Sevenoaks ACE to donate £450

The winners of the school’s competition have now been identified.  Amherst School, Springboard Pre-school and Chevening School Nursery will each receive a cheque for £150 by way of thank you for their help in distributing the Sevenoaks ACE Secondary School survey in July.

Participating schools, nurseries and pre-schools were asked to confirm the number of families at their setting.  Respondents who named the schools, nurseries and pre-schools currently attended by their children were entered into the competition, with the highest percentage of responses in each sector winning £150.

Amherst School received the highest response rate or all schools with 29% of families completing the survey, closely followed by Riverhead Infants (28%) and Sevenoaks Primary School (26%).

Chevening School Nursery achieved a 52% response rate followed by Acorns Day Nursery (30%) and The Lodge Nursery School (24%).

Among the pre-schools, Springboard Pre-school had the highest overall response rate with 54% of families completing the survey – the highest across all categories.  Followed by the Children’s Workshop (37%) and Bradbourne Park Pre-School (33%).

Sevenoaks ACE would like to thank the 35 schools, nurseries and pre-schools that took part in the competition.  

Without these organisations publicising and promoting the survey, the response rate would not have been so high.  It is thanks to their support that we have been able to collate some valuable data that we hope will help to inform decisions being made about secondary school provision for the area for the benefit of this community.

How Strong is the Community Spirit?

A copy of our letter this week in the Sevenoaks Chronicle:

I have heard it said that Sevenoaks has a strong community spirit.  Right now could be the greatest test of this assertion.  Once again significant numbers of local children have been disappointed with secondary school offers; being offered a non-selective that wasn’t on the application form or a school they’ve never heard of in Maidstone. 

This year however, something different has happened.  Knole Academy has undertaken to specifically cater for these students locally, by offering a grammar stream, a guarantee that they will be in the top streams at least until year 9.   So – this community has a choice.  It can continue to go on waiting lists and appeal for places at what will be increasingly over-crowded schools, some 9-12 miles away, or it can do something different.  I have heard of groups of 3 or 4 parents making pacts between themselves to accept the places offered at Knole.  Knole already has 11+ children in each year; what if 30 parents were prepared to make a public pact?  An entire form of grammar ability children, with such parental and peer support, working in partnership with the school would be a powerful force.  There is a lot at stake here for Knole.  Its reputation is on the line; established as an all ability school, with Sevenoaks School as a sponsor to cater for exactly this type of child – are they seriously going to allow this to fail? 

Many people discount Knole without having even stepped over the threshold.  I have heard from a wide range of people that Knole doesn’t offer triple science – a commonly held opinion that on investigation reveals itself to be untrue.  Knole won’t be the right option for all children, but perhaps for 25 – 30 of those in the nightmare situation right now, it could be. 

Can community spirit win through?