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More on KentOnline
A coastal grammar school would spell the end of any hope of an expansion at Herne Bay High, its head teacher believes.
Kent County Council began a feasibility study earlier this year to identify how the secondary could accommodate 30 more Year 7 pupils in 2023.
Last year, 274 children listed Herne Bay High as their first choice school – more than any other comprehensive or grammar across the district and Faversham.
Its head teacher, Jon Boyes, says it could be forced to accept as many as 290 at the start of the next academic year.
“We’re oversubscribed to the end of September,” he said. “We already have 265 set to come and we’ve got 40 more on the waiting list.
“Twenty-five of them have formally lodged an appeal through KCC. Appeals happen every year, but we’ve got more this year than last.
“If they get upheld we will have to take on those children, which will mean we’ll be over our published admission number (Pan).
“We can’t just keep putting more students in the school without funding it.”
In 2017, Herne Bay High was the first preference for 303 parents and guardians.
Its Pan was increased from 258 after 299 children listed it as their first choice the year before.
KCC had outlined the need for an expansion of the high school in recently published documents.
However, Mr Boyes believes it could be jeopardised if an application for funding from the Department for Education to build a satellite grammar school on the Whitstable Bends is granted.
“The most important thing lately is trying to fight the grammar school,” he said.
“There’s no point at looking at any expansion of Herne Bay High at the minute because if in August it’s decided a 1,000-place satellite school will be funded, there won’t be one.
“There are simply not enough pupils and money will be directed to the new satellite rather than support the development of the excellent provision we already have in the town.”
It was revealed in March that Barton Court and Faversham’s Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School have entered a two-horse race to open a satellite between Herne Bay and Whitstable.
Long-held hopes of a coastal grammar were bolstered earlier this year when KCC revealed that such a move is its “preferred option” to provide the 150 extra selective school places needed to cope with the proposed housing developments across the district.
“It’s unfortunate that millions of pounds could be spent on building a new grammar school,” Mr Boyes continued.
“The local authority is trying to get money from central government for a grammar school expansion because it can, rather than trying to fund what’s properly needed.
“It’s just fundamentally and educationally the wrong option. I have little faith now in KCC’s ability to actually plan what the schooling provision requirements are.”
However, Keith Abbott, a director at KCC, insists the decision on the coastal grammar will not impact Herne Bay High's access to funding.
“The need for places at selective and non-selective schools, as with all types of school, will be assessed separately from one another and if places need to be found in more than one type of school in a particular area then we will endeavour to do this," he said.
“Grammar schools may be eligible to apply for funding direct from central government, via the Selective Schools Expansion Fund (SSEF), which will allow them to expand.
"Grammar schools successfully accessing funding in this way will have no impact on whether non-selective schools in the same area will be able to access funding to expand, should it be deemed appropriate for them to do so."
