News on planning application for Sevenoaks grammar annex etc

[mystery]

If you view the online planning applications on the kcc website kcc/SE/0375/2013 this now goes to committee on 11 June with a recommendation for approval.

If kcc approves its own application for a grammar annex one could theoretically be built and remain empty as there isn't anyone with an approved proposal for extending an academy or free school into a sevenoaks building at the moment and this looks less and less likely.

If it gets permission and kcc does not build it right away there will be land which could have been used differently for Trinity. also, if it does then go ahead in the future Trinity will be next to a building site for a while.

You can still comment online - you can support, object or raise a concern and write some text in a box.

[chimera-ma]

Thank you for this alert, Mystery. As a near-neighbour of the Wildernesse site and parent of a Year 4 DS, I have anxiously awaited developments.

Having two schools share the site - maybe three, if two grammar schools co-operate to provide for both boys and girls - is far from ideal. Ten forms of entry: four for Trinity and six for the grammar school/s - can you imagine the congestion as cars and buses converge in the morning! It's bad enough already during school run time, and regular motorway problems cause really long delays through Bat & Ball Junction when the A25 is used as an alternative route.

I have commented on the planning proposals, expressing support for the grammar school provision but concern about traffic and parking management. The schools sharing the site must cooperate and coordinate arrival and pick-up times and stagger the school day across year groups to ease congestion. I've also recommended an additional drop off/pick up area at the Seal end of the grounds (screened by trees to preserve green belt appearance) in order to relieve traffic pressure on the Seal Road (A25)/ Seal Hollow Road junction which promises to be a nightmare.

In the long-term, there may be more than 2,000 children at Trinity and the grammar/s combined, with hundreds more further down the A25 at Knole Academy. Students walking to and from these schools and younger children being walked to and from nearby primary schools face congested footpaths and increased traffic pollution in the years to come. Nobody could possibly ride a bike safely.

It would be great if other parents with shared concerns and any ideas to alleviate them could voice these to KCC, Trinity and whichever grammar school/s take/s on the Wildernesse site.

[mystery]

Yes it is a lot of children on one site if it ever came to fruition. 10 form entry presumably means 300 per year for 7 school years which is 2,100 children ultimately if both schools were full. There are comps this size so it presumably can be made to work - but as you say the location and the means by which children get there makes a huge difference.

What's the word on the street locally? Is it really possible to get planning permission for a school building that no one has permission to extend into? Can local authorities really spend money directly on building a school in this way? Local authorities don't any longer have the powers to build and set up new schools now (new schools have to be free schools or academies) and if it is to be the annex of an existing grammar there has to be a school or two schools that can somehow expand into it and comply with current legislation and guidance. It just doesn't seem possible does it? Which grammar schools are thinking of it? Have any grammar parents anywhere been consulted since the Weald co-ed thing died a fast death?

TOGS is planning an expansion of its own. So the only options left are Weald to double in size and stay all girls (and what's the point of them doubling?) or Weald and a boys grammar to share the grammar annex ..... that sounds complicated. It hasn't been designed for two 3 form single sex schools to occupy it.

I think people have lost the bigger picture in their concerns about traffic problems and the special nature of the site and how to have a grammar annex located in Sevenoaks come what may.

It all seems to have gone a bit mad to me. That lovely huge green site is a battlefield for different Tory factions as far as I can make out and the grammar annex story is still rather confused.

[chimera-ma]

There is strong neighbourhood support for a grammar school as far as I can tell from my own conversations, although few neighbours seem to have lodged comments on the planning proposals.

I'm not involved in the formal Grammar School Campaign group or local politics, so can't offer any information on KCC intentions in persevering with the planning proposal.

The expectation of parents at DS's primary school (without anyone I know doing more than just speculate) is that Weald, having changed the geographical priority given to the Sevenoaks area in its newest admissions policy, will establish a single-sex annexe to get the ball rolling in terms of building on the site.

Once the school community in the annexe is established, parents of Weald children at its main and annexe site would be consulted about going co-ed at both locations and, if unsuccessful, fresh consultations with boys' grammar schools undertaken to share the site. A fall-back position must surely be Weald with only girls moving to the smaller building and Trinity taking on the larger one.

My own view is that an annexe facility shared by two established grammar schools, one for boys, one girls, can't hope to run smoothly. However, if there is little hope of Kent abandoning its selective education policy, I'd rather see Sevenoaks and local village children supported with a local grammar school for one sex in the hope of co-educational provision in the future.

Whatever happens with the Wildernesse proposal at tomorrow's planning committee meeting - and, no, I don't know what approval mechanisms are available in the absence of named grammar school as occupier - the site is too valuable for KCC to give over to Trinity alone; and the demographics support KCC building further secondary school provision in Sevenoaks for the medium-term, not just relieving current pressure on schools farther afield that have taken on an extra class for a year or two to accommodate demand.

As a local resident, I'd rather one lot of major building works than two, with proper planning at the outset for the maximum envisaged school population on the Wildernesse site, rather than a piecemeal development.

[mystery]

Yes, certainly if more school space is going to be built on that site at some point in the future it makes sense to do it all in one go. But that is a big if. In the past it would have been more straight forward for an authority to do some demographic planning and build new schools where needed. But their powers to do this went a long time ago.

As you say, expanding first and then going co-ed is a possibility. But proving the need to double the size of Weald in this way is tricky. And there is still the issue of passing the other dfe tests of integration in orde to demonstrate it is an expansion and not just a new school.

I think that if anyone took a few minutes to read through dfe guidance on significant changes to academies they could have seen that none of the proposals so far stood the minutest chance of success. Doing two major changes in one go - expansion and going co-ed I felt was a clear non-starter but expand then go co-ed is not guaranteed. If it is worth a go why hasn't another consultation started?

Personally I would be happy to send a child to a co-ed Weald in tonbridge or a single sex weald in tonbridge. Sevenoaks at a push ( I live sevenoaks district but the transport links from here are better to tonbridge).

However, I am not sure I would want to use a school where the buildings were so far apart! If the dfe guidance is applied strictly I think there is a risk that a child will have to swap between sites at some point, or not attend their preferred site in the first place. This greatly reduces the attractiveness of the annex notion. Also, given the choice, I would not want to send my child to a school with only one or two year groups in it.

If there is a big demographic problem in west kent and the existing schools cannot expand enough on their own sites or close by annex sites then I can see that it might be a good idea for a new academy or free school to spring up at knowle, but I still can't see the figures anywhere to justify starting out with the premise that there has to be a grammar annex in sevenoaks and it has to be at Knole east. I might get to that point with the right arguments but I am not yet convinced! I think the campaigners need to work harder at convincing some people other than the very locals and the true facts about what is and isn't possible need to be put on the table so that school places planning can have some elements of uncertainty removed.

For example, some models showing what would happen if each current academy that can expand does expand and the effect this would have on demand at a sevenoaks annex would be very useful.

I don't feel millions can be spent on a statistical flyer, so to speak.

[mystery]

Well it sounds like it was approved but I think it might have to go somewhere else as well - Secretary of State for Environment and the Local Govt Minister were suggested in the committee papers I think. Anyone got any news? And what about timescales? When is the earliest that it can start to be built and what is the minimum time it would take for the free school to be ready?

https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/ieListDoc ... 5370&Ver=4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[JJ123]

Omg, sometimes i am embarrassed to be from Sevenoaks

I cannot believe tax payers money can be committed to build a school not agreed, especially with so many other money needing priorities (hospitals,care homes etc) around locally.

So is the theory that once its built more pressure can be put on Gove to fill it (lawfully or otherwise) ?

Personally i am bored (and irritated) at the continuos theory that children travelling 20 mins from Sevenoaks to Tonbridge is unreasonable for them. I have two who do this journey and it's really no big deal at all. Many Many more travel much further distances to the SS Grammars. They don't look traumatised" to me.

Us "superior sevenoaks" folk need to appreciate that we do not have a god forsaken right to Grammar education even with an 11plus pass. And if you want that assurance you need to move closer to the existing schools.

I can completely see why Knole academy (not full i might add) are miffed. Let just Trinity build there for now till the Grammar issue is resolved.

As a Weald Mum we have certainly not been consulted further.

[mystery]

Private Eye would have some fun with it.

[JJ123]

Private Eye would have some fun with it.

Go on i dare you

[mystery]

Anyone on here live near Ian Hislop?