Comments on: Option 4 Announced

By: gill

gill — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:57:47 +0000

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON WE NEED THIS PROTEST MARCH MORE NOW THAN EVER

By: Stanley Dards

Stanley Dards — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:58:23 +0000

Will pleasing most people improve standards?

If it was a close result, would we then be arguing over the fact that our older children did not have a vote, or that the low turnout wrongly favoured one camp?

If only 3000 questionnaires were returned (from 18000 children, then their parents etc.) what turnout would be expected when you could not vote on-line, and had to physically vote on a certain day?

Personally I think it should be either ‘no structure change’ or ‘option 3 but with very few closures except where whole schools (teachers & children)move to vacated middle school sites’. The choice between those two being made be well informed teachers etc.

Hopefully the cllrs will act as their proxies.

By: Danny

Danny — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:13:01 +0000

I completely agree that a referendum is what is needed and would be the fairest way to please most people. I personally strongly believe in the ideals behind a middle school system which enables children to gradually ease from one way of learning to another. They gradually change from the primary approach of themed teaching in a class with one teacher to the subject compartmentalised approach of high school, where they can be taught by up to 10 teachers in 10 different classes. At an age where children are coping with physical and emotional changes, I believe a middle school, which is smaller offers more support and understanding. There is also the advantage for our 9-11 year olds to benefit from specialist teaching rooms such as science labs and music rooms. The evidenc from recent statistics shows that improvement is well under way within the present system and this should be allowed to continue. Keeping with the present structure will also be much less disruptive than reorganising schools to accommodate the two tier system.
However I do understand that many people have equally strong beliefs in a two tier system and a decision, involving the people of the island should be made to end the stress of all this uncertainty once and for all.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:46:59 +0000

I thought that lots of people wanted option 4 to be - improve the results within the current system, keeping Year 9 in the High School and the Key Stage 3 tests in the Middle School.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:08:50 +0000

Will the referendum only have two options?

(May not cover the previous proposal to have 4-14 Community Learning Centres - i.e. combined Primary & Middle Schools - BAD idea IMHO)