Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

A VB reader contacted us this morning to let us know that at a meeting at Cowes High School today the staff were told that ten jobs would be lost by the end of the year.

We are in the process of checking this with the Isle of Wight council.

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A consultation on the hard federation of Chillerton & Rookley, Godshill and Wroxall primaries is now in full swing, with public a meeting arranged near the end of the month.

Under the proposed changes to the schools system, the hard federation will mean that the three primary schools will be run under a single governing body.

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Following a resolution at last week’s Cabinet meeting, we learnt that new schools’ Project Director at the Isle of Wight Council, Janet Newton, will make the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding bid by the end of January.

Questions have in the past been posed as to whether the monies will be available from central Government to fund the alteration to school buildings that would be needed to implement the Isle of Wight Council’s reorganisation of the Island’s schools.

One of the main question marks was over the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding and if the current government would continue to fund BSF.

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Regular readers will remember that in October last year, Chale School were given a last chance to try to save their school from closure (as a result of the massive school reorganisation).

The Isle of Wight Council permitted them a two month period to put together a proposal for federation.

As many readers will be aware, the village have been battling hard to save their primary school, which they say will rip the heart out of the community if it is lost.

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IW Radio report this morning that national teachers’ union, the NASUWT, is criticising the Isle of Wight Council for their proposed changes to the education system on the Isle of Wight.

They tell us that the union say proposed changes are ‘disorganised and lacking in detail’, and the union ‘questions whether the reorganisation will improve standards’.

Consultation for the change from three to two tiers took place in 2007, seeing thousands object to the plans by taking part in several protest marches and rallies.

Following consultation, the IWC voted to go ahead with the changes, stating that the majority of those who responded to the consultation in writing were in favour of the changes.

Read more on the school reorganisation.

If you haven’t already seen them, the last of the statutory notices stemming from the school reorganisation have been published.

Statutory notices for Brading CE Primary and St Helens Primary are published today with the notices for Shalfleet CE Primary and Yarmouth CE Primary following next week.

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Following the recent appointment of a new Director for Children and Young People (step forward Colin Peak, due to start work on the Island in January), we hear that two other senior roles have just been filled.

With the forthcoming education shakeup, moving from a three tier to two tier structure, the IWC clearly need someone with relevant experience to project manage the reorganisation.

So for those on the appointment board, Janet Newton, who has a wealth of experience in education was the right choice for the newly created Project Director role.

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Yesterday we were invited along to have a chat with the successful bidders in the schools reorganisation.

Follow the meeting we took the opportunity to talk to Keith Simmonds, who has responsibility for the schools reorganisation at the Isle of Wight council.

Here are a selection of the questions that we ran through:-

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Following the schools reform decisions made at Full Council meeting last week, at lunchtime today VentnorBlog will be having an audience with the winning bidders for the new schools.

If you have any questions you’d like us to raise with them, please email us on
ventnorblog (at) gmail (dot) com

Image: Marco Bellucci under CC BY-SA 2.0

Last night’s Cabinet meeting thankfully didn’t last as long as the six hour Full Council Meeting of the night before.

We understand that all decisions made at the Full Council meeting were ratified by the Cabinet Members last night.

Image: Fabliaux under CC BY-SA 2.0

During a marathon six hour IW Council meeting last night, it was decided that Chale Primary school be given more two more months to explore other possibilities beyond just being closed down. The most likely of these being federation with another school.

The decisions of the council still need to be ratified by the cabinet tonight, but it would be very surprising if changes were made.

You can read the full details in our live reporting of the event.

Despite strong debate, Ventnor wasn’t able to gain the same.

The Isle of Wight Council tonight debated and voted on final proposals to change the education system on the Isle of Wight from three tiers to two tiers.

They voted on the recommendations made by officers to close all middle schools; close some primary schools; extend other primary schools to retain pupils for a further two school years; create two new academies and three new secondary schools which will be run by outside bidders (ie. not by the local authority).

The votes are still coming in, but here’s what we have so far (page will be updated once voting continues).

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Full Council meeting has just started at County Hall. VB are reporting live from the chamber. You can read the recommendations of the officer over on the IWC Website.

We’ll endeavour to give as close a representation of what is being discussed as is possible.

Please refresh your browser window to see the numbered updates.

[18:08:05] Declarations of interest – family members in education system, governorships, etc. Couple of personal and prejudicial interests – people’s relatives working in schools.
[18:08:38] (This is the longest list I’ve heard in the chamber before)
(While list long list is going on … It’s worth noting that there’s a statement coming up from David Pugh touches on Vestas; school improvements; Town + Parish Councils)
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VentnorBlog will be reporting live from County Hall at the Full Council meeting tonight, so if you’re unable to attend yourself, make sure you logon to VB throughout the evening.

The big subject on the agenda tonight is obviously the issue of the future of the Island schools.

Councillors will vote on the recommendations outlined in the report by Keith Simmonds and this will go to the Cabinet meeting tomorrow night at the same time.

As regular followers of our live reporting will know, we try our hardest to report verbatim what is being discussed, so you can understand exactly who says what and how Councillors for your wards are voting on your behalf.

Check back just after 6pm for the live reports.

If you have a business that would be interested in sponsoring our live reporting from County Hall get in touch with us.

Remember that the council hadn’t started to work out how much it would cost to transfer children from home to the new locations of schools – after they shut many local schools?

Well, they’ve finally had their calculators out and totted up the costs.

The papers reveal that they think it will cost an additional £400,000 to transfer children from their homes to the new, more remote schools. (item 55 on page B-12)

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Two schools are recommended to be changed into Academies in the report by the IWC officers – Ryde and Sandown.

The IWC officers are recommending that the closure of those schools are knocked back a year from 2010 to 2011, as will be the opening date of their academy replacements.

Quite why this is, isn’t apparent. Perhaps we’re not important enough to know?

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Still on the subject of the schools reorganisation, even though the previous recommendation for Ventnor was to close all three current primary schools (St Wilfred’s, St Boniface and St Mary’s) and create one voluntary aided primary school (run by two churches – CoE and R/C) on the site of Ventnor Middle School is still on the cards, it appears from the report published today that there is a possible second chance for Ventnor.

Due to the number of concerns raised about the recommendations, another option is being put forward for Councillors to consider (this option was previously rejected at the 24 November meeting last year).

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It looks like the views of the 2,000 people who signed a petition to protest at the proposed closure of Chale Primary School are not being heeded.

Despite 24 people writing to the council – one of the highest set of responses – and the Church of England changing their previously-immovable position of closing the school to one of supporting federation, the IWC officers are still recommending to councillors that they close Chale primary school.

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The Isle of Wight council decided that it didn’t like the idea of running the schools on the Island a while back. They thought it would be a better idea to get other organisations to run the schools instead.

They put out a specification describing what they wanted to happen at the schools and invited organisations to tender.

Some organisations were local, others national.

Today, the Assistant Director of the Schools department of the Isle of Wight Council, who has been intimately involved with the process, Keith Simmons, issued a paper which makes recommendations to the councillors as to which groups should be running which schools.

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The deadline on some parts of the schools reorganisation consultation ends at 6pm today (7th August).

It is your chance to have your say on the proposed bidders for the five secondary schools and two amalgamated primary schools.

Thousands of people across the Island came out in protest against the proposed changes last year, but the IW Council continued with their plans, even though they have admitted there is no proof that a change to a two tier system will improve results.

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Wendy Varley got some positive results from the Web team at the IWC today. Surprised to hear down to what level the Island’s chief executive has to be involved with signing off though. Ed

Friends have said to me over the summer holidays that they can’t find any information about the competition to run Isle of Wight schools (five secondaries and two amalgamated primaries) on the council Website.

With the deadlines for public comments coming up on 7th and 21st August, that is quite worrying.

The information was buried on the Eduwight pages, and hard to find even if you knew what you were looking for.

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Last night saw one of the best attended meetings for presentations from school bidders to the public.

Tonight is the turn of the last presentation for bids to run High Schools, this time Ryde.

Those bidding are the same as last night, The East Wight Education Trust, The Academies Enterprise Trust and Innovative Schools Ltd all taking place at Ryde High School.

Primary Amalgamation
Don’t forget that next week see the primary amalgamation competition meetings for Godshill, Wroxall, Chillerton & Rookley and East Cowes/Whippingham.

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Following on from last nights presentation from competitors hoping to take on the running of Fairlee Secondary School, tonight sees the turn of those pitching for Sandown Secondary School.

This looks set to be one of the most interesting with the East Wight Educational Trust competing against the other organisations.

The East Wight Education Trust, based at Sandown High School, is made up of Hampshire Constabulary, IOW NHS Primary Care Trust, Hovertravel (with Hoverworks) and the University of Portsmouth.

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In the continued bids for control of secondary schools on the Isle of Wight, tonight sees the presentations for those wishing to run Fairlee Secondary School.

The meeting takes place at Medina Leisure Centre and those interested in what the bidders have to offer should arrive between 5.30pm for a 6pm start.

As has been said before, it’s a pretty inconvenient time for most families, which is probably why so few people have turned up to meetings held on Monday and Tuesday – that coupled with the last week before the end of term and many people involved in schools plays etc.

As Wendy pointed out on Monday “if you have children at primary or middle school these will be your children’s schools in a few years’ time, so this affects you.”

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Further to Wendy’s posting yesterday reminding readers of the public meetings taking place this and next week regarding the competition for organisations to run the new secondary schools, tonight sees the turn of Carisbrooke.

As Wendy pointed out yesterday “if you have children at primary or middle school these will be your children’s schools in a few years’ time, so this affects you.”

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