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and starts on 14 April. You can find a KCC media statement about the initiative here.

Go Coach are to be congratulated on an innovative and imaginative response to current circumstances, which can offer real benefits to Sevenoaks residents.

Consultation on boys' grammar satellite in Sevenoaks

KCC is consulting on an expansion of Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys, to be achieved via  a satellite provision on the former Wildernesse School site in Sevenoaks. The new provision would join Trinity School and the Weald of Kent Sevenoaks satellite on that site.

The proposal is for Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys to expand its Published Admissions Number (PAN - the number of students it would expect to take each year) from the current 210 to 300, an expansion of 90 students or 3 Forms of Entry. The consultation is being brought forward by the County Council because the school is a maintained school; this is different from the satellite expansion by Weald of Kent, which is an academy (even though the establishment of the Weald satellite did require close and effective collaboration between the school and KCC).

As the consultation document makes clear, the demand for selective places in this area of West Kent has been growing. This draws on the evidence of the Kent Commissioning Plan for Education, last year's version of which highlighted that this need could and should be met through satellite provision in Sevenoaks. In my previous role as Cabinet Member for Education, I always argued that the satellite option enables us to resolve two problems in one initiative: meeting the need for places, and ending the anomaly of Sevenoaks being without grammar provision. The Weald of Kent satellite does this for girls in and around Sevenoaks, and the new proposal (also from a school that attracts many Sevenoaks pupils) aims to achieve the same outcome for boys. Many local parents will feel that this is long overdue.

The consultation runs until 6 December.

Under way for the Sevenoaks grammar annex

Lunchtime today saw the official start of works on the Sevenoaks grammar annex (though the contractors, Willmott Dixon, are already on site). I joined KCC Leader Paul Carter, Weald of Kent Grammar School Head Maureen Johnson, Governors, key staff members from both the school and the Council who had played important roles in bringing the project forward and Willmott Dixon staff for a tree planting that marked this key milestone in the project. As Paul Carter pointed out, the timing was striking, coming on the same day as Theresa May's speech on education.

Work is now moving ahead for the annex to open in September 2017. In a year's time, it is to be hoped, Sevenoaks will have three strong secondary education providers: the Knole Academy; Trinity Free School; and the Weald of Kent annex, which will share the former Wildernesse School site with Trinity. On this very heartening day, it was good also to see Trinity in their excellent new buildings, constructed by Willmott Dixon under the overall site project managed by KCC.

Grammar annexe: on with the work

The three month deadline for a Judicial Review of Education Secretary Nicky Morgan's decision to approve the expansion of Weald of Kent Grammar School on the former Wildernesse School site in Sevenoaks expired last week. Pressure group Comprehensive Future effectively abandoned its JR attempt, alleging that it had not been able to secure the documentation it needed. The County Council's view - and mine - was always that WoK's expansion plan in Sevenoaks were a strong and legally compliant proposal, making the Education Secretary's decision hard to challenge.

As I commented to the Sevenoaks Chronicle, this removes the last legal uncertainty regarding the annexe; work to build it can now go on. We will not instantly see activity taking place on the ground; over the next few months there will need to be some further elaboration of the design, mobilisation of sub-contractors and other essential preparatory work. But there should be work taking place on site from late spring, and that will be needed to deliver the annexe for its opening date of September 2017.

I have long argued that there was both a Sevenoaks problem (lack of grammar provision in an area in which many students pass the Kent Test) and a West Kent problem (the need for more grammar places as part of the response to rising secondary rolls); it is logical to tackle the two problems together. For girls' provision at least, that is now in sight.

Nicky Morgan approves the Sevenoaks grammar annex

With KCC Leader Paul Carter at this morning's press conference

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan issued a Written Statement in Parliament this morning approving Weald of Kent's proposals for expansion through an annex on the former Wildernesse School site in Sevenoaks.

In her statement, the Secretary of State made clear that this is "a genuine expansion of the existing school", with full integration in terms of "leadership, management, governance, admissions and and curriculum?" The 3 Forms of Entry girls annex is proposed to open in September 2017.

The County Council has worked closely with Weald of Kent on this project, and has been committed to the concept of grammar provision in Sevenoaks since early 2012. KCC's role has included leading the call for partners schools to take forward the proposal for an annex, following the original County Council debate in March 2012; developing the evidence base of the need for new grammar provision in the area; funding the project; securing the site and reaching agreement with the government for it to be shared with Trinity Free School; and leading the building projects for both Trinity and the annex. We have also worked closely with Weald of Kent in setting out the case for the Sevenoaks annex to government. It has been important project for me, as both Education Cabinet Member and a Sevenoaks County Councillor.

For me, much of today has passed in media interviews; the interest, both locally and nationally has been intense. Throughout I have sought to convey a number of arguments:

• The Secretary of State has, quite rightly - even if this has sometimes been trying for local opinion, including ours - insisted that the most important thing was to get this decision right, and has been painstaking in determining that the proposal was for an annex, not a new school, and so was compliant with the law. We at KCC always believed this; it is good to see it confirmed
• This is the expansion of an Outstanding school, and one that has made great efforts to ensure that its proposal was robust. Weald of Kent already educates many girls from Sevenoaks and will add a lot to the education offer of the area
• As far as the County Council is concerned, the annex is a pragmatic response to a genuine issue. There is a Sevenoaks problem - it is an anomaly that an area that has so many children taking and passing the Kent Test has no grammar provision; there is also a West Kent problem, of growing pressure on secondary places (including grammar places). It is logical to seek to tackle both problems together

You can find KCC's response, including an interview clip from me, here.

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.

Sevenoaks grammar annexe: the DfE's verdict

The Department for Education has, after many months of consideration (post of 1 December), turned down the two applications from Invicta Grammar School and the Weald of Kent grammar school to establish a Sevenoaks grammar annexe.

The DfE argued that the proposals "do not represent an expansion of the existing schools and therefore cannot be approved." In other words, the DfE considered that both proposals amounted to the creation of new grammar schools, which is against the law. Among the key issues of concern to the Department were the fact that both proposals required separate Published Admission Numbers (PAN) at each site rather than one for the school as a whole. In addition - and there is some relationship between the two issues - the fact that the grammar annexes would be co-educational while the schools themselves are single-sex was seen as being in contravention of the Code.

At the same time, the DfE noted that, in the case of the Weald of Kent, "The proportion of students on roll currently travelling from Sevenoaks can be regarded as a factor in favour of the proposal being an expansion of the school within its current catchment area." In both cases, the DfE stated that "we remain open to considering further proposals in the future."

There is no denying that this is a setback and a disappointment. The whole drive to create a Sevenoaks grammar annexe was built on strong public demand and support - seen in the petition that triggered the County Council debate and vote of March 2012, and the strong response to consultation on the proposals from parents across the Sevenoaks area. There is a clearly demonstrated need for more selective school places in West Kent over the next few years. And it remains an absurd anomaly that so many young people travel out of Sevenoaks District for their secondary education every day. We need to be able to solve the Sevenoaks problem and the West Kent problem together.

However, the DfE's response leaves the door open to further applications. This was also clear from a meeting yesterday between Education Secretary Michael Gove, Sevenoaks MP Michael Fallon an KCC Leader Paul Carter. What we at KCC and the schools must now do is to examine the issues raised by the DfE and see what can be done to address them. As the Department put it, "We will need to assess any future proposals against the factors we have highlighted." We will not walk away from the issue.

You can find further coverage of today's developments in the Telegraph and the Kent Messenger.

Plans for Wildernesse site on display

Plans for the former Wildernesse School site will be on display between 3:30PM and 9PM tomorrow (16 September) at the Donnington Manor Hotel in Dunton Green. I will be there at the opening of this exhibition.

This comes as we conclude a long period of uncertainty over the site. The Department for Education at one stage proposed taking the site from Kent County Council for the use of the Trinity Free School. KCC always made clear its opposition to this proposal, not least because it would undermine the proposals for a Sevenoaks grammar school satellite (post of 21 March). After lengthy negotiations between KCC and the Department, agreement has been reached that the Trinity Free School will take part of the site. The remainder of the site will be available for the proposed grammar school satellite, for which Valley Invicta Academies Trust and Weald of Kent Grammar School have both put in applications.

The plans shown tomorrow will show both the proposed allocation of different parts of the site, and various details of the proposed grammar school satellite buildings. This will be in advance of KCC submitting a planning application in October.

The decision as to whether or not to approve the proposals for the grammar school satellite rest with Education Secretary Michael Gove, and this is clearly an entirely separate decision from that regarding the site. However, it is clear that the issue of the site at least will not be a stumbling block to the grammar school satellite proposal. That is a very welcome development.

Further background is available in a KCC press release, and in an article in the Sevenoaks Chronicle.

Public meeting on Sevenoaks grammar satellite

On Thursday evening I attended a public meeting at Amherst School as part of the consultation on Invicta Grammar School's proposal for a Sevenoaks annex, and chaired the question and answer part of the meeting. Dr Phil Limbert, chief executive of the Valley Invicta Academies Trust (which includes both Invicta and the non-selective Valley Park School, both rated Outstanding by Ofsted) and Julie Derrick, head teacher of Invicta, set out their thinking and their motivation for pursuing the annex application.

They set out some of the detail of their plans: the satellite would come under the overall Invicta governors and head teacher, though wth a head of school in place in Sevenoaks; the satellite would develop its own staff, so that there would be little need for staff to travel between the Maidstone and Sevenoaks sites; and the aim is to open on the former Wildernesse site with six forms of entry in autumn 2015.  They also set out some of their thinking and values: a belief that being Outstanding under Ofsted's criteria was a starting point but not an end point, the aim being to provide world class education, with schools in Finland, Germany, the United States and elsewhere seen as benchmarks and a peer group.

The meeting was very well-attended, and there were a lot of questions. The overall mood was enthusiastic. The consultation on the Invicta proposal closes on 19 July (for details of how to submit a response, see post of 20 May), and soon after that a formal application to expand Invicta will go to Education Secretary Michael Gove (since Invicta is an academy, the decision will rest with Mr Gove rather than with KCC).

The other major development of the last ten days has been the expression of interest from Weald of Kent grammar school  As I made clear in interviews that I gave at the time, KCC was not informed in advance of this application; our earlier discussions with the school had ended in January with a clear statement from Weald of Kent that it did not wish to pursue a Sevenoaks satellite. Clearly, any application of this kind from a Kent school must be examined seriously by the local authority; at the same time, we have made clear that the Invicta proposal represents a strong partnership between the school (and the Academies Trust) and KCC, and is one that is now a very long way down the track towards the point of decision by the Secretary of State.

The Sevenoaks Chronicle has covered developments extensively; here is their latest account, while Invicta's page on its Sevenoaks proposal can be found here.