News

County and District councillor Susan Carey has helped to clarify the reasoning behind why only one pupil at the Churchill School in Hawkinge was selected to attend the Folkestone Academy.

Cllr Carey explained: "Last year the Folkestone Academy was undersubscribed, this year it’s the most popular school in the area and Hawkinge children have been squeezed out."

But Susan, who sympathises with parents said: "The Folkestone Academy is the nearest secondary school for Hawkinge children so it’s really disappointing that so few of them were offered a place. Children who live closest to a school have first call on places and that has to be the fairest system."

The figures for Hawkinge pupils leaving primary school for secondary education are as follows:

Hawkinge Primary School

8 Folkestone Academy
7 Harvey Grammar
5 Folkestone girls
1 Dover Grammar boys
10 Brockhill Park
1 Ashford Christ Church

The Churchill School

1 Folkestone Academy
1 St Anselm's
1 Pent Valley
3 Harvey Grammar
4 Folkestone Girls
1 Dover Grammar Girls
4 Dover Grammar Boys
11 Brockhill Park (of which 9 were allocations by the local authority - ie not one of the parents' preferred schools)
6 Astor College for the Arts

Folkestone Academy received 682 applications for 240 places (this would be first, second and third preferences)

Parents who are unhappy about their child's allocated school can register to go on the waiting list, and they have the right of appeal to an independent, not KCC appeals panel.