SPECULATION is growing that an end to Sheppey’s middle school system could be on the cards.

Kent education chiefs are understood to have drawn up a report which will recommend consulting on ending the middle school set up on the island and bringing its schools into line with the rest of the county.

The paper could be presented to KCC’s ruling Conservative cabinet at a meeting in early February.

Although the report will not set out an explicit proposal for ending the middle school system, it will recommend a wide-ranging public consultation on the issue.

County Hall sources have told the Sheerness Times Guardian newspaper the three-tier system has disappeared almost everywhere else in the country and there is a growing feeling that it should end in Kent.

“The three-tier system has disappeared from the rest of Kent and has disappeared in most other places in the country. Even where it has not yet gone, there are proposals for it to go,” the source said.

One of the key reasons for a change is likely to centre on the fact that the middle school set up makes it less easy to deliver the National Curriculum, particularly at Key Stage Three.

It will also be argued that change could help simplify admissions arrangements and improve classroom standards.

One possible option could be for St George’s Middle School to be enlarged to become a secondary school and for the other middle schools – Cheyne and Danley - to become standard primaries.

Pupils who currently transfer to secondary schools – including Minster College – at 13 would now do so at 11, as happens in the rest of the county.

Headteachers, who are reported to have been privately briefed on the issue were remaining silent on the subject this week.

If any change is recommended, it is understood that KCC expects any re-organisation to happen in 2006.