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This from the Save Brading School Group. Ed
Following the meeting of the Isle of Wight cabinet on 12th December Brading school was issued a closure notice – not because a good case was made for its closure, but, in our view, because of the reluctance of the Alliance cabinet to listen to wise advice from one of its own cabinet members and other members of the Isle of Wight council.
Brading school has a strong case to stay open. Practically, there are serious problems with the distance and accessibility to the proposed replacement schools. The journeys are dangerous by foot, expensive by public transport and will create substantial disadvantages to an already deprived community. There will also be a lack of 2 to 11 provision for Brading parents. There is a presumption against closure of this type of Rural Provision.
Smoke and mirrors
There are also serious concerns regarding the legitimacy of the decision-making process, especially the smoke and mirrors over the planning areas in order to unfairly protect from consideration for closure of the schools in the Ryde Rural planning area.
A rural school
Brading is designated as a rural school and as such, there is a presumption against closure – a presumption that has been used to provide a cast iron guarantee to survival of the schools in Ryde Rural.
We believe that by slight of hand, the Ryde Rural planning area was reduced to just two schools and Brading and Bembridge moved to another area ten years ago. Apparently despite this being recognised as inappropriate, there was ‘no time to change it’ before the decision to close Brading was proposed. This was then approved by the cabinet member for Children’s Services.
Lack of transparency
The lack of transparency in this and other decisions, including the specific criteria used to propose Brading for closure, leads many in Brading to question the motives of the Cabinet member for Children’s Services and the Chair of the Cabinet, particularly as they both are residents in St Helens and are active members of the St Helens community and St Helens Parish Council.
Many are suspicious that decisions have been taken to protect St Helens at the expense of Brading.
Five alternative proposals rejected
The Brading community came together with five viable alternative proposals which in all cases reduced the planned pupil admission numbers by 45 – the same number as proposed by the council, every single one of these was rejected, not because of any inherent weaknesses in the proposals, but because they reduced the pupil numbers in the wrong planning area.
Place planning areas
Since September the Isle of Wight council had insisted that the planning areas were for data presentation only. We as a group believed this, only to discover in December that the conclusions and recommendations in the initial consultation were purely based upon achieving savings in certain place planning areas, whilst protecting places in others.
It seems that the savings in places must be made in the Shanklin Sandown area, and not others such as Ryde Rural. No explanation has been forthcoming despite a school in this area noting in its Governor minutes from May 2024 that, “The birth rate in St Helens is very low but, pupils do not just come from the immediate vicinity”. We feel the officers and Cabinet member for Children’s Services cannot have it both ways!
Furthermore, the Isle of Wight council noted that the second of its criteria for maintaining schools was distance from home – how can a school in an area with very low birth rate serving beyond its catchment area survive at the expense of a school in a more youthful area serving the immediate community?
Reduction in admission numbers
We believe there are more discrepancies. The council claim they are achieving a saving of 15 places at The Bay by reducing the admissions number to 45. Yet on 4th September 2024, the Office of The Schools Adjudicator gave permission for a reduction to 30 due to financial concerns at The Bay – a school that is and has been for a number of years over a million pounds in debt.
This would actually result in a saving of 30 places in the Shanklin Sandown area so why close a whole school to save 15 places? There is a total lack of transparency surrounding the removal of the extra places from the Bay. Of course other schools only have 15 places so could be closed but, according to the Isle of Wight council, they are in the wrong planning area!
We ask the question, why are the children of Brading being asked to go to a school which is already under financial pressure, or a school which will not be viable if reliant on children in its locality when Brading has a substantial population of young families?
Demands for council
We are asking that the Isle of Wight council take the following actions in order to provide a level playing field for Brading:
- That Jonathon Bacon approaches and names a councillor who can advocate in the council chamber for Brading during the crucial debate at the end of January as other ward councillors will do.
- That the process in relation to Brading School is paused and not started again until the committee system is in place after May 2025.
- Before any process starts again the School Planning areas are reviewed for: Nettlestone, St Helens, Brading and Bembridge.
- In order to re-establish parental confidence in Brading’s long term sustainability going forward the Isle of Wight council issues a statement with regards to the long term future of the school.
- We appeal to all of the Isle of Wight councillors committed to fairness and equality to fully review the reports, proposals and data relating to Brading school so that the parents and children of Brading will see a fair and impartial decision on the future of the school.
