Sandwich Tech faces its toughest test yet

Sandwich Technology School is entering perhaps the most important year in its recent history.

The school remains in special measures, says its 2026 GCSE results may be the worst in Kent, ranks its attendance 102nd out of 103 Kent secondary schools and says Year 8 is half empty and Year 7 a third empty.

Against that background, few could argue with the school’s blunt conclusion this week:

“We think change is needed.”

The disagreement is over how that change is being delivered.

There has already been progress

When Ofsted inspected Sandwich Tech in 2024 it found widespread problems with behaviour, bullying, attendance, leadership and safeguarding.

By May this year, some of the most visible problems had improved substantially.

Inspectors found safeguarding requirements were being met, bullying and aggression had fallen and pupils generally behaved well. Inclusion and personal development reached Ofsted’s expected standard.

But those improvements were not enough to remove the school from special measures.

Achievement, attendance, behaviour, leadership and governance still required major improvement. Teaching was inconsistent and some pupils — including disadvantaged pupils and some with SEND — were not making enough progress.

Attendance remains particularly serious. KentOnline reports that 43.2% of pupils were persistently absent during the summer term of 2024/25, compared with 23.4% nationally.

A much tougher regime

Barton Court Academy Trust is now heavily involved in running the school, with executive head Kirstin Cardus leading it ahead of the planned formal transfer in November.

One of the most obvious changes has been much stricter enforcement of behaviour and uniform rules.

The policy allows pupils with incorrect uniform to be placed in isolation. The school says parents were warned during the summer and replacement items are provided where possible.

Some parents have strongly objected.

Seven demonstrated outside Thursday’s open evening, while an associated WhatsApp group reportedly has 74 members. Complaints include isolation, communication, children’s wellbeing and support for pupils with additional needs.

But the demonstration should not be mistaken for the views of all parents.

Parent opinion on SEND provision has also varied markedly. In the previous academic year’s Ofsted survey, 60% of respondents with SEND children agreed or strongly agreed that their child received the support needed to succeed.

KentOnline reports that a newer survey of just 30 respondents gives a very different picture, with 63% strongly disagreeing.

That apparent deterioration deserves attention, but both are small, self-selecting surveys. Neither establishes what the majority of all Sandwich Tech parents believe.

Ofsted itself presents an equally mixed picture: it judged overall inclusion to be effective, while also finding that teaching was not always adapted sufficiently for SEND pupils and that some were making inadequate progress.

Bigger problems than uniform

The danger is that arguments about trousers, shoes and isolation obscure the problems that forced change in the first place.

The school has weak examination results, exceptionally poor attendance and serious difficulty attracting and retaining pupils.

It also cancelled its new Year 12 courses shortly before the start of this term, creating further disruption for students expecting to remain at Sandwich Tech.

Those are ultimately the measures by which the new regime should be judged.

Stricter behaviour rules may help create the orderly school environment Ofsted previously found lacking. Equally, rules which alienate pupils or parents could make attendance and falling rolls harder to solve.

Sandwich Tech therefore presents a more complicated picture than either side of the current argument suggests.

The old approach clearly wasn’t working.

The new one now has to prove that it does.

Reported from published sources; research assisted by AI, checked before publication. Corrections: news@sandwichnews.co.uk