SOS - Save Our Schools!

Maps showing where Island school children live have been removed from the Isle of Wight Council’s website.

The maps of the Island were put on the Council’s EduWight website, showing how far pupils at each school here must travel.

To quote Isle of Wight Radio News - “The Isle of Wight Council admits that maps showing the distances pupil travel to and from school could have made it possible for sex predators to locate their exact address.”

See the full story at Isle of Wight Radio.

Thank you for your email dated 07 February 2008 about Secondary and 16-18 Performance Tables.I can confirm that the Isle of Wight is the 7th best performing Local Authority based on their sustained improvement at 5+ A*-C inc. English and Maths since 2004 with an improvement of 9.6 percentage points.Based on the same measure of 5+ A*-C in any subjects, the Isle of Wight are the 67th most improved LA with a sustained improvement of 8.3 percentage points. I have attached the full list of LAs for info.

Response from DCSF (Department for Children Schools & Families)

Click here to download the Excel Spreadsheet sent from the DCSF.

Standards-Not-Tiers Press Release - 28th February 2008

Key Stage Three results released today by the DCSF show that the Isle of Wight delivered results above the England Average in all three subjects – English, Maths and Science - at this crucial stage in 2007. This is a significant improvement on the 2006 figures and is partly a result of the implementation of the new condensed Key Stage Three regime, in which many pupils took the tests a year early in Year 8 of middle school.

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In the latest Isle of Wight Council Press Release, Gurnard and Cowes Primary Schools have been nominated to become leading “local food schools” in the south.

Congratulations to everybody at these schools, but sadly Gurnard is set to close under all 3 options, and Cowes is set to close under Option 2. It is a shame that the Council has proposed for excellent schools within the community such as these to be closed.

Could all Area Co-ordinators please contact me using the form on the Contact Page or by emailing us at info@saveiowschools.co.uk. We require teams of people in each area for an exciting activity - email for more info.

If you don’t see anyone listed on the Area Co-ordinators page for your area and wish to take part, then please contact me to become the co-ordinator for your area. There is no commitment involved, you will just require a little spare time!

Here is a copy of Jim Knight’s statement on the Government’s policy on closing rural schools.

Dated 31st January 2008.

Click here to view it in PDF format.

Standards-Not-Tiers Press Release (2) - 25th February 2008

David Pugh stated on Isle of Wight Radio yesterday (26/02/08) that standards are not rising fast enough on the Isle of Wight and that only by reorganising can we change this.

Research shows that the Isle of Wight is the 9th most improved Local Authority in England for its GCSE results in 2007 (5+ A*-C inc E&M) which demonstrates that it is heading in the right direction, not merely “coasting”.

Standards-Not-Tiers acknowledges that standards must improve, but unlike the Council we would argue that being ranked 9th in the country for sustained improvement in the number of students gaining five or more A* - C grades including English and Maths over the last three years together with the achievement of being one of only 5 Authorities to have no schools achieving less than 39% in the 2007 GCSE A*-C including English and Maths is significant and demonstrates that our current three tier system is capable of delivering the necessary improvements to educational standards on the Isle of Wight.

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Standards-Not-Tiers Press Release - 25th February 2008

David Pugh stated on Isle of Wight Radio today (News 06:30) that he finds little to be happy about in the fact that Isle of Wight High Schools are collectively one of only 5 Authorities to have no schools achieving less than 39% in the 2007 GCSE A*-C including English and Maths. Standards Not Tiers believes that Cllr Pugh has misunderstood the significance of this data.

Whilst we acknowledge that our average score is itself by no means excellent, the range of scores is excellent and particularly so when we look at the actual make up of the other authorities that we are compared with; in particular the sizes of the schools involved, their funding status and in many cases quasi or actual selection processes that they employ.

All Isle of Wight schools included in the data are non selective community comprehensive schools many drawing pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and less well off families.

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Councillors David Pugh and Alan Wells are on the Phone-In Again Today (Tuesday 26th Feb).

Tune in to Isle of Wight Radio at 12pm.

The phone number to call in is 822002.

This has just come in from Wendy:

Check this out in today’s Guardian. The Isle of Wight is one of only 14 (it says 15 but I checked and it’s actually 14) local authorities that has NO low-performing secondary schools at GCSE (ie below the government’s baseline of 30% of pupils achieving 5+ A-C including English and Maths).
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schooltables/page/0,,2259734,00.html

Looking at the authorities without any low-performing schools, you can see what their lowest-achieving school in 2007 is (access to tables is here):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/league_tables/default.stm

Local authority (% of 5+ A-C including E&M at their lowest achieving secondary school, 2007) Isle of Scilly (65%; only has one secondary school) Rutland (54%) Kensington & Chelsea (43%) Isle of Wight (39%) Luton (37%) Redbridge (37%) Hammersmith & Fulham (36%) Windsor & Maidenhead (35%) Wokingham (34%) Stockport (33%) Leicestershire (31%) Camden (31%) Cornwall (30%) City of London (no state secondary schools).

Which supports what I’ve always said: much as we should look to raise achievement on the Island, we should also realise how fortunate we are not to have any poorly-performing high schools. Credit where credit’s due. I wonder if the council will issue a press release about being in the top 14 LAs in the country in this regard?

For more information and a Standards-Not-Tiers Press Release, click to read more.

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A local action group have started a petition to request a governmental enquiry into the consultation process carried out by the Isle of Wight Council over education reform.

A small group of concerned parents have started an online petition requesting the Prime Minister conduct a review of the Isle of Wight Council’s proposals for education reform, with a view to allowing standards to be raised WITHIN the existing system of education.

The petition has been raised in order to attempt to force an inquiry into the way the council have carried out the consultation process.

It draws attention to the fact that the consultative questionnaire provided the opportunity for respondents to only vote for one of three proposed options, all of which would mean large numbers of school closures.

The petition requests that a further consultation be carried out, which would allow for an opportunity to improve the standards of education within the current system, which it is felt is generally currently providing good levels of attainment for under 13 year olds.

This is not a petition to save any particular school, but rather to force an inquiry into the way the consultation has been carried out.

The petition is available at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SaveSchools/ and has been well received, with local councillors signing up.

IWSSCA (IW Schools Sanity-Check Amendment) has launched a campaign to ensure that we do not commit too early to educational changes that may not deliver the sought improvement in standards.

The launch follows a brief teaser programme to engage IW councillors. This commenced with a psychologically challenging email entitled “Wisdom bounds over Pavlov’s dog”, eluding to the fact that councillors are encouraging to make their own evidence-based judgement and not just raise their arm when they hear an officer’s recommendation in a council paper.

The areas of concern include the lack of programmed details of the other measures necessary to raise standards. Also, programme duration, funding, transitional arrangements, and contingency arrangements are not yet available. It is very important that any structure decision should not be construed as supporting the closure of any individual school.

A spokesperson for the movement said “There are so many unanswered questions that we are not at the stage for the full council to make a final decision. It may be valid for councillors to ask officers to concentrate on one structure, but any final go-ahead decision needs to be made by the full council once a credible programme has been planned.”

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