RAMSGATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS

The next stage in Kent County Council's stealthy destruction of secondary education choice in Thanet took a further step forward this week with the proposal for “no change” for Chatham House and Clarendon Grammar Schools.

In a carefully worded statement, Kent County Council Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education, Cllr Mark Dance, has confirmed that Chatham House Grammar School and Clarendon House Grammar School will continue to provide single sex education for the foreseeable future. Mr Dance claims that speculation surrounding the future of two grammar schools in Ramsgate is now at an end.

Kent County Councillors for Ramsgate, Elizabeth Green and Alan Poole disagree.

Cllr. Alan Poole, KCC Member for Ramsgate said “I am very surprised that, as the elected local Members, we have only been informed by KCC of the decision via a Press Release.

Whilst we applaud the huge Government investment (Building Schools for the Future) we feel that this is a missed opportunity that could, if handled correctly, transform secondary education in Thanet.

This decision seems more about perpetuating selective education than about doing what is right for the school children of Thanet.

We are delighted that we will be keeping secondary schools in the centre of Ramsgate but feel that local people should be consulted and the options thoroughly debated before any decisions are finally made.”

Cllr Elizabeth Green, Kent member for Ramsgate said, “The Governments massive input of cash into Thanet’s Secondary Schools has given KCC the opportunity to reorganise all the secondary school provision to meet future needs. KCC Tories are missing that opportunity in a short-sighted, dogmatic defence of selection at age 11.

The significant wording in Mr Dance’s statement is “for the foreseeable future”. Kent Council had a proposal to merge these Grammar schools and we believe this could well return in the near future as they had a strong desire to remove single sex schooling from Ramsgate. This is a convenient holding statement whilst consultation takes place concerning the merger of Hereson School for boys into the new Ellington School for Girls. It will do nothing to stop speculation.

A proposal we feel is deeply flawed, it proposes shoe horning the boys into a school designed solely for the girls school. It will take several years for existing numbers to work their way through the schools, meaning maximum disruption. It will mean the loss of the option of single sex schooling in Thanet’s High Schools. It will also create a new school, without a Sixth Form which will have to compete with the Marlowe with all its facilities. KCC Tories failed to deal with the old Ramsgate School until Government took it out of their hands. Now we fear they will fail our High School pupils by creating a school of last choice".