An education specialist says his research has laid bare the extent of the pressure on the county's most oversubscribed secondary schools, as many pupils are allocated places miles away from their homes.

Kent County Council has published its Commissioning Plan for Education in Kent for the years 2021 to 2025.

The five-year rolling plan sets out the council's estimate of need for primary, secondary and special provision places and how it intends to meet any shortfall in places.

The council's aim is "not only to provide a sufficient supply of school places to fulfil a statutory responsibility to ensure a school place for every child, but also to maintain a surplus of places to facilitate parental choice."

But the council is failing woefully in the later aim, according to education specialist Peter Read, who runs the website Kent Independent Education Advice.

He said: "For non-selective school places in particular, the authority is only finding a place for many pupils by allocating them a school outside their area."

He quoted the example of Tunbridge Wells, where there is only one secular non-selective secondary school - the Skinners Kent Academy. There are two faith schools - Bennett Memorial Diocesan School and St Gregory's Catholic School- but they quickly fill with faith pupils from across Kent or even Sussex.

Mr Read said: "As a result, more than 60 Tunbridge Wells children are allocated places in Tonbridge, mostly at Hayesbrook School. Another 60 go to schools in Sussex."

A similar situation exists in Swale where secondary schools Fulston Manor and Westlands in Sittingbourne are oversubscribed and children are being allocated places at the Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey.

His analysis found 134 families who listed Fulston Manor as a first choice for children this year were not offered a place. Of these 49 families appealed, but only eight appeals were allowed.

At Westlands,110 children who put this as their first choice were refused a place. Fifty-three children appealed and four appeals were successful.

At the Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey, the reverse was the case, with too few parents choosing the school as their favoured destination.

Only 205 put Oasis first - the school has a yearly intake of 390 pupils.

According to KCC's Kent Schools Commissioning Plan: "The increasing pressure (on secondary school places) showing in Sittingbourne is exacerbated by large numbers of pupils travelling off the Isle of Sheppey for their secondary education."

KCC said: "Surplus capacity in the Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy will help to offset some of the deficit in Sittingbourne."

Mr Read warned that a potential problem was also building in Gravesend. He said: "KCC reports it will need a new secondary school in two or three years' time, but says it can't find anywhere to build it.

"That means pupils will be allocated places at schools in other parts of North Kent, probably for the most part at the Ebbsfleet Academy, which is under-subscribed."

Two other towns which are currently on the edge are Canterbury and Sevenoaks, with only five spare places between them. Ashford too is under pressure, but a new secondary school should open at Chilmington Green in September 2022.

Maidstone also has just two vacancies, but many of this September's intake will not be going to a school of their choice, with KCC allocating 132 pupils to the Cornwallis and New Line Learning Academies. However, the County Town had a new school come on stream for Year 7s last September - the School of Science and Technology - which will ease some of the pressure on places going forward.

Conversely, KCC is in the process of building a new secondary school in Thanet - the Park Crescent Academy at Margate - which Mr Read believes is unjustified by the pupil numbers.

Mr Read found, despite the heavily over-subscribed individual schools, across Kent there is still an overall surplus of 724 secondary school places.

KCC's plan is concerned with all education provision, not just secondary places.

It noted that a baby boom in Kent in the years 2005 to 2012 had now fallen back with live births down 9% to 16,537 a year.

That meant the pressure for primary school places was easing, but the pressure for secondary places was still growing as the baby-boomers grew older.

KCC said that over the five-year period to meet both the indigenous population growth and the need to support new housing development, it would need an additional 12-form entries of primary provision and and 90 temporary Year R places, with 46 form-entries of secondary provision and 900 temporary Year 7 places.

That presents a financial challenge to the authority, which has already spent an unexpected £7.9m installing measures against Covid at existing schools.

It's education budget was falling short by £36.5m. The average cost of providing a new secondary school place was estimated at £27,920.

Furthermore, the authority is dealing with the expanding costs of providing special needs education. The number of pupils with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) was growing and KCC is looking to prove an additional 712 specialist school places over the plan period.

Again, the need for places is spread disproportionately across the county.

Swale has the highest percentage of EHCP students - 13.2% of the total school population.
Tunbridge Wells has the lowest - just 5.6%.

Of those special needs, by far the largest proportion are children with autism spectrum disorders, they account for 42% of all EHCP registrations.

Last month, KCC said numbers being accepted onto their fist choice of school this coming September will be lower than usual because of the pandemic.

KCC's commissioning plan can be found here.

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