New team set to lift ‘worst’ school
A PARKWood primary school, branded the worst in Kent, is working hard to achieve pledged improvements. BellWood Community Primary, inBrishing
Lane, is at the bottom of the Government’s league table for the county, with just 55 of its 242 pupils (23%) reaching the expected level 4 in English and maths. The 2011 figure is lower than the 35% the previous year and 33% in 2009. The school’s latest Ofsted report, at the end of November
Zero-carbon homes
plan withdrawn A PLANNED development of zero-carbon homes in Forest Hilll,Tovil, has beenwithdrawn. In October 2008, Ashford Road-based developers DaVinci Properties submitted an outline planning application to erect the 14 terraced homes – heated using solar panels, bio-mass and wind turbines. Documentation dating from October 2009 highlighted the applicant’s difficulty in making the project viable.
Housing the homeless MAIDSTONEcouncil’s frontline services are feeling the squeeze of the economic climate. The work of the housing
teams on both homeless preven- tion and the provision of tempo- rary housing has increased, the council heard, and a further £60,000 was needed to maintain the present level of service.
2011, said that Bell Wood had made inade- quate progress since being placed in special measures in 2009. The school is federated with nearby Oak
Trees primary, withRosemaryWiles as execu- tive head of both schools. Named worst per- forming school in Britain in 2008, Oak Trees was removed from special measures at the end of 2011. KCC cabinet member for education Mike Whiting said BellWood’s latest position was
LEAH Maclean and Hannah Pontet are the new members of Maidstone MP Helen Grant’s “shadow cabinet” – and they already have a cause to pursue. The pair were selected from
12 candidates in a Shadow Helen competition. The MP said they had shown a real un- derstanding and passion for politics and the issues that af- fect communities. The cost of public transport is what angers these two sixth for-
Swing voters: Leah Maclean, left, and Hannah Pontet get a free ride inMote Park
mers, now they are no longer eligible for the Kent Freedom Pass. Hannah (17) has to drive to Valley Park School as it would oth- erwise cost £72 a month on the bus from her Staplehurst home. Neither Hannah nor Leah (18), who lives in Tovil, can use the cut-price pass as they are over 16. A campaign to get KCC to ex- tend the age limit to18 was launched last year and the girls are keen to increase the pressure for change.With Mrs Grant’s back- ing, they hope to achieve a positive result. Leah and Hannah will spend time in her constituency and Lon-
don offices. They plan to attend a session of Prime Minister’s Questions in the near future. The selection meeting was held in the boardroom of Page & Wells estate agents in King Street.
disappointing, especially for the children. However, the situation was improving and he was confident that thenewteam would lift the school. KCC is backing plans for the school to be-
come an academy. As Downs Mail went to press, it was seeking a new head of school. Despite its gradings, Bell Wood’s latest Of-
sted report highlighted a number of improve- ments. The inspector praised the “well-articulated and ambitious vision pre-
MP’s teen team on campaign trail
sented by members of the gov- erning body for both schools in the federation and the continuity and professionalism brought by the executive head teacher.” These were beginning to counter- act the effects of repeated changes in leadership and man- agement at Bell Wood since the school went into special meas- ures.
Ofsted said there was now “a
clear understanding of the school’s current weaknesses and of its potential”. Seventy primary schools in Kent failed to reach the government benchmark of 60% of all pupils reaching the level 4 standard. The average for the county was 72%, compared to the national figure of 74%.
Flats scheme APROPOSAL has been submit- ted to convert 1 Church Road, Tovil, into four flats. The units would be a mixture of one bed- room and two bedroom flats. The ground floor commercial units would be retained.
18 Town
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