Options included in a proposal for a public consultation on school places, that have been slammed as ‘rigged’ by the Isle of Wight Scrutiny Committee, were subject to a minor amendment before being approved at an emergency Executive meeting held last night (Wednesday).
There had been strong opposition to Proposal 2 in the consultation paper which suggested Medina College and Carisbrooke College could be merged on the Carisbrooke site.
New proposal
The proposal was amended before the Executive voted to go ahead with the consultation, removing any mention of which site the merged school would be sited at.
Alternative Proposal 2: Merge Medina and Carisbrooke and retain other secondary schools with adjusted sizes
In this option Medina and Carisbrooke would be merged and the other four secondary schools would remain with some school sizes adjusted to better match the future needs across the Island.
Executive vote against recommendations
Last week the Scrutiny Committee had recommended the original Proposal 2 be removed from the papers, as well as Proposal B, which remains in place.
Proposal B: Establish a single Sixth Form College to replace the current Sixth Form provision at the six Island Secondary Schools and the Isle of Wight College
Establish a new Sixth Form College providing academic (A-Level) Level 3 provision. This would have a capacity of up to 1500 learners, replacing the 6 current secondary school Sixth Forms and the A-level provision at the Isle of Wight College.
This would operate alongside vocational provision offered at the Isle of Wight College, training providers, the independent sector and off-island providers. The Studio School would still operate a 150 place 6th form from 2016.
Resignation over “flawed consultation”
Yesterday, chairman of the Scrutiny Committee, Labour councillor for Newport East, Geoff Lumley, announced he would be resigning from the chairman’s post if the Executive went ahead with their meeting to approve the consultation.
It followed a row in the chamber on Tuesday evening when Cllr Lumley accused Cllr Bacon of lying when he suggested the Scrutiny Committee had rejected an offer to postpone their recommendations until after the member’s briefing.
Image: Nelson De Witt under CC BY 2.0
