Standards-Not-Tiers researchers have discovered that the Isle of Wight Council’s consultation has ignored central government’s guidance on faith schools.
The Government’s “Faith in the system” document, (Dept for children, schools and families, 2007) states that “The Government will accordingly continue to support the establishment of new schools including faith schools in the maintained sector where the local decision making process shows that is what parents and the local community want”
A Standards-Not-Tiers spokesperson said: “We believe that the consultation fails to ask a crucial question: do we want a faith high school? We can see nowhere in the consultation document that asks this question and this simply adds to our concerns that the West Wight in particular is having a faith high school forced on it without any consultation on the matter.
Supporters of option one should be very concerned about this. If you want to opt for option one and keep school closures to a minimum, then you have no choice but to accept a faith high school based on the currently secular Carisbrooke High School site. That seems to us to be completely undemocratic.
It also begs the question, can reorganisation on the Isle of Wight, under these options, command DfES support. We doubt it very much and that must cast some doubt on their hopes for central government funding”.
