SOS - Save Our Schools!

No mandate! It’s Official. School Reorganisation Plans are Un-Democratic.

Standards-Not-Tiers Press Release - 1st July 2008

Standards Not Tiers have welcomed a statement made by David Pugh on behalf of the Isle of Wight Conservative Association that effectively shelves the current formal consultation embarked on by the Council last month.

Chairman of Standards-Not-Tiers Chris Welsford said “whilst we are pleased that Mr Pugh accepts that we need to put this to the people, nobody should forget how much time, money and more importantly goodwill of teachers and parents has been squandered since he took office in September 2007. Having wasted all the good work done by officers and the Children’s Commission during the three years following the 2005 election, he is now being forced to climb down. Would the Conservatives have made this decision had it not been for the pressure that we and others exerted in respect of their broken election promise? We also need to keep in mind the effect on all of us, parents, teachers, ancillary staff and children, of the radical proposals that were made in January and the subsequent farce of a consultation that followed. They are only doing this now because they are under pressure to win the next election. What David Pugh and Alan Wells have demonstrated is how powerful politicians are and how easily their poorly thought out plans can make a misery of the lives of ordinary people”.

Standards-Not-Tiers made a pledge in January that it would field candidates at the next council elections in 2009. Following a meeting of potential candidates in May, it was decided that supporters of the group would stand as independent candidates. At that meeting it was established that there were sufficient potential candidates to take a majority at the next election and that whilst Education would be the central plank of their combined thinking, democracy and fairness would be the group’s main theme, as a contrast to the selfish and dictatorial stance adopted by the current Tory Group.

Debbie Hart, a member of the SNT Executive said: “This is all about Democracy. We would like to hear from others who are unhappy with this administration and who would like to see a non-party political approach to local government on the Island. We would like to encourage people who would be prepared to step forward as independent councillors and promote the virtues of conscience and principle in local government.”

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As the Isle of Wight Conservative Councillors Group announce plans to shelve controversial education changes until after the next election, a dissident former Conservative Councillor described the new proposals as hypocritical plans hatched in desperation.

“I could hardly believe what I heard. David Pugh’s leadership has already subjected the Island to unprecedented levels of misery and uncertainty because of one ‘about turn’ on policy. Now he announces another one! This Council should have been investing its efforts in improving education on the Island in order to make a proper evaluation of what changes, if any, were needed. That was what we said we would do in the last election. Instead, the current administration caused widespread worry and confusion by dragging the Island through a back-to-front process, ending up where it should have started – asking people what they actually want!

“The people of the Isle of Wight have already seen the current leadership reneging on Manifesto commitments. How can anyone trust promises made by people who seem to change their minds depending on which way they think the wind’s blowing! Looking at the record since David Pugh seized power, I’m not persuaded by this sudden change of heart and will be standing as an Independent candidate in the next Council election. However, I continue to be a committed supporter of our excellent MP, Andrew Turner, who has always shown real integrity and commitment to the Island whether in the education or any other debate.”

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Stop the Press!

Please find attached a statement from David Pugh and the Conservative Association regarding the 2009 election.

Download the Press Release.

I thought I’d make a post on these 2 important comments that have been made on the site recently:

Caroline Diamond:-

“A few months ago thousands of us stood outside County Hall to protest at IW Council’s ludicrous decision to close our succesful primary schools. It now appears that many people think that the future is ‘written in stone’ and yet the council’s formal consultation period has only just started! Let us remember that closing a school is a long and complex process and we can still save our schools from closure if we want to.

I am a parent of a child at St Helens Primary School which is one of the three set to close completely. At the moment the majority of our children walk to school. The Council wants to create an Eco Island and yet bus fares from St Helens to Forelands have recently doubled over night and our Primary School children will now be faced with a bus or car journey to Nettlestone or Bembridge. We have set up an organisation called the PCCA (Parents’ and Children’s Community Association) and our aim is to do everything we can to save our school and to ensure that our village remains as a community and not just a holiday home shell with no school, no shops and no residents in the winter.

If anyone would like more details about what we are doing or has a similar group or simply has equally strong views about school reorganisation please email me on eastwight@tiscali.co.uk. Let’s not be steamrollered along in a process which, I believe, many of us do not want and will not lead to an improvement in GCSE and ‘A’ Level results in the long term.“

Danny:-

“This is a plea to anyone still reading this site:

Firstly read the most recent posts on Have Your Say.

Secondly as Caroline says on post 634 on this page now is when formal consultation begins. They may try and tell us reorganisation is set in stone but I too, like Karen above, was at the Solent meeting this afternoon and the LA officers can still offer no explanation as to how anything they are planning will raise standards. It was also abundantly clear that they still have very little vision or clear ideas of how the reorganisation will be managed or suuccessfully take place.

**It was also said that if enough representations are made now so that the majority view is not to go ahead with reorganisation they would not be able to.**

This is important - if you feel strongly about the furure of your childrens education you must put your feelings across in writing or email to Alex Moffat.

Come on all of you who were so keen to protest before - we really need you all now !“

Of course they comments are the views and opinions of the original authors, and are not necessarily the views of this website. Content Disclaimer.

“Broken Isle of Wight Tory Election Manifesto Promises on Schools a Betrayal of Island Hopes for Small Schools”.

Standards-Not-Tiers Press Release - 4th June 2008

SNT has today expressed dismay at last night’s decision by the Isle of Wight Council’s Conservative Cabinet, to close 19 Island schools and move forward with plans to create bigger primary schools and continue with secondary schools that already have some of the largest GCSE year groups in England.

Previously, SNT had urged the Isle of Wight Council to abandon its rigid single age teaching policy and look at federated structures and the merits of small schools as the way forward under the new plan. The group feels that the council are not interested in considering these ideas.

SNT understands that the Isle of Wight Council have turned down an invitation to attend a seminar next week to be held at the House of Commons by the National Association for Small Schools where presentations are to be made by some of the smallest and most successful schools in the UK. Standards-Not-Tiers, who will be attending the seminar, feel that this is an opportunity missed by the council, to learn more about how small schools can be highly successful.

Representatives of Shropshire and Hereford & Worcester Councils, who earlier this year bowed to public pressure and shelved plans to close small school in their areas, are attending the event.

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Top Island politicians have agreed to axe 34 schools on the Isle of Wight.

Their decision will now go out to another consultation with governors, teachers, parents and pupils.

At last night’s meeting (Tuesday) top Tory councillors agreed to the closure of three primaries and sixteen middle schools. It’s part of the move to a two-tier system here. Fifteen other schools are set to amalgamate or relocate onto other sites.

Consultation will now take place on a school-by-school basis, which will last until September. There will also be a series of information / consultation meetings this month and next. Town and Parish Councils will also have to be consulted.

The decision was made despite opposition from the Island’s Liberal Democrats and Labour.

Courtesy of Isle of Wight Radio News.

With the media saying that only 3 schools will be closed in the school reorganisation proposals, Councillor Geoff Lumley makes his own opinion on these figures:

Looking at the overall plans there is massive spin associated with their publication. There are currently 67 schools on the IW, not including the two special schools. That is a figure easily researched. 46 are primary and there will be 38 after reorganisation. That’s 8 less. Plus 16 middle schools closing, makes 24 closures. A couple of new schools in the long distant future - at Pan and West Wight - makes a net figure of 22 school closures. It’s still carnage in my view.

He also goes into further depth about Downside school in Pan. You can read the full article on his blog.

Press Release on Behalf of the Non-Aligned-Group (NAG) - 25th May 2008

Councillors were invited to attend a briefing on the latest stage of education proposals on Thursday 22nd May.

“One of the key assurances to the public has been that money from the sale of school property would be ‘ring fenced’ for re-investment in education, said Councillor Melanie Swan who attended the briefing. “This appeared to be a dangerous promise because I couldn’t see how the current Administration could guarantee it in the face of an unknown future. I specifically asked the Director whether it was possible to ‘ring fence’ these monies, throughout the changes, given that there will be a new administration in a year’s time; he conceded that it wasn’t. Up to now, people have found a small crumb of comfort in this sorry process, in believing that money from school or land sales would be re-invested in education. This is likely to be another example of people feeling let down by this Leadership” she said after the meeting.

“The subject of re-investment is bound to come up in the coming consultations so I asked whether people would be told that this so-called ‘commitment’ would only last for the one remaining year that this administration has left. The Director said that giving people this information would be a ‘political’ decision. In other words, Officers can tell people that the money is ‘ring-fenced’ and politicians will decide whether to tell them that this is only guaranteed for a year!

Can we trust them to do this?  Councillor Wells didn’t even attend the briefing! How much trust do Islanders have left for a Leadership with such a trail of broken promises?”

You can download the press release here.

The official report has just been published. Click here to download the official report.

We have also learnt that a PowerPoint Presentation shown to all Council Members has been leaked onto the internet, although we have not yet found it online.

Update: Click here to download the leaked presentation.

Unison representative Mark Chiverton said:

“There is immense uncertainty, confusion and unhappiness among middle school staff in particular, but in all sectors and all schools facing closure.

I certainly will be pushing very hard over the next few weeks and months to ensure that matters are dealt with as quickly as possible but also with a view to ensuring job protection.”

Please click to read the rest of this entry for the breakdown of school changes by area.

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Following the decision on 19 March to adopt a two-tier structure, which was followed by area by area meetings involving headteachers, governors and pre-school leaders, Isle of Wight Council’s final proposals for reorganisation to raise education standards have now been prepared. They will be displayed here after 3.30pm today (Friday 23 May) and a decision will be made to consult on the proposals at the council’s Cabinet meeting on 3 June.

The documents show many more school sites being put forward for use than under any of the three options consulted on earlier this year. The new proposals, which follow an extensive review of the representations made during the consultation period, show the structure would comprise of six secondary schools and 37 primary schools.

Of the 37 primary schools, 22 will remain on their current sites, 14 will use either existing primary and middle school sites, and a brand new primary will be built on the existing Downside Middle School site in Newport. Full details regarding school amalgamations and relocations will be contained in the final proposals.

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The IW Councillor for Pan, Geoff Lumley, has learnt that the IW Council intends to close Downside Middle School in 3 years time as part of its ‘education reorganisation’.

This is the first inkling throughout the last 4 months that there would be no school on the Downside site, and Cllr Lumley is both shocked and angry.

Consequently he is now calling for a halt to the proposed Pan development - due for a planning application submission in July - until the Pan community has a satisfactory and acceptable explanation as to why there has been such a sudden and surprising change in Council policy.

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Those of you who signed one of the petitions on the Downing Street petitions website will have received an email containing the Downing Street’s response to it:

You have petitioned for a review of the Isle of Wight’s proposals for changes to local school organisation and to provide for an option to be considered whereby the current system can be retained but standards raised.

First, it is important to note that school place planning is the statutory responsibility of the local authority (LA). It is for each LA to review school place provision regularly to ensure that there are sufficient places to meet the needs of the population and to secure high standards. The local authority also needs to consider how best to implement the changes to the 14-19 curriculum, which will become a national entitlement from 2013. Where the LA propose to make any changes to local school provision they must publish statutory proposals which are decided under local decision making arrangements and Ministers cannot intervene.

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