Jim shares this latest news from retired teacher and Labour party prospective parliamentary candidate, Julian Critchley. Ed
Julian Critchley has written to the head teachers of all local schools likely to be affected by the closure of Sandown Bay Academy asking them, ‘to oppose the plans published by Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) just before half term holidays to close Sandown Bay Academy.’
Julian went on to say in his letter that whilst the published AET document purports to be a consultation on the “amalgamation of the two schools,” on page five AET quietly confesses that it is proposing the closure of Sandown Bay Academy.
No longer educational provision in Sandown
He said,
“Under AET’s plan there will no longer be any educational provision in Sandown, with the expectation that current and future pupils served by Sandown Bay will in future travel to Ryde. This of course has enormous implications not only for the school communities in the Bay area, but also those in Ryde and the whole of the eastern part of the Island.
“The consultation document implies that 1100 pupils is too small for a secondary school to be financially viable. Yet information provided by the DFE in response to a Freedom of Information Request in 2013 indicates that Sandown Bay, even with its currently reduced pupil numbers, is in fact larger than the average secondary school. DFE reported that 1,722 secondary schools had 1000 pupils or fewer, whilst only 1,546 had more than 1000 pupils, of which only 320 had 1,501 pupils or more.”
Proposal not been properly thought through
Julian went on to say,
“The rationale for the proposal is therefore fundamentally flawed, but the detail of the consultation document gives further indications that this proposal has not been properly thought through:
• 1810 places will be available at the rebuilt Ryde Academy, yet there are currently over 2000 pupils on the rolls of the two schools, with pupil numbers expected to rise on the island in the short term.
• Perhaps related to the fact that there is not enough space for all the pupils at Ryde Academy, no detail is provided about how the transition from two schools to one would be managed.
• The 1810 places include just 310 places for sixth form pupils, 155 in each year. This means that nearly half of the 300 pupils in each year group will be kicked out at the end of Year 11, with no alternative provision in the east of the island.
• No commitment is made about the future of the high quality provision for pupils on the autistic spectrum currently located at Sandown Bay.
• No commitment is made about teachers’ jobs, with the report saying only that, “We would hope to accommodate as many teachers as possible.” Given this uncertainty we should not be surprised to see
the many high quality teachers at both schools looking for alternative jobs elsewhere.• There is no information about practical arrangements that parents need to know: for example, uniforms and transport arrangements.”
Flaw in survey
The AET online questionnaire asks different questions depending on whether you are a parent at Sandown Bay or Ryde or connected to the schools in some other way. But it does not ask people directly whether they support or oppose the
closure of the school.
Julian Critchley urged the head teachers,
“Despite the poor quality of the consultation document, I would ask you to ensure that staff and parents are aware of the proposals and the effect that they would have on all children in the east of the Island, not only those in Sandown, and encourage them to respond online.
“If they are opposed to the plan to close Sandown Bay Academy then they should say this clearly in the Any Other Comments section.”
Julian said that he hoped head teachers might want to take additional action, such as inviting Julian Drinkall, Chief Executive of AET ([email protected]), to meetings at schools so parents can ask questions about the proposals.
Image: © With kind permission of Allan Marsh
