The head of a Kent grammar school is calling for a non-selective secondary nearby to re-open.
David Clark is in charge at Cranbrook school and says a replacement for the High Weald Academy, which closed nearly two years ago, is desperately needed.
It's because a lot of homes are being built in the area and many parents face sending their children miles from home.
An NHS worker from Kent has been telling the podcast about life in Ukraine, more than two years after the war there started.
Brian Grove from Sittingbourne delivered a convoy of ambulances to the country just weeks after the invasion.
With temperatures set to peak in the high 20s this week, we're being urged to do what we can to reduce the risk of grass and wild fires.
Kent Fire and Rescue says in the hot dry weather, fires can develop and spread quickly - having a devastating impact on the environment and local communities.
As England get ready for their final group game at the Euros - the podcast has been hearing how a Kent charity is using football to help men with their mental health.
Head In the Game was set up in 2021, and has offered support to more than 600 men across the county through weekly group sessions.
Football, and Gillingham have been handed a tough draw in the EFL trophy.
They're in Group D with defending champions Peterborough and League One's Stevenage with an under 21 team from a premier league club completing the group.
Tomorrow, the league two fixtures are out - you'll be able to see them first at KentOnline from 9am.
We'll see you in the next one. Can't online news news you can trust. This is the Kent online podcast. Nicholas Everett. Hello. Hope you're okay. Thanks ever so much for downloading today's podcast on Tuesday, June the 25th. And this is our top story today. The head of a Ken grammar school is calling for a non-selective second treat nearby to reopen. David Clark is in charge of Cranbrook School and says a replacement for the High World Academy, which closed nearly two years ago now, is desperately needed. Because a lot of homes are being built in the area. And many parents face sending their children miles away. Well, we've previously heard on the podcast from Mum Claire Mills. Her daughter is due to start secondary in just a couple of years time. And she told us how it's already a huge concern. The nearest school is 10 miles away, which involves obviously commuting on a bus because my husband and I both work. So we can't do school drop offs. And at the moment, the bus companies are already struggling with the volume of children that they've got to take to and from various schools. And at the moment, we've got hundreds of houses that are being built in Cranbrook, as well as all the other parishes around us. And it's just a concern for me that how is she going to be able to get to school safely and on time as it stands now. And obviously in four years time when we've got hundreds more children going to school, the buses aren't going to be every half an hour. So if she misses one, it's going to be waiting for a long time. And she's going to miss out on making friends locally and going to commute to after school clubs. And it just seems like she's going to spend all of her time either at school on the bus and then she's going to have to come home and spend hours doing homework. She's not going to have any downtime to enjoy being a child. What can you tell me about the journey? So is it just going to be one bus or will she need? I mean, I suppose it depends on the school where she eventually goes. Could it be a series of buses? What does the journey look like? And approximately how long it's going to take each way? So yeah, so obviously it does depend on which school we end up choosing. But it would be either one bus or two buses and or it could be her having to get a bus to a train station and then the train on to somewhere. And we're looking at a minimum of an hour's commute for her, which obviously, as she gets older, won't be so much of an issue. But as an 11-year-old, is a huge concern for me. Is it a concern for your daughter as well? As we said, I know that she's not quite at school age, but at a time that's already quite, it can make kids quite anxious. You know, when they're first starting secondary school, it can also be quite exciting. Is the idea of having to take these long bus trips and things like that? Is that impacting on her excitement about going to secondary? Definitely, yeah. She's worried about getting on the buses on her own without a parent, which, as I say, me and my husband wouldn't be able to do. But also with how widespread the schools are, it's not guaranteed that she'll be commuting with friends from her class at the moment. So it may be that she's one of maybe one or two children that are doing this long commute. Kim Fletcher is chairman of the local parish council. He also said it was a big issue. A school represents the heart of a community. So parents get involved, kids play sports. There are after-schools clubs. There are quiz nights. There are fundraising things. There's dances. There's all sorts of things, which actually bring the generations together. And that gives you a community. And what we're finding in the rural parishes, and it's not just Cranbrook. It's St. Paul Hurst. It's Goud Hurst, all of them. We're finding that we are being stripped out of public services. So county council, for example, have just stopped all youth services in the rural areas. So that means to go to a youth club, you've got to go to number 12s. Well, that's over 10 miles away. Claire mentioned friendship groups. If we're 10 miles from a school now, and there's another child who's five miles the other side, that's 15 miles. So it's very unlikely that parents, particularly working parents or parents who don't have a car, are going to be able to shift their children around at weekends. So the friendship groups disappear. And we think that KCC actually understand this issue. And we have a meeting with them coming up. But we need to go to the Department of Education to persuade them that there's an issue. So where would the school go? We're not saying it must go in Cranbrook. There are other places, but we do need something within the high wheel. So the campaign's been running for 10 days, and we've got 650 signatures already. We have basically done a lot of fliring and posters within the 13 surrounding parishes. They are just getting on board as they understand the importance of their children having an option in terms of schools. Now, the man in charge of education at the County Council is Rory Love. He has said that high-wheeled clothes due to a fall in the number of children going there. And it was a decision made by the Department for Education. However, he does go on to say that KCC doesn't currently have any plans to set up a new school in the area. Bosses have also met with local people to talk about how they could approach the Department for Education instead. And you can read a report in full by our local democracy report at Simon Finley. And let us know what you think by leaving a comment. Kent Online News. Other top stories for you today and a blind man who attacked an ambulance worker while being taken to hospital in Canterbury has been sent to prison. Crews were first sent to Andrew Burns home on October the 12th last year. He told them he was suffering chest pains but became abusive while they were on their way to hospital. The 41-year-old who lives in Union Street has a history of assault and has previously racially targeted three police officers. He's been locked up for two years. A man's reportedly been threatened with a hammer as a gang stole a motorbike from a garage near Darford. Four suspects wearing crash helmets as said to have been disturbed by the owner at last Thursday night. Two boys aged 16 and 17 have been charged. A suspected thief has been arrested after a brick was thrown through a shop window in Maidstone. Heen Rogers is accused of stealing sweets from a service station in Boxley Road last Thursday. And after being challenged by staff, he allegedly returned and damaged a door with a brick. A 38-year-old who lives on Waterloo Street in the town was released on bail ahead of a court appearance next month. Now, next today, an NHS worker from Kent has been telling the podcast about life in Ukraine more than two years after the war there started. Brian Grove from Sitting Born initially delivered a convoy of ambulances to the country just weeks after the invasion. He's now volunteering at a nursing home in Carkev, less than 20 miles from where Russian forces are launching guided bombs. We're in an air alarm at the moment. The sirens have stopped. They used to go on for longer, but apparently that was damaging people's mental health. So basically, I'm doing exactly what everybody else here does, which is carrying on as normal. You cannot, when air alarms take up 10 to 15 hours a day, you cannot spend all your time carrying in a bomb shelter. And in fact, in this building, we don't have one anyway where I'm living. Because you still have to live. You still have to go to work. You still have to eat. And those things can't be done long-term in a bomb shelter. I'm working in what would be called back in Britain, a nursing home. I'm assisting a physio and we've had some incredible improvements. One lady who's about 90 was told she'd be bedoring them for life. And we managed to get a walk-in with assistance. The full length of the building, which is about 50 yards yesterday. Another lady has been in the wheelchair, but now she's walking unassisted, but with a walker. And that's just a few. It really helps to have people here, like a physio, who knows how to get people moving. Because many of them, not all, but many of them, show amazing spirit and determination. So I'm working here five days a week, and I'm living here the whole time. One of the two spare days at the weekend, I help at Hell's Kitchen, which is not hellish at all. And it's full of women volunteers who are local, who produce over a thousand meals a day for hospitals, the needy and some army units, as well as fallen volunteers, which are both men and women from various parts of the world. And we produce somewhere in the region of 1500 large bread rolls a day, again, for the same people. So life here is surprisingly normal, apart from the occasional boom, and the modern occasional air alarm siren. We have had several attacks from what are called guided glide bonds in the last week, three in particular hit children's centers. Fortunately, only one person was injured, a woman was injured, and one other person suffered severe shock and needed treatment. But that's three children's centers, and two of them were actually in the district of Hell. Kent Online reports. A fire's broken out close to the campaign headquarters of the Conservative election candidate in sitting born and sheppy. The blaze off church street in Milton Regis yesterday was initially thought to have been started on purpose. Police now say the cause is unexplained, but doesn't appear to be suspicious. A burglar has been jailed for a series of break-ins in wits to ball and on sheppy. Darren Rogers stole a scooter and a bank card belonging to a firefighter from She and S fire station in January. A day later, he broke into a house in minster with a 45-year-old who lives in Cavaway in sitting born, was also found in possession of jewellery taken from a burglary in Whitstable. He's been locked up for three years. A mum has criticized the county council as she's still being made to pay for her grieving daughter's school bus pass. Andrea Cassanathan says her 17-year-old daughter Holly only used the travel saver to attend Simon Langton Girls whose grandma had a handful of times before being signed off with mental health problems. She's been struggling to deal with the death of her dad and other close family members. Council bosses say they've already lowered the fee from £510 to £178 because of the circumstances. Now, with temperatures set to peak in the high twenties this week, we're being urged to do what we can to reduce the risk of grass and wildfires. Kent Fire and Rescue say in the hot dry weather fires can develop and spread quickly, having a devastating impact on the environment and local communities. The keyboard is from the service and says there are things we can all do to help out. During the summer months, the temperatures can cause the ground to be extremely dry, which increases the risk of grass and wildfires. So, we're just asking people to help us reduce those types of incidents. And there's several things people can do, so disposing of smoking materials responsibly, don't throw them on the ground, keeping barbecues well away from any greenery, any fence lines, any properties and making sure that they're cold. If they're a disposable barbecue, they're completely cold before they're disposed of in a bin and supervise any wildfires and barbecues that you have. And we're also asking really to avoid wildfires during the really dry hot periods, whether that we've got like at the moment today and this week. How quickly can something like that get out of control? Because one minute, I'm sure it can look perfectly calm and quite in control. And then the next minute, it spreads. Can it be as quick as that? It can, if the ground's very dry, it can spread very quickly. So, we're just asking that people never leave anything unattended. And always have a hose pipe closed by, always have a phone, so that you've got the means to call 999 if it does get out of control. Don't put yourself at risk, get yourself to a place of safety, call 999 and wait for us to come. I'm sure you remember a couple of years ago, the really, really hot temperatures, we had an awful lot of wildfires. And I remember at the time being told that some of those were actually started by discarded litter, is that a problem as well? So, most of the fires we attend are actually started accidentally. And that's why we're asking members of the public to help us reduce those risks. However, some do, unfortunately, get started deliberately. And we do work closely with our partners, including Kent Police, to tackle any fire-related crime. And we do campaigns such as this throughout the summer to try and educate people to help us. And of course, it's not just fires that you guys deal with. You do water rescues as well, and we had to press release through about the new kit that you've got. How important, especially when it's really hot, is staying safe around water at this time of year? Yeah, so during spells of warmer weather, I think it can be really tempting to try and cool off in rivers and lakes. But I think it's really important to remember that water is often deeper than it looks. It can have really strong hidden currents and hidden hazards underneath the surface. And so we're really asking people to be really careful. The temperature of the water can also be extremely cold compared to the air temperature. And this can cause cold water shock and increase the risk to people that are swimming in rivers and lakes. So we're asking people to be really safe around water if they get into difficulty to try to remain calm and shout for help. And ultimately, if you see anyone struggling in or around water, call 999999 and ask for the fire service. Kent Online reports. Now, as England get ready for their final group game at the Euros, the Kent Online podcast has been hearing how a charity is using football to help men with their mental health. Head in the game was set up in 2021 and has offered support to more than 600 men across the county through weekly group sessions. The idea is that playing together will help them open up about how they might be struggling. Lucy has been chatting to Mark Pinkney, who's the co-founder and CEO. We use sport as a way of getting people to talk about their mental health. But most importantly, improve what we call mental fitness. So encouraging people in sporting and a group environment to get out there and basically feel more confident about breaking the stigma of mental health and talking about how we actually really feel. And we've got the euros going on at the moment with a football fever across Kent. We're all getting behind England, even if their performances might not be the most inspiring. But how is that kind of helping build support for your project? And is it maybe making a lot of men maybe think that they might get involved? Definitely. Yeah. And one of the key things about our sessions is that it is open to anybody. So it's open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 65. It's mixed ability. So, you know, you don't need to be Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi to come to one of our sessions. A lot of our participants people want to kind of get back into the sport who maybe haven't played for a while. But yeah, certainly with the euros being on, we've seen certainly an upturn in the amount of people that are signing up for sessions, which is great and fantastic. And hopefully if England can make it through to maybe the quarterfinals or semi-finals, we would only hope that those numbers would continue to increase. And are your sessions just for men who are maybe thinking they're struggling with their mental health or is it really open to any men? It's open to anybody. It really is open to anybody. We don't have a stereotypical stereotypical participant or someone that we're looking for. And what we do usually say is that we are the earliest part of early intervention. Quite often people that come to our sessions, they've identified that maybe something isn't quite right with their mental health or might have been going for a period where they might have been struggling a little bit. To get an appointment with a doctor is quite hard at the moment, reports of three month waiting lists. And if you do get an appointment, it's quite often the one that's online so you don't actually get to sit down in front of your doctor. So we picture ourselves as an early intervention service where anyone can come along, don't need to have a mental health diagnosis, but quite often it's people who know that something's wrong, know that they need to talk to somebody. And heading again provides a really good bridge to actually maybe I'll give this a go first, because I might be able to improve my mental health. I come to these sessions before the need to go and see the doctor or talk to a primary care practitioner or someone. And I think we're talking more about men's mental health now than ever before, but I know there is still a bit of a stigma and maybe some men do find it hard to admit they're struggling. How can football be a way into kind of almost admitting that maybe you're not coping so well. So, you know, football is the world's most popular sport. It's a universal language. You know, you can go anywhere in the world with football when you know you could be America or Africa or Australia got a football under your arm. You start to kick about and, you know, people or men in particular will start to bond over that and I think I think it's so important using sport as a tool to start those difficult conversations. You know, there's been, there's been a lot of talk over the last sort of five or six years about mental health and mental health in particular, but we really want to channel that into some positive action. And I think that, you know, awareness campaigns, mental health awareness week times like that, you know, a very, very important, but it is about the action that comes next. The most important thing and using football as a vehicle to start those conversations is absolutely key because, you know, when we put a group of 30 men together for the first time. The thing they talk about the most is football, you know, they talk about who they support or they talk about, you know, maybe, you know, how their team got on at the weekend so it's a, it's a real, it's a real easy conversation starter. And, you know, having, having spent a few, a few hours in pubs talking to, you know, talking to men and watching football, it is that thing that's very easy to unite people to get those conversations started and once you start those conversations get someone infused in the sport talking about the sport, it's then that little bit easier to start to sort shoehorn the mental health conversation in and kind of, you know, once you, you know, once you start men talking and the summit we found once you start men talking is then very difficult to get them to stop. So men do want to talk, but they just don't always know the right place or the right space or find the right environment to actually start that conversation. A mate's no man who had a heart attack at the wheel says his life was saved by a good Samaritan. Glenn Smith crushed his car through railings and into a tree on a busy roundabout after losing consciousness at the junction of Sandling Road and Lower Boxley Road earlier this month. A 29-year-old chemotherapy nurse witnessed the crash and stopped to give life-saving first aid. Glenn is now recovering well. And firefighters have rescued a bull that got stuck in a ditch in Tombridge. Crews used a winch to hoist the animal to safety. It's believed to have taken them several hours. Ken's online sport. First up football and Gillingham have been handed a pretty tough draw in the EFL trophy. They're in Group D with defending champions Peterborough and League One's Stevenage. And under 21 team from a Premier League club will complete the group with games due to starting early September. And the League Two fixtures will be out tomorrow morning. You'll be able to plan your calendar as soon as they appear on Kent Online at 9am. The opening day of the season is Saturday, August the 10th. And in cricket, it's Day Three of Kent's Championship Game Against Lancashire at Canterbury. You can head to the sports pages on the website for score updates at the end of the day's play. That's all from us for today. Thanks ever so much for listening. Don't forget, you can follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and Threads. You can also get details on the top stories. Direct your email each morning via the briefing to sign up. Just head to kentonline.co.uk News you can trust. This is the Kent Online Podcast. [BLANK_AUDIO]
