End of the road for the Sevenoaks Grammar Annex?

[mystery]

I agree. I don't know why I think this, and have no grounds for suspecting it, but I feel that it could all have been about KCC keeping the Trinity School to a long-term size limit and a particular location on the site and keeping the eternal hope of a grammar school in Sevenoaks "on the cards" for many more decades to come.

When I went to the presentation at the hotel in Dunton Green nearly two years ago I was told by someone (from Bryan Bond I think) that if the EFA said no to the Invicta bid (which it subsequently did) the whole thing would be re-planned and the Trinity School would be built on its own - but it would involve a new plan.

And why all that anger, including from councillors who want an annex, when WOK put in a rival bid to Invicta - it was clear as daylight that if either of them were going to win the "is it an annex" argument that it was more likely Weald and that Invicta had not a hope.

All very odd.

[mystery]

Has Sevenoaks Grammar finally been approved? Green light for first 'new' grammar school in 50 years http://dailym.ai/1KaT334" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; via @MailOnline

[salsa]

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/sevenoaks/n ... ove-21526/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[doodles]

Driving along Seal Hollow Road yesterday it was good to see that a safe traffic light controlled road crossing is in place and ready to be activated. It's opposite the school entry back along the road from the main crossroads.

[mystery]

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/sevenoaks/n ... ove-21526/

Hi salsa, this is the planning permission being granted in August 2014 last year. What the daily mail is currently hinting is that the dfe is currently minded to approve the w o k annex proposal which was submitted last autumn which has, to date, not been either approved or refused.

[salsa]

Oh, yes. Sorry. We shall see if it's approved. The timing seems strange. Slow news day for the Daily Mail? The government wanted to bury the news by announcing it during the holidays?
Funny the Kent on Line article was from 10th August too, but from 2014!

[mystery]

Yes, if the story is accurate, the timing and the "leak" about the legal argument is all rather curious. If you take all this at face value, and you were WoK,would you want teachers dotting around between the annex and the main school? It's all rather wasteful of their time or difficult to timetable, or requires staff to have different places of work on different days of the week.

Do you think anyone would check and close the annex down if they didn't send staff flying around? It's all a bit mind-boggling.

[salsa]

I can't see anyone checking. It would be a hassle for the teachers travelling back and forth. I'm sure they would work some days at one site and some at the other. Would they need to be moving? They could be based at one site. Skype for staff meetings?

[mystery]

Have just read it again - says that they have been told staff have to be contracted to work at both sites and that the council has assured the government that there will be regular staff traffic between tonbridge and sevenoaks.

As it is an academy, how can the council speak on behalf of wok? Or is this all just daily mail twaddle?

[chimera-ma]

I can't imagine it's going to be policed, but I'm sure WOK would be keen to develop a timetable evidencing teacher and management movement between sites for the first year in case of FOI requests from grammar school opponents.

In any case, it shouldn't be too difficult to develop a timetable providing for half- or full-day attendance at the annexe. The movement between sites could easily be from one day to the next, rather than on a given day and still meet the requirement for cross-site participation. (And I'm sure that's how contract change would be 'sold' to teaching staff.)

Daily Mail twaddle is not out of the question, but I would expect KCC and WoK to have discussed this issue in advance of the proposal going to the DfE.