Author: Sal
Schools Minister Sees No Justification For Widescale Closures
Wednesday, 30th January, 2008 at 8:52 pm, Isle of Wight
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.
It will be very interesting to see how the Council respond to this statement from the Schools Minister.
If you did miss the piece on TV, fear not, thanks to the power of Internet, you can watch it again online.
Follow this link to watch the video piece. Click on “Close threat school gets £1 million” in the right hand bar.
Many thanks to Wendy for the heads up and SaveIOWSchools for a better link to the video.
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January 30th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I’ve just realised that it was the lead item, so there’s even more if you watch the whole of South Today online from the start! The whole programme remains online till tomorrow evening’s show, I think (ie until Thursday eve).
January 31st, 2008 at 3:57 pm
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February 1st, 2008 at 12:23 am
1.Are the staff and, particularly the head teachers, not allowed to comment on the proposals, is there some sort of official secrets policy regarding their views?
I would be very interested to hear from them about ideas to move forward, like federations or campuses.
It seems to me they would be very well informed and likely to be eloquent, pertinent and incisive.
2.The minister for schools said there is a presumption AGAINST closing rural schools and asked the IW council to think very carefully…
3. I think small local schools produce free range organic children and we need more of them, not less, for a healthy society in future.