Thanks for the tip from Wendy that the front page of The Independent Educational supplement has a three quarter page article on the planned changes to the educational system on the Island.
It’s a pretty extensive article which brings in quotes from many of the major players in the debate and is well worth a read, giving an overview of the current state of play as per last week.
We’ve pulled out a few quotes out that we think are worth highlighting. We’ve not included those from the council as we’re sure that you’ve heard them all before.
Starting covering Arreton’s, St George’s Church of England Primary School, the article highlights the £1.4m works done last September, and continues
“I find the idiocy of it particularly galling,” says Sarah Green, a hospital doctor and the mother of a seven-year-old girl at Arreton school. “The councillors seem to want to wipe out everything and start with a clean slate, and they’re naive enough to think that pockets of high standards, such as the one we have here, can simply be reproduced.”
It reports a meeting between the council and head teachers at the start of the consultation period that we’d also been told about
Summoned, en masse, to a breakfast meeting in an island hotel – governors weren’t allowed to accompany them – they were handed letters outlining the implications of all three options. Many, apparently, wept openly on hearing that their schools and jobs faced the axe.
One of them, Win McRobert, accuses Pugh of sending highly critical emails to colleagues who questioned his approach. “Pugh and his supporters have a blinkered attitude and are not listening to what the people are saying, which is what I thought democracy was all about,” she says.
The council’s press officers have also been put in the unusual position of highlighting deficiencies in the island’s education system to justify the need for change. Unprompted, one told me of the “very, very poor” performance of secondary schools at GCSE. Council press officers are not normally given to running down the schools in their bailiwicks, which suggests this is part of a concerted campaign.
The island’s Tory MP, Andrew Turner, is also unhappy. “I can’t support any of the options because I believe the inevitable disruption that will come with wholesale change will depress standards, not improve them,” he explains.
Read the article in full
