A HIGH-PERFORMING Tonbridge secondary school has been unable to fill half of its Year 7 places for the current academic year.
Hayesbrook School, in Brook Street, a boys’ school with a mixed sixth form, has only 61 students in its 150 capacity year group.
Ofsted inspectors said the school ‘continues to be good’ after they carried out a school inspection on January 17.
It is the 39th highest-performing school in Kent, with 61 per cent of their pupils securing five or more A*- C grades at GCSE.
At A-Level, it is has the sixth highest progress score in the county – a new way of measuring the performance of the school that is not purely tied to overall grade attainment.
Despite their achievements, the school only filled for 41 per cent of its places for incoming 11-year olds.
A press release from the school released read: “West Kent is coming to the end of a demographic shift and low-birth rate in the locality which has been the case, over recent years. This has meant that there have been fewer children at transition age which obviously affects the total number of potential admissions.
A spokesperson for Kent County Council said they were unable to release figures for intake next year but ‘indications are encouraging that more places at Hayesbrook will be filled next year’.
