Frank Montgomery School: Difference between revisions

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| religionreligious_affiliation =

| streetaddress = Bredlands Lane

| country = {{flagcountry|England}}

| LEAlocal_authority = [[Kent County Council|Kent]]

==Secondary Modernmodern Schoolschool==

With the enactment of the [[Education Act 1944|1944 Education Act]] the school was designated a [[secondary modern school]], known as Sturry County Secondary Modern School.<ref>{{cite web|url=httphttps://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-616000-159000/page/19|title=FRANK MONTGOMERY SCHOOL|publisher=}}</ref> It changed its name to The Frank Montgomery School in 1980. As a secondary modern school the Frank Montgomery School was a non-selective school which meant it almost exclusively took in pupils who had failed to pass the controversial [[eleven-plus]] exam, also known as the [[Kent Test]], set by [[Kent County Council]] to stream children to attend either selective [[grammar schools]] or non-selective [[secondary modern schools]]. According to [[Anthony Sampson]], in his book ''[[Anatomy of Britain]]'' (1965), there were structural problems within the testing process that underpinned the eleven plus which meant it tended to result in secondary modern schools being overwhelmingly dominated by the children of poor and working class parents, while grammar schools were dominated by the children of wealthier middle class parents. To some extent the Frank Montgomery School corresponded to this pattern by being dominated by poor and working class children, and by having both low academic expectations and poor examination results.<ref>Sampson, A. ''Anatomy of Britain Today,'' London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1965, p.195</ref>

One of the innovations put in place by the school upon its name change to Frank Montgomery School was an attempt to end the division of pupils into streamed classes, each defined by the presumed educational ability of pupils. Consequently, the school ceased to stream the pupils by ability and also abolished the six letter system previously designating each class, A to F, in which A had been the highest ability stream, and F the lowest ability stream. Instead year groups were designated by the first six letters of the school's name, F, R, A, N, K and M, and each class was officially assigned as being of equal ability. In 1987 Frank Montgomery School also featured on a controversial episode of the BBC television documentary series ''[[Panorama (TV series)|Panorama]]'' as an example of a school abolishing competitive sports.<ref>BBC (1987) ''Panorama,'' 'Is Your Child Fit For Life?', broadcast 9 March 1987. For comment on the controversial nature of this BBC programme see J. Evans, 'Defining a Subject: The Rise and Rise of the New PE?', in ''The British Journal of the Sociology of Education'', vol. 11, no. 2, 1990, p.30f</ref> Controversy over the school erupted again in 1997 when its then headmaster, Rodney Freakes, was quoted as saying he was "impressed with the loyalty of the pupils to their teachers" following a riot by 200 pupils at the school in protest at the sacking of five of their teachers.<ref>'Governors in crisis talks at riot school', in ''The Daily Mail'' (UK newspaper), 12 May 1997</ref>

==Special Measuresmeasures and Closureclosure==

Frank Montgomery School was placed in [[special measures]] in 1998 due to poor [[Ofsted]] inspection reports, although it left special measures five years later following intervention by the Local Education Authority and Ofsted. However, in 2004 the [[BBC]] reported that the school was still bottom in the national school league tables for [[GCSE]] examination results in England and Wales, with just 4% of pupils on the school roll achieving any GCSEs at grade C or above.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4170675.stm|title=BBC NEWS - UK - England - Kent - School comes bottom in GCSE class|publisher=}}</ref> Three years later, at the point of its closure, the school had risen from bottom place to thirteenth from bottom with 7% of pupils achieving the official requirement of five or more GCSE results at grade C or above, and 43% of pupils gaining at least one GCSE at grade C or above.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6252315.stm|title=BBC NEWS - UK - Education - The worst GCSE-level results|publisher=}}</ref>

==Exam Resultsresults==

==Headmasters and Headmistressesheadmistresses==

* G. E. Draper-Hunt (first headmaster) (1935-1958)

* G.A.D. Davies (1958-

* Rodney Freakes (c. 1990-2001)

* Ian McGinn (2001-2007)