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Catch up on your latest politics news with Sophie Denny.
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00:23Welcome to the Kent Politics Show on KMTV, I'm Sophie Denny.
00:27Kent County Council has announced a new provider for the Kent Test, which is an exam sat by
00:33primary school students at the beginning of Year 6.
00:36It determines whether or not they will get into a grammar school.
00:40But some campaigners and parents have raised concerns about the new provider, Quest Assessments,
00:45as they are owned by tutoring platform Atom Learning, which offers preparation for the
00:51Kent Test and can cost families around £670 per year.
00:56This forms part of wider concerns about the very existence of the exam, with some calling
01:02on Kent County Council to transform the secondary school education system here in the county.
01:07I spoke to those worried about the test earlier this week.
01:11It's just this bubble of anxiety amongst the children and the parents, and for what reason?
01:17If the Kent Test didn't exist, none of that anxiety would be there.
01:20It's like, why?
01:21Why are we doing this to little children?
01:24If we hadn't just spent our entire life savings on an extension and had a really settled life,
01:28we might well have actually just left.
01:30It's become so normalised.
01:34People are just saying, are you going to start tutoring in Year 5 or Year 4?
01:38You know, there's not even any question when everyone would look at me like I was absolutely
01:43shocked when I said, I'm not tutoring, I don't think it's the right thing to do.
01:47But the pressure then was, if they don't pass, they're going to have that failure stamp
01:51on themselves.
01:51What are parents supposed to think?
01:53Won't they feel like they need to pay it?
01:55So it just seems a very, very complex situation, and tuition makes the Kent Test unfair, because
02:02if tuition works, then paying for it buys you a grammar school place, almost.
02:08Now, you can hear more on that story during Kent's night, but sticking with the politics
02:12show for now, we invited Reform Councillor, the Cabinet Member for Education, Beverley Fordham
02:18on to the show, but she was unable to make it.
02:21But in a statement, Kent County Council said that while they understand that some parents
02:26may have concerns about the appointment of a new provider, they'd like to reassure families
02:31that while Quest Assessments is part of Atom Learning, the Kent Test is written and managed
02:36independently by Quest's assessment team, and no test content is shared between them.
02:41Atom Home only has access to the same information published by Kent County Council as anyone else,
02:47mirroring historic arrangements.
02:49They said familiarisation materials will continue to be available to all pupils, and no child
02:54is required to purchase tutoring or preparation materials to sit the Kent Test, and that a
03:00single county-wide Kent Test is the most efficient approach, enabling children to apply for multiple
03:06grammar schools through one assessment.
03:09I'm joined now by Councillor Mark Hood, leader of the Green Party at Kent County Council, and
03:16Conservative Councillor John Davis, Shadow Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Property at
03:21Thanet District Council. Now Mark, I'm going to start with you. So Kent has the highest number
03:26of grammar schools in the UK at 32. You've got three in your area of Tunbridge and Malling.
03:31What do you hear from parents about the Kent Test?
03:35Well, one of our schools, Judd doesn't actually, it has its own test because it doesn't trust
03:41the Kent Test. I think the problem with the Kent Test is that it can be coached. It gives
03:46an unfair advantage to children whose families can afford to have this tuition, and that isn't
03:54right. I mean, you had this non-verbal reasoning aspect of the Kent Test, and that isn't taught
04:03in state primary schools. You can only get that additional tuition and help if you have
04:09the coaching and the tuition. And the statistics point out that actually there's social exclusion
04:17going on here. In Tunbridge and Malling, only 4% of children in our area who are on free
04:26school meals actually get into our grammar schools. So in the past, grammar schools have
04:31been championed as being a fantastic way to break through social exclusion and to have that
04:37social mobility. That is no longer the case. So we've got a real problem here. And there's
04:42an imbalance between the east of the county and the west of the county where there's more
04:47inclusion in the east. And it's not just the east. Some schools like Dartford Grammar School
04:53do a very good job of attracting children from low-income families. That doesn't seem to be
04:59the case in a lot of those West Kent grammar schools. They are an outlier. So this has to
05:05be challenged. We have to do something to make sure the system adapts to this. Because
05:11you wouldn't start up, you wouldn't, if we started from scratch, we wouldn't have this
05:16system. But people are invested in it. There is no mechanism to change this. Because a lot
05:21of these, the majority of grammar schools are actually academies. So Kent County Council,
05:26even if there was a will to get rid of grammar schools, you can't do it. We just need to
05:31make sure we can make the best of this current situation.
05:35And John, I'll bring you in. We were mentioning there, kind of, students, more disadvantaged
05:39pupils getting in and the kind of divide between East and West Kent. So it's 4% in Tunbridge
05:44and Malling. But in Thanet, 21.5% of pupils in grammar schools are on pupil premiums, a government
05:50grant that supports these disadvantaged pupils. So do you see grammar schools as kind of being
05:55more inclusive in your side of Kent?
05:58From the sounds of it, I was unaware of that sort of disparity in the statistic. And that
06:04is a cause for concern. Because one of the great things with grammar schools, and they
06:08get misquoted. I'm a product of a grammar school, by the way. So obviously, or not obviously,
06:14but a fan of the system. I think a grammar school actually improves the educational environment
06:24for everybody, because they're designed to be more academic rather than historically. Now,
06:30it's a long time since I was at school, so obviously the agenda has changed. But what they
06:37gave was an academic-based education, without the cost. I am very concerned about the conflict
06:44that's been described here. But I don't think you can take away the right of the individual
06:52to want the best for their children. It's one of those…
06:56I'm sure parents would say that obviously they want to give the best to their children,
06:59but I think the point that some people here were making was that it feels unfair to them
07:04that those who can afford to pay for tutoring can get in. And so it's about, they want
07:09to open up the system so that, as you say, the academic stretch is given to people of all
07:14backgrounds. I think we've got to look at what the Kent
07:17test sets out to achieve here. Because one of the things that really concerns me, and again,
07:22it's a very different environment to my day, when I took my 11 plus, we didn't even know
07:27we'd taken it. And that was kindness and compassion. Because they knew that we would be concerned,
07:32we wanted to go to whichever school. And I remember asking, when are we doing it? And
07:38they said, the practice you did was the thing. That's the difference in the culture. Unfortunately,
07:44education nowadays is all about the statistics of the provider rather than the benefit of
07:49the child, it seems to me. There are multiple problems across the educational sector with poor
07:55attendance, school denied children and so on. What we have to do, and the Kent test is designed
08:02to stream people. It's not the be all and end all. We hear a lot of comments about people
08:07saying failure. There is no failure.
08:09But I think what they're saying is that children might feel like a failure if they don't pass?
08:14If the situation is managed wrong, yes. I think that's incorrect. I think there's two things
08:21that you've said that are incorrect. Generally, if you have a grammar school system,
08:28in those areas, attainment goes down. That's just a fact. In most areas where you have grammar
08:33schools, attainment generally goes down. So it doesn't bring everybody up. And it does create
08:40a culture of winners and losers. And that's quite traumatic for some children. And I agree
08:47with you entirely about the pressure is different now. I had no pressure because I didn't sit
08:53the 11 plus. I went to St Gregory's in Tunbridge Wells. We weren't allowed to take the 11 plus
08:59if we wanted to go to that school. But it is massive. It's very, very stressful. And I've
09:05read your report. And it illustrates very clearly that actually, if you've got families that
09:12can just about manage the tuition, they're going without on other things. They're not
09:16having days out. They're not having holidays. It is a huge amount of the family budget can
09:22be spent on this kind of thing. And I think there is a danger with having Quest and Atom
09:27linked. They're the same company. You're going to have families. They're naturally going to
09:32think, I need to be signed up to the Atom tutoring in order to give my children the best outcomes.
09:39Because that is, we agree, that's what parents want. They want what's best for their children.
09:44And thank God for that, because that's a natural instinct to want the best for each generation.
09:50And without that, I think we'd all be here. But it's vital. I think perhaps what we're
09:59looking at here is in the name, the Kent Test. All other qualifications have gone over to an
10:07ongoing assessment basis. You don't just walk in and do an O level now. Those qualifications
10:12are under various names. But there's coursework involved. And maybe instead of it being focused
10:18on this one test, there needs to be additional factors taken into account in order to fairly
10:25stream those children so they get the best out of them. Because a child that might not
10:31pass the 11 plus but goes to what we call secondary modern schools can thrive.
10:36Well, so there is the head teacher assessment. So that's kind of designed as a fail-safe really.
10:43So that if, for example, a child has a bad day on the Kent Test, there are these fail-safe
10:48mechanisms in place. But are you saying you'd rather have a longer-term assessment of the
10:53child rather than one test?
10:54I'm just trying it on the table as potentially something that takes the sting out of it, takes
11:01the need. There shouldn't be a need for tuition. I think if there's a need for additional tuition,
11:05that's a real indictment on the standard of education that we give our children to prepare
11:10them for the test. And the one thing, the non-verbal reasoning, not being in the agenda
11:16and on the curriculum, but being tested, that raises a lot of questions for me.
11:21Mark has caught up very quickly. Is that something you'd want to see?
11:24I don't think, I don't like the idea of continually testing. I agree with the point that on the
11:33day, any child can have an issue on the day and not come to their full potential, or rather
11:38be able to perform at their full potential. But what we need to do, we need to make sure
11:43that the non-selective schools are doing much better. I know the schools in most...
11:48I'm sorry, that's all we have time for for this part, but stay tuned for after the break.
15:04Welcome back to the Kent Politics Show on KMTV. The Secretary of State for Energy Security
15:10and Net Zero has approved the National Grid's C-Link proposal, a project which will see a
15:16high-voltage electricity link between Kent and Suffolk. Construction of the link will involve
15:22building on Fanitz-Minster marshes and running cables ashore on Pegwell Bay. The National Grid
15:28has said that C-Link will help provide homes and businesses with more affordable energy. But
15:34many have been campaigning against these plans, with Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale calling it an act of
15:40environmental vandalism. Well, Nayla Mohamed spoke to Chloe Brewster about the approval earlier this week.
15:48So, plans have been approved for this 138-kilometre offshore electricity link running from Kent to Suffolk.
15:56And this comes as part of the Great Grid upgrade, which is the largest overhaul of electricity, of the
16:02electricity grid in generations. And this C-Link has been in plan since 2022 with pre-application consultations.
16:09And there have been many consultations since, public ones and other ones, to ensure that these plans are feasible
16:15and that they help the local environment and the local people as well. But now in November, in late 2026,
16:21these plans have been approved and work is due to begin in 2027, lasting for four years, that is until
16:282031.
16:30And you're in Pegwell Bay at the moment. What could the impact be there and for the environment surrounding it?
16:38Well, Chloe, I didn't know if you know, but Pegwell Bay is one of the UK's most internationally protected
16:44stretches of coastline here, based in the UK. And it's home to so much wildlife and biodiversity.
16:51It's protected for so many species of birds as well. But the C-Link project will bring ashore so many
16:57cables
16:58as part of that project. MP Sir Roger Gale said this is an environmental act of vandalism.
17:05And since the pre-consultation in 2022, so many groups have been campaigning, opposing the plans,
17:13particularly Save Minster Marshes. It's not just Pegwell Bay, but Minster Marshes will also be converted,
17:18also have an energy converter built there as well. But Kent Wildlife Trust have also opposed these plans
17:24because of the impact it's going to have on wildlife and biodiversity here. And we can hear from Kent Wildlife
17:29Trust now.
17:30The decision means the habitats at Pegwell Bay and Minster Marshes will be directly damaged,
17:36including irreplaceable salt marsh habitat. There is a real risk that the salt marsh will have direct habitat loss
17:43and fire the trench in to install the cables. We saw this with National Grid's previous installation,
17:51called Nemo Link, which the salt marsh has not recovered. And if you stand on the shoreline,
17:56you can still see the scar across the salt marsh today. So there's a real risk that this irreplaceable habitat
18:02will have direct habitat loss. National Grid have committed to avoiding Goodwin Sands Marine Conservation Zone,
18:11which originally the cables were going to cross through. However, we have been asking for kind of
18:17more than the bare minimum, which is currently what we feel National Grid are doing.
18:21But the National Grid say it's a necessity for energy security. Is that right?
18:28Absolutely correct there, Chloe. So the National Grid say that demand for electricity is expected to increase
18:33by 50% by 2035, and then it's going to double again by 2050. Because the demand is just so
18:40high,
18:40they say there's such a need for this new infrastructure. And since then, they've actually sent us a statement
18:46saying that the sea link will help carry more secure, homegrown power to where it's needed in Kent and beyond,
18:52while reducing costly network bottlenecks. They will work closely with councils and communities
18:57to deliver environmental improvements, plan construction carefully, and keep residents updated.
19:03So even though these plans have been approved, Minster Marshes and Kent Wildlife Trust say they'll continue
19:09proposing these plans to protect the wildlife.
19:12Thank you so much, Vanila, for bringing us both sides there.
19:16Now still with me is Councillor Mark Hood, leader of the Green Party at Kent County Council,
19:21and Conservative Councillor John Davis, Shadow Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Property
19:26at Thanet District Council. John, we'll come to you first.
19:30Nayla was at Pegwell Bay, part of your ward. What are your thoughts on this sea link approval?
19:36Words fail me, and that takes a lot, as you know.
19:42It is one of the most poorly thought out, greed-based, horrendous plans that the green sector have seen.
19:52It will achieve, they talk about the need for 50% more electricity by 2035, and yes, the green lobby
20:02wants it produced on a green basis.
20:05This doesn't produce electricity. This is a converter station to flip from DC to AC to make the electricity compatible
20:12for consumption in the community.
20:15They will be powering about 2 million homes, they say, or the equivalent of that.
20:18It wouldn't be necessary if they weren't shipping electricity down from Suffolk where they claim to have a surplus.
20:26None of it makes sense. There are closer brownfield sites. Sir Roger Gale has banged the drum about Kings North
20:33and a lot of us said straight away they already land cables there.
20:37The evidence is that, I mean, what is the point in all these restrictions on Pegwell Bay and all the
20:43protections it's supposed to have,
20:45if a private company can come roughshod using statutory powers, and this is where the system's wrong, there's nothing wrong
20:52with privatisation,
20:53but they should not be given statutory powers to ride roughshod over the common sense, over nature and over the
21:00community's wishes.
21:01We're talking something the size of five football pitches, 120 feet high, in the middle of marshland.
21:08They've already had to raise it two metres, two metres on a concrete plinth.
21:13Now, the same people that claim this is necessary for environmental reasons and so on are the same people telling
21:21us we're going to get a sea level rise.
21:23This marsh is below sea level, so they can't have it always. Do we need this or not?
21:29What we need is a more robust infrastructure, but in the right place and Minster Marshes and Pegwell Bay are
21:36not it.
21:36Mark, I'll bring you in in just a second, but John, your party has argued about the importance of energy
21:42security.
21:43Claire Catino spoke just last month about the need for Britain to have cheap, reliable energy.
21:48So isn't there a compromise that will have to happen with this?
21:51There needs to be compromise, and instead of a headlong dash into undeveloped and unsustainable technologies, we need a mix.
21:59The key word is transition, and this government in particular, and all governments have been guilty of this,
22:06seem to think that you can make a massive hop from one to the other.
22:10Things don't work that way. We have to run down the old fuels, bring in the new technologies,
22:15but not at the cost of it. This would be an environmental genocide. There are so many rare species that
22:23live on those marshes.
22:25Well, obviously they're saying it's very important for energy security, and that they've taken in all the necessary measures,
22:32and they've consulted with the local community to put in plans for it to protect the wildlife.
22:36Well, I'm sorry, but the consultations have been retched.
22:37Let's bring in Mark now. Mark, what do you have to say?
22:40It's an environmental disaster. So we do need to move faster with renewables,
22:47and actually the UK has done very well with offshore wind. We need to do more with onshore wind,
22:52but this is the worst possible option. This is the worst place to be bringing this cable on shore.
22:58You've got a SSSI, which is going to be badly affected by this huge monolithic converter station,
23:04and then you've got Pegwell Bay. It's a Ramsar site. It's internationally renowned salt marsh.
23:12The idea that we can bring it through here, I can't think of another place in Kent which is least
23:20suited to this.
23:21Yes, you could bring the cable in at Kings North. You could extend the cable down to Dungeness,
23:28where we've already got the energy infrastructure at Dungeness. All the pylons are already there.
23:34There's also the proposal that's been discounted to actually use existing pylons in Suffolk,
23:41in order to bring the energy across the land. And that's a very plausible suggestion,
23:49which has been completely discounted. So you've got the Kent Wildlife Trust have opposed it.
23:54The RSPB are opposing it. Save Minster Marshes has done a fantastic job in campaigning against this.
24:00The government is not listening. It hasn't listened with regard to Jack Dawn. It's not listening here.
24:07They did conduct public consultations for two years prior to submitting it for an application.
24:11And they're saying it's part of the Great Grid upgrade. So it's major infrastructure projects like this,
24:17and it's to modernise the electricity transmission and connect more low carbon energy in the long run.
24:22So is there not a kind of beneficial long term vision here?
24:26You need to maximise the benefit from offshore wind, absolutely. But this is the least, best of all of the
24:37options.
24:38I just cannot fathom why the other alternatives haven't been prioritised.
24:43I think I'd like to recognise as well, because this covers two constituencies.
24:49You've got Sir Roger Gale who's been staunch from day one and absolutely opposed to this.
24:53We have a problem in East Thanet, which Pegwall Bay is part of.
24:57We have an MP who is worse than useless in that she had to be forced to take a position
25:04on it.
25:05She's now taken a job in that ministry and is claiming that she can't comment on it.
25:11What is the point in voting for someone who then says that they can't represent or won't represent their constituents?
25:18I'm sure they'd say that all politicians are entitled to their own points of views.
25:23Not if you get elected to represent the populace. And let me tell you, this thing transcends politics and party
25:30politics.
25:30We're united at Thanet Council. I mean, there must be some very interesting conversations between the administration in control and
25:38their MP.
25:39Because there's certainly no joined up thinking there and no support.
25:42And the people deserve better. To be quite frank, this comment about two years of consultation.
25:48I've been at those consultations. They're lectures. They're not listening to anybody.
25:52And if I could take you down there now, they are already causing damage and massive scars without the relevant
25:58permissions.
25:59Supposedly doing preparatory work. This is also an area...
26:03That was... They did say that that was archaeological excavation that had been approved...
26:08When did you see an archaeologist using diggers and bulldozers?
26:12Mark, very quickly, did you have anything further you wanted to add?
26:15Yeah, I think it's incomprensible that you... Of all the jobs that Polly Billington could have taken in government,
26:21she's taken a job at the Ministry for Energy Security and Net Zero, when this is right on her doorstep.
26:31I think that's just inexplicable.
26:32I'm going to have to cut you off there, but I'm sure Polly Billington has had her reasons for taking
26:36that job.
26:36But that's all from us here at the Kent Politics Show.
26:39Join us later on for Kent tonight.
26:42Thanks to Mark and John for joining me in the studio. We'll be back soon.
26:57We'll be back soon.