Ventnor Blog

The results of the survey have now been released and the council meeting where the fate of the Island education system takes place in just over a weeks time (by the way, we will be reporting live from County Hall for those of you unable to attend in person that night, so make sure you stay tuned into VentnorBlog on the 19th).
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People across the Isle of Wight Have Voted Heavily in Favour of retaining schools within local communities.

People who responded to the Council’s questionnaire are this morning waking up to the realisation that their views are not being taken seriously as the council chooses to use their representations to press for a two tier system which under the Councils model will lead to the closure of many rural primary schools and the creation of much larger schools all round including 1800 place secondary schools that are almost twice the size of what are accepted as reasonable in most other local authorities.
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Of the 74 schools on the Isle of Wight, currently only 32 of them have School Travel Plans.

We noticed that a question had come up in Parliament yesterday in the written answer section, asked by Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet, Conservative),

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We’ve just had the very briefest view of the Council’s school results (for some reason the council PR staff didn’t give us the information in advance that they gave to other media sources) and frankly, we are pretty worried.

There’s an inconsistency in the number of questionnaires they say were distributed.
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The results of the schools survey has just been released on the EduWight website and as our mole indicated, option three was the most popular amongst the 3141 people who completed the schools survey.

With regards to the three options, the most popular appears to be option 3 with 58% of respondents choosing this option. Option 2 was the least preferred option with 11% of the respondents choosing this. Nine percent did not have any preference regarding these three options.

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We’ve had the wink on a completely unsubstantiated leak of which of the schools Option the council will be revealing at the ’some time after 6:30′ announcement today.

Our mole tells us that … (more…)

As we mentioned, we asked for a statement from David Pugh addressing the points made our ‘Loss Of £7m Govt Funding To Schools Not True‘ piece. The press office asked us to delay putting the piece out, while they prepared a statement “as quick as” they could. They got it to us a short while after we delayed the publishing.

It turns out that what sent us is pretty much what Duncan Smith at IW Radio had from David Pugh the previous night. Ho hum.
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Ask nearly anyone on the Isle of Wight who has been following the proposed mass closures of schools and it’s highly likely that they’ll tell you that they’ve been told that it’s down to the Government withdrawing £7-8 million from the Island, if the apparent surplus of school places isn’t reduced to 10%.
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Results from more than 3,000 questionnaires which formed part of an extensive Isle of Wight Council consultation on three options for the reorganisation of Island schools, will be published on 10 March. (more…)

With less than two weeks to go before the Isle of Wight Council make their decision on the school reforms, a mass march has been organised.

Being named the Wall of Protest, the march is planned to start in Church Litten, make it’s way through Newport, stopping at County Hall and then back to Church Litten where a rally will take place.

If you want to join in, meet in Church Litten at 10.30 as the march will commence at 11am sharp.

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OVER 3,000 questionnaires are now being independently evaluated ahead of next month’s crucial IW Council vote on the proposed education reforms. (more…)

Monday night the Ventnor Town Council agreed that it was not happy with the proposals put forward. It appreciates that there may have to be losses but expects to be fully consulted on all detail, including possible new uses for existing school facilities as community facilities. A two tier model was preferred in keeping all three primary schools, and giving the children an extra two years in primary.
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The motion put forward by Councillor Patrick Joyce at tonight’s full council meeting to abandon the proposed shakeup of the schools system was rejected by the council tonight.

26 councillors voted against the motion, but 16 were standing by Cllr Joyce and joined him in the vote.

A full list of how your councillor voted can be found on the live coverage posting.

This posting will be updated regularly as the latest news comes in from County Hall. Please refresh your page to view updates.

17:45 Walked through a couple of police waiting outside County hall.
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Don’t forget that we’ll be providing live coverage of the full council meeting at County Hall tonight where schools reforms and ferry fares will be discussed.

It looks set to be one of the most interesting council meetings of the year so far, with Patrick Joyce’s motion for the council to abandon it’s current schools proposals. (more…)

A new petition came to our attention yesterday that may be of interest to some of our readers.

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.
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Tonight the Isle of Wight Association of Local Councils voted to oppose the proposed school closures.

The motion, “We call upon members of all the IW local councils to vote against all three options and to halt the current consultation process,” was passed.

Of those present, the vote was 13 for the motion and six voted against.
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This month’s full council meeting (on Wednesday) looks likely to be one of particular interest to many of our readers.

As you may have previously heard, Cllr Patrick Joyce has put forward a motion for the council to abandon it’s current schools proposals.
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Alan Wells confirmed today on the Alex Dyke phone-in, that each and every person on the Wight is entitled to complete a questionnaire relating to the proposed school changes.

This is contrary to the rumours flying around that only one questionnaire per household would be considered.

He did go on to state that when there are multiple entries for households, that these would be …..
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The IW Council is reminding Island residents that they have until Friday 22nd February to fill in the questionnaire about the options for change to the Island’s education system. (more…)

It’s not surprising that it appears that there’s some movement in the council’s position on the proposed schools closures - there’s a meeting next Tuesday at County Hall where those councillors against the school reforms are attempting to stop the changes.

The front page of the CP has an article implying that there’s still time for negotiation in the proposed school closures.
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Chris Welsford from Standards Not Tiers will be on the IW radio phone in today from noon (that’s now!).

Alex Dyke is not in the studio today, so Chris has Ian Mac as host. For more info about Standards-Not-Tiers and their stance on the proposed schools reforms, pop over to their website.

Joining them is David Whistance from Yarmouth.

Many thanks to Melanie Swan for sending through the news last night. Ed

In response to a letter from the Isle of Wight Association of Local Councils to Parish and Town Councils, the Newport Town Management Committee passed the following motion at its meeting on Monday 11th February : (more…)

Last night Ventnor Town Council voted to reject all three current proposed education reforms, following a letter Secretary of the Isle of Wight Association of Local Councils.

Rejection was proposed by Steve Milford and seconded in quick succession by Val Taylor.

VTC decided not to write to the council to just say “No,” as they wanted to provide a brief outline of what they would like to see. They plan to write this following a meeting of the IW Association of Local Councils on 18 March.

Similar actions have taken place at other town councils, with Newport & St Helen’s reporting the same.

Thanks to Melanie Swan for sending through this press release which has just been issued. We’re sure that our readers will be very interested to read the following. Ed

Today, Monday, Councillors confirmed that Members, from all political parties, are supporting a motion put forward by Councillor Patrick Joyce last Friday.

The Motion, to be debated at next week’s Full Council, is intended to halt the controversial and divisive education consultation, in which all Options put forward by the Council involve mass school closures.
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