Councillor Alan Wells will be on the Phone-In Again Tomorrow (Thursday 3rd July).

Tune in to Isle of Wight Radio at 12pm.

The phone number to call in is 822002.

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

Download the Press Release.

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.

Statutory Consultation on Education Reform starts this week.

In addition to meetings at every Island school, beginning with those to be closed, amalgamated or federated, there is a series of meetings for parents to get information from officers and make representations about the shake-up.

The formal consultation period begins on Monday 23 June and lasts until Friday 26 September at 5pm. Representations can be made in writing to Alex Moffat, School Reorganisation Project Manager, Isle of Wight Council, County Hall, Newport, PO30 1UD or via email to moving.forward@iow.gov.uk

Meeting Dates and Locations

• Tuesday, June 24, 6.30-8pm, Cowes High School (for parents of Solent Middle, Somerton Middle and Cowes High students.
• Thursday, June 26, 6.30-8pm, Sandown High (Lake Middle, Forelands Middle, Sandham Middle, Sandown High).
• Friday, June 27, 6.30pm-8pm, Osborne Middle (East Cowes Primary, Whippingham Primary, Osborne Middle).
• Wednesday, July 2, 6.30-8pm, meetings at Chale, St Helens and Weston primary schools
• Thursday, July 3, 7-9pm, Cowes Yacht Haven public meeting.
  
• Wednesday, July 9, 6.30-8pm, Carisbrooke High School (West Wight Middle, Nodehill Middle, Carisbrooke High).
  
• Wednesday, July 9, 6.30-8pm, Medina High School (Downside Middle, Kitbridge Middle, Medina High).
  
• Thursday, July 10, 7-9pm, Cowes Yacht Haven public meeting.
• Wednesday, July 16, 6.30-8pm, Ryde High School (Bishop Lovett Middle, Mayfield Middle, Swanmore Middle, Ryde High).
  
• Monday, July 21, 6.30-8pm, Ventnor Middle (Wroxall Primary, Chillerton and Rookley Primary, Godshill Primary, Ventnor Middle).

Presumably there are more meetings to come as some areas such as Sandown Bay seem to have been missed out.

For more details, view the Eduwight website.

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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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.

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.

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.