Recent presentations about the 7oaks Christian School

[mystery]

She might well be right, but I would never take admissions advice from a head. If it isn't clear in the Kent booklet for 2013 admissions and the bumph that you received from the Trinity, together with the Admissions Code of Practice I'd e-mail admissions at KCC with this very question and get a full answer which makes sense. Etienne might be good at this too.

[bristols]

Yes I've heard too that you can't accept two offers, because you will then lose one of the places. So to make a decision we will need to know firm plans very soon about where the Christian School is going to be located. I'm getting a bit fed up with the constant delaying tactics.

Marshmallowwoman, if I'm wrong about the Seal Fire Station, what have you heard about the location and are they going to be able to confirm it in time? I cannot accept a place at a school that doesn't have a home.

[mystery]

Gives another meaning to "school of the air".

[mystery]

But have you checked this thing about the two offers properly? It's no use just "hearing things" - headteachers and teachers get these things wrong, and each school is going to want you to accept their offer and turn the other one down. Maybe you could get the real and accurate info from a reliable source and post it on here for everyone?

[Marshmallowwoman]

When I spoke to my son’s Head last week, she had already checked the “two school place offer” issue with someone at KCC. Most of the children in my son’s year have applied to the Christian School, and many were on the recent Enrichment Day at Dorton House, and so the Head had already been asked this question several times by other parents.

She said that neither KCC nor the Christian School have published any guidance on this issue. The KCC person had said you are not allowed to accept offers from both the Christian School and another school; you must accept only one offer by 21st March. This is because KCC and the Christian School would be sharing acceptance lists for school funding allocation purposes, and so if a child appeared on both lists then that child would automatically lose one of their places – which would likely be the school with the longest waiting list, probably a grammar school or Bennett.

She said that KCC were not intending to publish any guidance on the “two school place” offer issue, although there is nothing to stop the Christian School from publishing their own guidance (although they haven’t yet).

She also said that there is also a possibility that the Christian School may not be making any offers on 1st March because the Government may not let them do this if they are not sufficiently advanced with their funding agreement negotiations and site plans. There is caused by the lack of an agreed site because this makes it impossible to offer places based on distance from the school (which is their admissions policy).

I’m crossing my fingers that my son gets offered Bennett!!

[Marshmallowwoman]

Bristols - I discussed the temporary site issue with other parents and our rector at church yesterday. Many feel pretty let down over losing the Wildernesse site, and are worried about the unsuitability of the alternative sites. All agree that they have the right to know what they are signing up to before Offer Day next week. Given that the two potential site locations now appear to have leaked out (this was the main topic of conversation at church yesterday), the people on this forum also have the right to know.

I’m told that there are two potential sites for the Christian School, both within two miles of the centre of Sevenoaks on the north side. Also, neither site is definite as negotiations are still ongoing, and it remains possible that neither site will be secured, which is why no site has not been announced yet by the Christian School. The sites are:-

Ryedale Court:-

http://www.estatesgazette.com/propertyl ... 134627.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is an empty office block opposite Tesco in Riverhead which has room for around eight classrooms. I don’t know the area very well as I shop in the town centre, but we drove down to Tesco yesterday to have a look round. It seems to be a bit grim for a school because there’s no space outside apart from a car park, and it’s right next door to the railway line (the train noise was deafening). It’s also more Dunton Green than Sevenoaks.

Hope Church:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hope_ ... enoaks.JPG

This is behind the Shell garage near Bat & Ball, and could just about fit in four classrooms. Matthew Tate, the Christian School Head, and his PA are already based there.

I attended a Sunday service at Hope Church a few years ago when we first moved to Sevenoaks. (They were nice people, but a bit too evangelical for our tastes). It’s in the most deprived part of Sevenoaks (the Greatness estate), and because 50% of the school’s pupils will be non-Christians who live nearby, its pupil intake will probably be similar in nature to the Knole Academy. So not good overall.

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news! I’m not sure that anyone will want to risk the school with these sites.

Maybe they’ll find a better site?

[raymae]

Bristols - I discussed the temporary site issue with other parents and our rector at church yesterday. Many feel pretty let down over losing the Wildernesse site, and are worried about the unsuitability of the alternative sites. All agree that they have the right to know what they are signing up to before Offer Day next week. Given that the two potential site locations now appear to have leaked out (this was the main topic of conversation at church yesterday), the people on this forum also have the right to know.

I’m told that there are two potential sites for the Christian School, both within two miles of the centre of Sevenoaks on the north side. Also, neither site is definite as negotiations are still ongoing, and it remains possible that neither site will be secured, which is why no site has not been announced yet by the Christian School. The sites are:-

Ryedale Court:-

http://www.estatesgazette.com/propertyl ... 134627.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is an empty office block opposite Tesco in Riverhead which has room for around eight classrooms. I don’t know the area very well as I shop in the town centre, but we drove down to Tesco yesterday to have a look round. It seems to be a bit grim for a school because there’s no space outside apart from a car park, and it’s right next door to the railway line (the train noise was deafening). It’s also more Dunton Green than Sevenoaks.

Hope Church:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hope_ ... enoaks.JPG

This is behind the Shell garage near Bat & Ball, and could just about fit in four classrooms. Matthew Tate, the Christian School Head, and his PA are already based there.

I attended a Sunday service at Hope Church a few years ago when we first moved to Sevenoaks. (They were nice people, but a bit too evangelical for our tastes). It’s in the most deprived part of Sevenoaks (the Greatness estate), and because 50% of the school’s pupils will be non-Christians who live nearby, its pupil intake will probably be similar in nature to the Knole Academy. So not good overall.

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news! I’m not sure that anyone will want to risk the school with these sites.

Maybe they’ll find a better site?

Thank you for sharing this information with us I was aware of the riverhead site (nr tesco) But knew nothing about the other site
In fact, when i met the head he gave the impression that there was only one site in question. Mmm ... Maybe afraid of making already worried parents, nervous wrecks.

[ToadMum]

Hope Church:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hope_ ... enoaks.JPG

This is behind the Shell garage near Bat & Ball, and could just about fit in four classrooms. Matthew Tate, the Christian School Head, and his PA are already based there.

It’s in the most deprived part of Sevenoaks (the Greatness estate), and because 50% of the school’s pupils will be non-Christians who live nearby, its pupil intake will probably be similar in nature to the Knole Academy. So not good overall.

Will the undesirable locals be forced to go to the new Christian School, then, or will this depend upon them actually wanting and applying for places? Surely some of the estate residents might actually turn out to be Christians?

If I have followed this thread correctly, with all the lack of certainty / secrecy over a potential site for your new school, is it not rather unlikely that too many of the people local to any of the places the school might end up, temporarily or otherwise, will have applied for a place for 2013 unless they specifically want one on the grounds of religion, because it might not turn out to be very local to them at all?

[Marshmallowwoman]

Whilst I have no doubt that there are Christian families who live on the Greatness Estate, I very much doubt that there are many families from there who have shown the necessary time and dedication needed to be classified as a “Christian family” for school admissions purposes.

The Christian School’s admission policy states, “ Christian families is for these purposes defined as families where at least one parent / carer and the student consistently attend a Christian Church at least twice per month for a period of at least two years, whose minister is able to provide a reference confirming their attendance on the application form.”

My family has taken great care to ensure that we meet these conditions (and also Bennett's, which are even stricter), by choosing our church very carefully, attending church regularly every Sunday with the children, chatting to the rector every week, taking part in church social events, and sometimes attending mid-week sermons. Unfortunately, most families, even Christian families, don't show this level of commitment.

However, this is not the main issue. The main problem is that most applicants to the Christian School are non-Christian. The Christian School’s website states, “We received over double the number of applications for 120 places, which is very encouraging. We were particularly pleased that the school attracted a lot of applications from people who are not regular churchgoers. Two thirds of the applications were for ‘Open’ places and one third for ‘Faith’ places.”

This means that at least 160 applicants were received for the 60 “Open” (non-Christian) places, and so the 60 nearest non-Christian applicants to the school will be offered these places. The residents of the Greatness Estate will therefore have a huge admissions advantage if the school is located at Hope Church.

Fortunately, Matthew Tate, the Christian School Head, has already worked at a number of very tough secondary schools in socially deprived areas, as his profile below makes clear, and so he will have plenty of experience in dealing with the behavioural and disciplinary issues that arise with pupils from socially deprived areas like Greatness:-

http://www.sevenoakschristianschool.org ... ge_id=1503" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mystery]

"When I spoke to my son’s Head last week, she had already checked the “two school place offer” issue with someone at KCC. Most of the children in my son’s year have applied to the Christian School, and many were on the recent Enrichment Day at Dorton House, and so the Head had already been asked this question several times by other parents.

She said that neither KCC nor the Christian School have published any guidance on this issue. The KCC person had said you are not allowed to accept offers from both the Christian School and another school; you must accept only one offer by 21st March. This is because KCC and the Christian School would be sharing acceptance lists for school funding allocation purposes, and so if a child appeared on both lists then that child would automatically lose one of their places – which would likely be the school with the longest waiting list, probably a grammar school or Bennett.

She said that KCC were not intending to publish any guidance on the “two school place” offer issue, although there is nothing to stop the Christian School from publishing their own guidance (although they haven’t yet)."

I just wouldn't go on this without checking this directly myself by e-mail with KCC admissions and getting it in writing. It sounds misleading - particularly the bit about sharing lists for funding allocation purposes.