KCC committed to new grammar school for west Kent
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Kent County Council says it will do
all it can to create new grammar school places in west Kent after
more than 1,000 people signed a petition urging it to set up a new
school.
Education chiefs at the authority are
facing calls from parents in Sevenoaks to address a shortage of
places that means as many as 1,100 children have to travel out of
the area to schools in other parts of the county.
A petition to the council has now been
signed by 1,400 people - meaning KCC will have to respond.
David Cameron has ruled out the
creation of new grammar schools, but new admissions rules do permit
popular over-subscribed schools to expand to meet demand.
KCC says it will examine whether or
not it can create a satellite school affiliated to one or more
existing grammar schools in other areas. Talks have already taken
place about the idea.
Sarah
Shilling, from Chipstead Park in Sevenoaks, who launched the
e-petition, thinks the idea could work.
She said: "They’ll be an established
grammar school, they’ll know what they’re doing and they will be
able to run it, where as if you’ve got a new grammar school
someone’s got to set that up which is difficult."
Kent has the largest number of grammar
schools of any part of the country and many of the county’s
Conservative MPs believe the government should support an expansion
of the selective system.
Sevenoaks is the only part of the
county that does not have its own grammar school.
Cllr Mike Whiting (Con), the cabinet
member for education at KCC, said the council would look carefully
at what could be done but stressed there were a number of issues to
consider.
"As the law stands, we cannot build a
new grammar school. But the law does allow us to expand the intake
of existing successful schools, which does open the door to more
grammar school places across the area.
"Figures I’ve seen suggest there are
about 1,100 children in Sevenoaks attending selective schools in
Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells - that is a lot of children
travelling some distance to get to school."
Derry Wiltshire, head teacher of
Amherst Junior School, in Sevenoaks, said many of his students’
parents are concerned about travelling.
"It’s a huge expense" he added, "and
it means after school it’s very difficult for them to stay on for
extra-curricular activities and school games and things and if they
miss their school bus they have to make an alternative
arrangement."
According to Cllr Whiting, other
issues the council needed to consider included the possible impact
on other schools, as well as whether there would be any government
funding to help build a satellite school.
It is also understood that the
legislation means any new satellite school would have to have the
same ethos as its sponsoring school - raising the issue of whether
it would have to be single sex.
There have been a number of cases over
recent years of Sevenoaks children being offered grammar places as
far afield as Folkestone - more than 50 miles away.
Margaret Tulloch, from Comprehensive
Future, said: "What we would like to see is areas like Kent who
still have selection, to end selection and that would at a stroke
reduce the stress on 11-year-olds."
Monday, January 09 2012
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