Student questions and answers Many thanks for the student feedback forms. Please find below the questions and answers. All your feedback will be provided to the governors as part of the consultation process. The process: Q. Please confirm this is a proposal and has not been confirmed. A. Yes this is the start of a consultation process. Governors and directors will meet in January to make a final decision in light of the consultation. Q. Who came up with the idea of becoming a co-ed school? A. This proposal was brought forward in discussion between the Trust Directors and the Local Governing Body. The Local Governing Body unanimously agreed to move forward with this consultation. Q. Why don’t we get to vote on this? A. As a consultation all views are taken into consideration. We are having a vote on the name to give Directors and Governors a perspective on your views on the name. All the feedback you have provided will be put before Directors and Governors. The decision on whether or not to proceed has to be made by the Directors and Governors who are considering the best interests of the future of the school and meeting the needs of the local area rather than only responding to the opinions of those who are in the school now. Q. Why is this happening in 2 years’ time? A. It takes a very long time to consult and gain approval for this type of change. September 2017 is the earliest date for which we could change admissions arrangements. Q. Can we stay as a Boys school? A. Yes. This is a consultation on a proposed change. Directors and the Local Governing Body will meet at the end of the consultation to consider all the views expressed. One possible outcome of this review could be to remain as a single sex Boys grammar school for Years 7-11. Q. How many parents made this choice? A. Students were the first group to be consulted on so parents have yet to respond. Parents will be able to respond in writing and by attending the public consultation meetings. Q. How are these propositions if they have already been decided? A. The only thing that has been decided is to consult on the propositions. Directors and the Local Governing Body will meet in January to decide whether or not to pursue these proposals following the consultation feedback. Q. Who has more of an influence students or parents? A. All feedback will be provided to the Directors and Local Governing Body. The students were told first and are the only group where every person has been informed directly about the proposed changes. Therefore, student voice is likely to be the largest element of feedback. However, Directors and Governors will consider ALL feedback and is consulting with other admissions authorities, parents of students at the school and also with children of Primary School age and the wider community. All these points of view will be taken into account before any final decision is made. Why change? Q. Why do we need to change? A. We believe this proposal is in the best interests of the whole community: Students: Achieve academically as well in co-educational as in single sex schools. Boys prefer attending mixed schools. Have enhanced life outcomes. Benefit from a campus approach to the school experience. Parents / carers: Have the choice of choosing the right type of school for their child – coed or single sex. Coed schools are popular with parents. The school will prioritise sibling links in its over subscriptions criteria to support parents who wish to send their children to the same school. Local Authority: As the demand for secondary school places rises over the coming years a mixed grammar school is best able to meet the growing needs for places. Local High Schools: As entry to the school reaches the PAN there will be much greater stability in student places across the local area. This opportunity for change and a reorganisation of the school arises from: The desire to offer a new educational choice for parents of students deemed selective in the local area. The evidenced positive impacts of moving from a single sex school to a co-ed school. The right time for the change: the school is now rated as a “Good” school; there is significant positive momentum at the school; the school has significant staffing with experience of co-ed and girls’ educational settings; the school has the opportunity to invest in appropriate facilities to move to co-ed. Connection to all TSAT primaries. The New Horizons Children’s Academy shares a site with Chatham Grammar School for Boys and works in partnership sharing resources and expertise. It is approriate that all students, boys and girls, who are able to attend a grammar school can attend the school they have worked with in the later years of their KS2 education and not just the boys. The other TSAT primaries also work within the family of trust schools and parents have committed to the mission statement of TSAT. For those deemed selective and attending TSAT primaries moving to co-ed would ensure that commitment would be recognised formally in the new admissions arrangements. Connection to The Victory Academy. The Victory Academy, 0.8 miles away, is a mixed high school which has been supported by the Thinking Schools Academy Trust and Chatham Grammar School for Boys since April 2015 and it became part of the Trust in September 2015. There are even greater opportunities for support and sharing of expertise and best practice between a mixed grammar school and a mixed high school rather than support from a single sex school. The expertise within both Chatham Grammar School for Boys and the Thinking Schools Adademy Trust in the teaching of boys and girls. The need to provide flexible additional capacity within the secondary grammar sector to meet the growing local population over the next five years. A co-ed grammar school is much better placed to work with the Local Authority in meeting the demand for places from both boys and girls rather than a single sex school only able to meet the demand for places of one gender. The need to address under-used capacity within Chatham Grammar School for Boys. The need to rationalise admissions to meet the needs of the local area, relieving pressure on Chatham Grammar School for Boys due to appeals and therefore allowing for a more stable population to the benefit of non-selective high schools. Student Places: Q. Is there a shortage of girls’ school places in Medway? A. Currently there is not a shortage of girls’ school places in Medway. However, in this part of Medway there is no option for a mixed grammar school experience for students living here. The governors have committed to ensuring that all Boys in the local area who pass the 11+ will be able to gain a place at our school. Impact of change: Q. What if no girls come? A. This is very unlikely, however, if no girls apply then there would be a boy only Year group. Q. Is the expectation for results to be better or worse? A. Large studies have suggested that boys achieve better academic outcomes in mixed schools than in single sex schools. The data from single sex and co-ed grammar schools suggests that boys and girls do well in mixed grammar schools and single sex grammar schools. Q. Will the school time table change? A. No the school will remain on a two week timetable. Q. Will there be separate changing rooms for girls? A. Yes, in the new gym there will be both boys and girls changing rooms. Q. Will this change the Houses? A. The school is consulting to remain a 4 for entry school. If in the future we need to add an extra form each year then we will look at adding an extra House. All current House activities will continue. Q. Will it affect our education? A. As this change does not directly impact on any student currently at CGSB no these proposals will not affect you. Q. Will there be mixed classes or single sex classes? A. Initially we expect the number of female students to be quite low and, therefore, we would have mixed classes. Once there is a balance in the intake we could consider having single sex teaching in some subjects but this decision has not been discussed yet. Q. Will the curriculum change? A. We will review the curriculum to ensure we are meeting the needs of all our students. However, curriculum offer is more closely linked to ability rather than gender and so we do not anticipate any significant changes being needed. Q. Are you going to change the layout of the school? A. No. Q. Will you need to change toilets? A. No we already have toilets for both genders in the school – no changes will be required. Q. Will girls be in my year? A. We would not expect female students to be entering year groups other than Year 7 or the sixth form in 2017. However, we are currently successfully meeting the needs of a small number of Gifted and Talented female students in Year 8 from The Victory Academy, despite Year 8 being a predominantly male year group. Therefore, we would consider any application to other year groups on a case by case basis ensuring that this was a fully informed decision by the student and parents and only allow this to happen where it was clearly in the student’s best interest which out-weighed the inevitable difficulty of being a single female student or very small group of female students in an historically male year group.