On Monday evening the Isle of Wight council Cabinet agreed to move forward with a consultation on the future of Chillerton and Rookley Primary School.
Following the decision, Cllr Paul Brading, the shadow cabinet member for Children’s Services and Education, expressed his concern about the choices made by the cabinet and the impact delaying a final decision will have on staff and pupils.
He told News OnTheWight,
“I am concerned that Cllr Debbie Andre and the Cabinet have, after a lengthy delay, taken the decision to hold a further consultation on the future of Chillerton and Rookley School Primary School.
“Council staff carried out a full consultation earlier this year, and despite Cllr Andre claiming she has studied the responses to the consultation, she appears to have largely ignored them.”
Brading: Lack of clarity is not helping the situation
Cllr Brading went on to add,
“To now do another consultation, and then delay a planned final decision until next Spring, shows a total lack of decisiveness tantamount to dithering.
“Between now and the final decision there will be further anxiety, uncertainty and concerns for parents and children; no doubt numbers on roll will continue to drop further as children transfer schools in search of stability; and ultimately any financial debt the school has, that the council may well end up picking up, increases considerably.
“This lack of clarity is not helping the situation at the school at all.”
Brading: Options don’t reflect SOS proposals
The range of options incorporated into the consultation include:
- Leave both schools open and federated, meaning the status quo remains.
- Amalgamate Chillerton and Rookley Primary School with Godshill Primary School with the closure of Chillerton and Rookley Primary School.
- Amalgamate Chillerton and Rookley Primary School with Godshill Primary School with the closure of Godshill Primary School.
- Seek an academy/free school sponsor for Chillerton and Rookley Primary School and, if successful, defederate the school from the Stenbury Federation.
- Defederate Chillerton and Rookley from the Stenbury Federation and re-form it as a stand-alone primary school.
- Seek another local maintained school to federate with Chillerton and Rookley Primary School.
- Set up provision for flexi-schooling on the Chillerton and Rookley site to sit alongside full-time provision.
Cllr Brading, however, says they do not include all proposals put forward by the Save Our School group,
“I do notice that staff have included a lot more options in the new paper, but have failed to consider all the proposals put forward by the Save Our Schools group, which is very disappointing.
“The whole decision making process has now become far too drawn out because if the final decision leads to a closure, or another statutory change, there would need to be a further period for more representations to be made, a preferred options’ consultation, which could lead to this process going on for many more months, further extending the uncertainty.”
Brading: Andre opposed to closure during election
Cllr Brading finished by saying,
“The drawn out final decision will be interesting, considering that in the run up to the elections in May, Cllr Andre, along with other leading Cabinet Members, publicly stated that they were strongly opposed to the closure of Chillerton and Rookley School, or any other primary school on the Island.
“I therefore hope that they now approach this with more of an open mind”.
