WOK annexe, how will it work?

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Teamgb2012
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WOK annexe, how will it work?

Post by Teamgb2012 »

DD has been assessed as suitable for grammar school and has always set her heart on WOK. We live closer to the proposed (approved?) Sevenoaks annexe, but it is the setting of the main school that she likes, the grounds, the buildings the general feel.

Will WOK start operating the annexe on the new site in temporary buildings from Sept 2016? (Similar to Trinity?) and will parents have a choice of which site to send children to?

Does anyone know?
chimera-ma
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Re: WOK annexe, how will it work?

Post by chimera-ma »

A report on the BBC website an hour ago said the annexe "is due to open September 2017", so your DD would still go to the main site.

Probably best to wait for a formal announcement from the school itself, however. No doubt one has been prepared to follow the formal announcement to parliament this morning.
JJ123
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Re: WOK annexe, how will it work?

Post by JJ123 »

Too early to say.

I would guess many Sevenoaks parents will still opt for the Tonbridge site given the choice. I was told a while back that siblings would still be able to site pick but not newies, they will after all have to fill Sevenoaks too.

I have a 2017 starter and will try to find out more at the open morning tomorrow. Will report back.

Am guessing they won't have a clue either at this stage though.

ps. Weald is a great school. My year 9 daughter is so happy there hope you get the choice you'd like.
mystery
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Re: WOK annexe, how will it work?

Post by mystery »

If it's truly an annex the admission policy should be the same and there has to be integration between the two sites (whatever that means and who will really police that once it's up and running) so there will be children or teachers or both floating around over the this distance by the day / week / term who knows.

I'm not sure how true choice between the sites could be offered - surely it would be expressing preference just like these things alwaays are. I've been told verbally in the past there would be choice but this needs to be taken with a pinch of salt as they couldn't guarantee there would be the correct numbers of applicants wanting each site. There can't be two slots on the CAF for Weald of Kent as it's one school. So once you have accepted a place there you have accepted that they can decide for you which site and when your child is educated at. If your school had an annex over the road they would not be able to guarantee you when in their school life your child would be in whcih buidling. This has to be the same or it's not an annex.

My prediction is this:


-you will be allowed a preference but in the case of too many wanting either site it will be done by home address

- some Sevenoak parents who do not want the risk of the annex site in the early years (want to be on the established mixed-age main site) and who would otherwise have used Weald in Tonbridge will go private if they can afford it

- a lot of girls from areas that do not usually use Weald will apply in the years that they have an annex

- it will take a few years for it to be the "local grammar school" that Sevenoaks people have been hoping for a long time and it may or may not be worth it in the end depending on what you take into account
chimera-ma
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Re: WOK annexe, how will it work?

Post by chimera-ma »

You've clearly been polishing your crystal ball while I've been scouting the Wildernesse site with binoculars and a deerstalker. :lol:

But I agree with all your predictions.
salsa
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Re: WOK annexe, how will it work?

Post by salsa »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34535778" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Approved
mystery
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Re: WOK annexe, how will it work?

Post by mystery »

Thanks Salsa. Chimera-ma, as our spy on the ground, what's it going to be like to attend Trinity while the grammar school annex is thrown up, so to speak?
chimera-ma
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Re: WOK annexe, how will it work?

Post by chimera-ma »

Well, Mystery, I think it depends on whether Willmott Dixon are able to make a start straight away, as some of the news reports today are suggesting.

The spokesperson for the company did say at the Trinity open evening last week that the annexe build could only start this academic year if the OK was given swiftly. I presume that means while the "heavy duty" teams, cranes and other equipment are still on site for the steel-frame construction and roofing work on Trinity up to Christmas.

Trinity's temporary buildings are well-shielded from the construction site, but there is a noise implication which would probably be less if the annexe build started only once the Trinity community were already housed in their more solid, permanent home - or, better still, during the summer holidays next year.

Trinity is currently using the previous school's sports hall as its school hall and place of worship. Although that hall, once refurbished, is intended to be available to both onsite schools as a shared sports facility, I'm not sure how Trinity could continue to use it this year if the grammar build begins since the plans show that the sports hall is to be integrated into the design of the grammar annexe.
mystery
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Re: WOK annexe, how will it work?

Post by mystery »

Thank you, Chimera-Ma, for those observations from within the building zone. Do you think that the cost reductions from simultaneous buidling of the two school scan still be realised or is it too late now that the Trinity School has moved from foundation to ******** stage?

Can you hear sounds of jubilation around Sevenoaks tonight now that several decades of longing for a grammar school have finally come to fruition? Is the Right Honourable Michael Fallon MP enjoying a well deserved pint in the local taverns on this historic day?
JJ123
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Re: WOK annexe, how will it work?

Post by JJ123 »

Not much celebrating in TN13 :lol: Just lots of worried parents thinking they won't now get allocated the school in Tonbridge they were perfectly happy with in the first place and will be sent to a guinea pig school instead
kent mum
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