Ventnor Blog

Don’t forget that there is a Save Our Schools march planned for 2.30pm in Shanklin tomorrow. Read below for new information regarding marching in silence.

Organisers have asked that anyone hoping to attend take banners and placards if they can.

Assemble in the car park of Shanklin Train Station from 2pm, the march will depart at 2.30pm, heading along Regent Street - which is the main thoroughfare and shopping area - encircling the Conservative Club, returning along the same route and briefly stopping off via Clarendon Road, finishing at the Train Station.
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Under the Drive to Survive Campaign, tomorrow (Thursday) you will need to drive to the school where your child may be moved under option 2.

If you’re unclear of what you need to do, here are the details again …. (more…)

EVERY penny raised through the proposed re-organisation of the Island’s education system will be spent on Island children, IW Council leader David Pugh has stressed. (more…)

Here’s an interview that we recorded last week with Katie, one of the people behind the Drive To Survive idea starting tomorrow.

The idea is show how much more traffic would be generated if pupils are forced to travel to a school located away from where they live.

If there is more traffic, then it’s not only the parents taking their children to school that will be affected, but anyone else using the Island roads at school start or picking up time.

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Press Release From Standards Not Tiers

Pressure group Standards-Not-Tiers have been provided with a DCSF (Department of Children, Schools & Families) statement that shows that the Isle of Council’s claim that they are facing a £7m budget shortfall this year is not correct.

The statement, made by a senior civil servant at the DCSF, which has been published on the group’s website states:
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It is with great regret to say that the audio file of Steve Beynon’s presentation has corrupted (arrghh) and is unable to use. We will endeavour to record it again at one of the next couple of public consultation meetings and will put it out on VB as soon as we can.

In the meantime, David Pugh’s recording is still in tact and follows now.

Councillor Pugh started his presentation by stating that …
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Don’t forget that tomorrow sees the starts of the Drive to Survive campaign.

The idea behind the scheme is to show how congested roads will become should any of the three schools reforms options go ahead.

On Wednesday, organisers are asking parents to follow this routine:

1. Drop your kiddie winkles off at school as you would normally.
2. Get in your car and drive to the school that you would have to, if Option 1 were to come into place.
3. Park your car near that school and walk to that school’s gates, as you would if your child were going to that school.
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We attended the public consultation meeting in a very packed assembly hall last Monday at Ventnor Middle School.

As some people were turned away due to limitations on capacity, we thought it would be useful to broadcast the presentations from the evening. We’ve broken them down in three parts. The first features Alan Wells who you may’ve heard on the IW Radio phone-in several times over the last few weeks.
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Don’t forget that tonight is the chance for those in the area of Sandown Hig School to attend the School Reorganisation Public Meeting.

Councillors David Pugh, Alan Wells and Director of Childrens Services, Steve Beynon will be in attendance, presenting their proposals for the schools shake up.

For those unable to attend, we’re hoping to put out an audio recording of the meeting held in Ventnor last week which will feature the presentations by the three above.

The fun kicks off at 7pm and runs until 9pm.

We see on the Save IOW Schools website today that another schools rally is planned for this coming Saturday.

It take place in Shanklin, David Pugh’s ward and you can check their website for all the details of where the rally will march.

Organisers are hopeful that this rally will attract twice as many people as the last one in Newport and are urging protesters to bring banners and have the kids dressed in school uniform.
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We were contacted last week by a collection of parents - organising under the banner Drive To Survive - who were concerned at the practicalities of living with the proposed changes to the school system on the Island, in particular the impact of having to get children to new schools.

Their idea, to give parents - and importantly those who do not have children at school on the Island - a view of how the changes will effect Islanders lives, with the inevitable rise in cars on the Island roads, if half of the primary schools are closed, and people have to get their little ones to the new, further-away schools.

To give a taste of how it would lengthen drive times, their idea is for parents to act as if the proposed changes have occurred, driving their cars to what would be the new schools.

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Listen to the final of the Vox Pops from the Save Our School rally held in Newport last Saturday.

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This just in from the council in reply to our query, following a comment by Chris Welsford on the story covering the letter from the IW Council to the Government.

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Yes folks, they’re back in the IW Radio studio and contactable on 822002.

If you want to ask any questions about the claims from Schools Minister Jim Knight (as highlighted earlier in the week) that the Council’s proposed closures are unjustified, now is your chance.

Call the phone-in on 822002

Two more vox pops after the click from those at the Save Our Schools Rally held last week. (more…)

As you’ll be aware. there’s been some confusion on the Island as to who is asking for the changes to the school system.

Here’s the latest episode. IW Council have written to Lord Adonis, Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Schools and Learners. The letter in full is below.
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All those in the Medina locale, don’t forget that tonight is your chance to go along and question David Pugh, Steve Beynon and Alan Wells on the proposed changes to the schools system on the Wight.

As with all the previous meetings it kicks off at 7pm and lasts about 2 hours.
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Next up, another two vox pops we gathered from the crowds of protesters at the rally to Save Our Schools which tok place last Saturday in Newport.

The rally was organised by Alex Dyke, who has since had Alan Wells, David Pugh and Steve Beynon on the phone-in.
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Several groups opposed to the proposed schools reforms have created an online petition calling for the council to rethunk their strategy.

Any members of the public who are against the proposals to close at least 23 schools are invited to add their names to the petition. (more…)

If like us, you don’t watch TV, you will have missed the local news bulletin on the BBC tonight.

The piece starts with a visit to St George’s in Arreton, where £1m has just been spent improving the school premises. However, under the proposed closures, this is one of the schools due to be closed.

It’s what follows this part of the report is even more interesting. Schools Minster, Jim Knight, stated on camera that he is alarmed that some councils, such as the IOW, have been proposing widescale closures of small rural schools for which he can see no justification and is asking them to think again. (more…)

Thanks to Standards not Tiers and SaveIOWSchools for pointing out a news piece on the BBC News site.

The thrust of the article is that the government is warning local authorities that “by law, they should not be closing rural schools.”

They report that due to lobbying at a national level to protect small schools (primarily by National Association for Small Schools we assume), the government is currently drafting a letter to send to local councils.

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As promised we have more vox pops from the Save Our Schools demo that took place outside County Hall on Saturday morning.

We asked the question “What does the proposed school closures mean to you?”

Every day this week, we’ll be bringing you more vox pops from the people.

Chale:

St John’s CofE, Sandown:

Leader of the Council David Pugh and Director of Children’s Services, Steve Beynon will be on the Alex Dyke Phone In today between noon and 1pm to answer questions from the public on the subject of the proposed schools closures.

If you’ve attended one of the public meetings where the questions were, in my opinion, well fielded, and didn’t get a chance to ask a question, now is your opportunity.

Tune your radio into 102 or 107fm and call Alex on 822002 between noon and 1pm. Thanks to Wendy for the heads up.

The public meeting held at Ventnor Middle School was extremely well attended tonight with over 330 people packed into the assembly hall. There were concerned parents, pupils and residents from Ventnor, Wroxall, Niton, Chale and Godshill.

Presentations were given by Steve Beynon, Alan Wells and David Pugh. This was followed by questions from the floor, of which there were many.

We managed to record most of the evening and will be sifting through those recordings tomorrow to bring you more.

As we reported at the weekend, there was tremendous support for the Save Our Schools Campaign on Saturday, with the police estimating almost 2,000 people attending.