Julian Critchley, parliamentary spokesperson for Isle of Wight Labour shares this after having read the CEO of AET’s article, “Fewer but bigger schools are needed in areas where there is a surplus of places”. Ed
Island Labour have slammed an article in the TES (formerly Times Educational Supplement) by AET chief executive Julian Drinkall, in which he accuses Islanders of “nimbyism” for not agreeing to AETs demands to close down Sandown Bay Academy.
Mr Drinkall dismissed the desire of parents, students and local political parties of all persuasions to keep the school open, saying “The difficulty is that unsurprisingly the inconvenience factor means that there will be local communities, local press, local politicians, who would rather keep it, but you do have to say to yourself ‘at what cost’, and actually, ultimately, with what educational benefit”.
Critchley: “Consistent underfunding” and “inadequate management”
Island Labour’s Parliamentary Spokesperson, Julian Critchley, responded furiously to the article, saying:
“AET announced it would close Sandown Bay Academy last year, claiming the numbers of students made it unviable. At the time, Sandown Bay was a larger than national average school, which had been run down by AET through consistent underfunding and inadequate management, which had seen several changes of headteacher.
“AET also announced that the 1,000+ students at Sandown Bay would be “transferred” to the other school they were unfortunately given on the Island, Ryde Academy. This announcement summed up both the arrogance and incompetence of AET in this instance, in that it assumed that parents had no say in the school their child would attend, and would simply agree to be moved like chattel, while also rather innumerately expecting those 1,000 students to fit into a school which did not have anywhere near 1,000 free places.”
Mr Critchley also attacked Mr Drinkall’s claims to be concerned with the public purse, when drawing a salary of quarter of a million pounds, in addition to the other funds which AET have historically withdrawn from Island schools.
A popular and historic school
Concluding an uncompromising response to Mr Drinkall’s article, Mr Critchley added:
“Sandown Bay Academy, the community it serves, and indeed the whole Isle of Wight, have had to survive the predations and in my view, incompetence of AET. Sandown Bay nevertheless remains a popular and historic school which has an essential role in its community. For Mr Drinkall to suggest that the community is engaged in “nimbyism” for trying to protect the school which serves its children is outrageous. But then, given it was another ex-AET executive who accused Islanders of being “inbred”, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at the utterly repugnant attitude which seems to be so prevalent within the well-paid executives at AET.
“On one matter, I would agree with Mr Drinkall: AET remain in our back yard here, on the Island, and we would very much rather they were not. He is free to take his dubious, failing organisation with him in its entirety when he next crosses the Solent to the North Island, and we will get on with restoring our schools to community ownership and control where they should always have remained, safe from the hands of carpetbaggers who are happy to take our money while insulting our parents and children.”
Read the TES article in full.
Image: © With kind permission of Allan Marsh
