There are calls for new schools to be built in a market town left in an “educational cold spot”.

A series of crisis meetings called by the parish council heard secondary pupils in Cranbrook were simply turning their backs on academic life as they had to travel so far, with many parents choosing to keep them at home instead.

Meanwhile, pre- and primary schools are chronically over-subscribed.

Around 120 people attended two public sessions held by Cranbrook and Sissinghurst Parish Council in the Vestry Hall.

Hazel Leah, the chairwoman of governors at Woodpeckers Pre School in Quaker Lane, Cranbrook, spoke about the problems in her sector.

She said that across the town and the neighbouring villages, there were 170 places available, but 285 families chasing them.

The pre-schools were already fully booked for next year with some bookings even for 2025, she said.

There was a similar problem at primary school level.

Francesca Shaw, the head teacher at Cranbrook Primary, and Marcus Bell, the school’s chairman of governors, said that the school was full and oversubscribed.

Kent County Council (KCC) had earmarked it for expansion to become a two-form entry, which would ultimately double its size, but there were no firm dates or detailed plans for this to happen.

But perhaps the biggest problem lay with secondary education.

Although Cranbrook has a sought-after grammar – Cranbrook School – it has no non-selective secondary option since the High Weald Academy closed in 2022.

The empty school buildings were gifted to the Leigh Academies Trust, which has re-opened some of them as the Snowfields Academy, a specialist school for pupils with autism.

Cranbrook’s children now have to travel a minimum of 10 miles to reach either Mascalls School in Paddock Wood, Homewood in Tenterden, Cornwallis in Maidstone or Uplands in Wadhurst.

Parish council chairman Cllr Kim Fletcher, who previously described the town as an “educational cold spot”, said the pupils’ lengthy journeys – often spent standing the whole way on the bus because of overcrowding – were a deterrent to regular attendance.

He also believed the distances had contributed to a large rise in “home-schooling,” which he suspected often meant very little or no school at all.

He said: “You see far more youngsters walking around town during the day, and when you challenge them, they say: ‘Oh, I don’t go to school anymore.’”

Cllr Fletcher said large pupil intakes at bigger secondary schools could also be very intimidating for children fresh from primary school, increasing pupil anxiety, the opportunity for bullying on the long bus journeys, and truancy.

Although KCC had a duty to check that some education was taking place for those being home-schooled, they had no powers to enforce any particular learning regime, the meeting heard.

Nick Abrahams, from KCC’s education department was present at the meeting, but the only hope he could offer parents was that KCC was looking to build a new secondary school at Chilmington, near Ashford, which should shift some pupils away from Tenterden, and so make more room for Cranbrook students at Homewood School.

David Clark, the headmaster at Cranbrook School, and Gordon Young, its chairman of governors, said they were doing what they could to help.

The school was expanding to three-form entry but was facing a shortage of cash and classrooms. It needed to sell Jaegers Field – one of its sports fields - for development in order to finance a school building programme.

An outline planning application submitted to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council for 59 dwellings a year ago had still not been determined.

The meeting attracted around 80 people in the evening, and another 40 had attended an earlier meeting that afternoon.

Cllr Fletcher said it was very useful to hear firsthand the problems that parents were facing.

He was keen to insist: “This is not just a problem for Cranbrook but for all our neighbouring villages in the Weald.”

Indeed the parish council chairmen from Staplehurst, Frittenden, Biddenden, Capel, and Benenden also were present at the meeting.

He said that even children who were making the long bus journey to secondary school were missing out because of the need to catch the bus home.

They were missing out on after-school sports and clubs, and missing the opportunity to form close friendship bonds with their peers.

He said: “From a carbon footprint point of view, it also makes no sense.

“Autistic children are being brought into Cranbrook – usually by taxi – from parts all over Kent, while our own children are being bussed 10 miles or more outside.”

The council has some possible solutions.

Within the Snowfields Academy site, the former High Weald Academy sixth-form building is not being used.

The parish council intends to apply for it to be listed as an asset of community value and then to persuade the Department of Education to lean on the Leigh Academies Trust to hand it back to the community.

Cllr Fletcher said: “It would make an ideal pre-school at one end while housing a medical centre – something else we are desperately short of - at the other.”

Leigh Academies Trust was invited to the meeting but didn't attend.

It declined to comment on the parish’s proposals.

The council will also call for Cranbrook to get its own new skills-based secondary school, providing education up to the age of 16.

Something must be done

Cllr Fletcher said: “We need something that will prepare students for an apprenticeship in mechanics, or building, or caring, something for those who want a non-academic route.”

But he said: “Something must be done. At present, we are catering for disadvantaged children from across Kent, while our own children are being disadvantaged.”