All the latest from Kent's schools and colleges this month
Education news – Kent schools
All the latest from Kent’s schools and colleges this month
Record breakers
Kent’s Class of 2010 have smashed records yet again as A-level students clocked up results which put the county among the best in the UK.
Thousands of students returned to their schools or colleges for the last time to collect their results and as envelopes were torn open, results were showing further improvement. Calculated on two or more A* to E passes, the provisional figure is up from last year by an estimated 2.1 per cent to 93.5 per cent.
A number of schools have seen some great gains. The percentage of young people achieving two A* to E grades at Longfield Academy is up 25 to 100 per cent; Brockhill Park Performing Arts College, Hythe, saw a rise from 71 to 91 per cent; Community College Whitstable is up from 69 to 80 per cent; Abbey School, Faversham, saw a rise from 75 to 89 per cent; and Northfleet Technology College is up from 85 to 92 per cent.
Twenty nine schools had 100 per cent of students gaining two A-levels.
�— Students can get free impartial and confidential advice, guidance and support about exam results and future options from Connexions Kent & Medway, tel 0800 432 0207.
School of the future
Students returning to the New Line Learning Academy this autumn have been greeted by a state-of-the-art building that has taken contractor Carillion 82 weeks to build at a cost of �24m.
Offering outstanding hi-tech facilities, which include 10 learning plazas, multi-use games area, an amphitheatre and swipe-card lockers, KCC Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education, Sarah Hohler, described the project as “transforming education for generations to come.”
Kent duo scoop forestry awards
A Kentish woodland in Sittingbourne and a primary school in Gravesend have both shone in the country’s premier forestry competition, the Excellence in Forestry Awards 2010, organised by the Royal Forestry Society in association with the Forestry Commission England.
Torry Hill Estate at Sittingbourne, one of the few big blocks of woodland to be actively managed as coppice on the North Downs, was awarded a Certificate of Merit in the Silviculture Award, while Ifield School in Gravesend came joint second in the schools award.
A Special School for pupils aged four to 19, for the past 10 years Ifield School has used nearby Ifield Woodland as a magical retreat where pupils and members of the local community, particularly those with emotional difficulties, can escape the urban environment into a relaxing and calming place.
The woodland is used both for formal education and for group and personal social education and development. The school owns the freehold to the site and has rights of access to its existing paths.
Battle of Britain - by car
Parents who have been talking to their children this summer about the Battle of Britain when, 70 years ago, the eyes of the world were on the skies of Kent and south-east England, will be interested in a new CD called Drive the Battle of Britain.
Kent County Council has 2,000 free copies to give away to commemorate the official Battle of Britain Day (15 September), Narrated by TV military history presenter Dan Snow, the CD takes the listener around several Battle of Britain sites in southern Kent, including the National Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne, the Second World War airfield and graves of Battle of Britain pilots in Lympne, and the Greatstone Sound Mirrors - an early airplane detection system later replaced by radar.
�— To get your free copy, call Kent County Council customer call centre, tel 08458 247247.
