A rallying call has been made to parents to help take a campaign for a new secondary school “to the next level” after two well-attended public meetings.

The meetings, organised at different times on the same day by Support Weald Schooling campaigners, were held in the Vestry Hall in Cranbrook.

Cranbrook and its surrounding villages have a grammar school in the form of Cranbrook School, but since the closure of the High Weald Academy in 2022, there is no non-selective secondary school for a distance of at least 10 miles.

The area’s children are forced to undertake long car or bus journeys every day to either Mascalls in Paddock Wood (11.4 miles away), Homewood in Tenterden (10 miles), Cornwallis in Maidstone (10.9 miles) or Uplands in Wadhurst (12 miles).

Even the Department for Education has labelled the area an “education cold spot”.

David Selby from Support Weald Schooling said: “Our campaign to date has focused on families with children at primary school who stand to benefit if we are successful in restoring a non-selective secondary school to the Weald.

“But now we want to expand to reach those families whose children are already travelling a distance to secondary school.

“We want to learn more about their experience on the school bus, how they manage their friendship groups spread across a wide area and any other impact on their learning, mental health and family life from attending school so far from home.

“These long journeys to and from school by bus have a personal as well as financial cost - as emerged in some of the worrying accounts related at the meetings.”

Parents are being invited to share their story by emailing info@supportwealdschooling.co.uk as soon as possible, including their first name, postcode, child’s school and year group and any concerns regarding such matters as travel, safety and mental health of their children.

More than 120 people attended the meetings.

Mr Selby said: “The public meetings showed very clearly that we have a strong case and we are determined to succeed.

“We now need the local community to really get behind our effort by sharing their experiences and ideas to take things to the next level.”

There is also an online petition to sign, calling for the return of a Weald non-selective school.

It can be found here.

So far more than almost 1,300 have signed.

Within a seven-mile radius of Cranbrook there are 21 primary schools, which between them produce more than 500 children each September looking for a secondary school place.