AN END to the middle school system in part of the county has moved a significant step closer.

County councillors have unanimously backed plans to consult on switching to a two-tier system of education on the Isle of Sheppey.

The county council’s controversial plan would lead to the three middle schools - the last remaining ones in Kent - either becoming primary schools or part of Sheppey’s secondary school provision.

Members of KCC’s cross-party schools advisory board supported going out to public consultation at a meeting on Monday. If the shake-up does go ahead, changes could be in place in two years.

Education chiefs say the details of how individual schools could be affected are not yet known but insist re-organisation will go ahead even if the plans for a secondary school academy based at Minster College founder.

Education chiefs emphasised that KCC intended to keep the controversial academy proposal separate from its plans to re-organise the island’s three-tier system.

However, there was a hint that funding for the re-organisation was indirectly linked to the academy.

Area education officer Alison Osborne told the committee: "At present, we are not able to tell you what we need to do with the first schools and middle schools until the decision on the academy.

"There is £40million available through the academy route for the secondary phase. For the primary phase, we will be able to work out the capital costs when we know which schools will be used for the primary phase."

Sheppey county councillor Adrian Crowther (Lab), who addressed the meeting, said: "I am disappointed and surprised that the discussion on the three-tier system is being confused with the academy. If the dream of an academy is not realised, does the three-tier system go back into the melting pot or will it be abandoned?"

Dr Ian Craig, KCC’s director of operations for education, said: "We are separating out this consultation, which is about the principle of moving from three-tier to two-tier and that will carry forward irrespective of whether the academy goes forward."

Under KCC’s timetable, formal consultation will start in September, with a series of public meetings taking place throughout the month. Education leaders will then decide what to do next January, with consulations on the future of individual schools beginning in the spring.