OnTheWight always welcomes a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below.
This from Hazel Wood, Wroxall. Ed
We who are directly affected by Wroxall Primary School’s recent proposal feel that in the best interests of all involved with the school, Wroxall Primary should at this stage be removed from the proposal to allow room and time for a better and more structured assessment of how to do reduce the surplus places and help with a SEND provision within the school.
We know closure is not the answer, the decision for Closure given on 12th December 2024 was only a provisional decision. This means there is room for a change of the final decision in March 2025.
A catastrophic waste of a perfectly capable school site
Closing our wonderful school would be a catastrophic waste of a perfectly capable school site.
There is no financial deficit at Wroxall. It survived the struggles of the Covid-19 pandemic.
There is a large sufficient interest in September 2025 for admissions on top of the current figure report.
Work with the community
We urge the council to allow a better understanding and be willing to work with the community and all affected by the current proposal to find a reasonable solution and outcome to provide a better strategic plan to secure the future of Wroxall Primary School and its current and future children.
This school site should not be railroaded through without true assessments and fair discussions and equality set in place.
Closure will create more issues
Rushing this school into closure is the wrong way of trying to fix the current issues. It will create more. A lot more and the children have no guarantee of securing an alternative suitable place of education.
The negative impact and multiple amounts of struggles closure will bring to all involved with Wroxall School is unimaginable.
Many children could be forced into home education. Unemployment rates would seriously increase.
Poverty for vulnerable families will increase and most importantly the invitation to welcome current and future generations to the community and island will be very impaired.
Local businesses will struggle to stay sustained.
Multi-million pound refurbishment
The multi-million pound refurbishment granted to Wroxall Primary school in recent years will have been for nothing and effectively show Taxpayers money being wasted.
Godshill Primary school was recently saved last minute and unexpectedly, which is only 2.9 mile away from Wroxall Primary School.
A worthy sustainable site to develop for future education
We feel Wroxall site has a very worthy sustainable site to develop for future education. We are happy to work with the council to better structure the future education of this school and reduce surplus places, including being open to ideas of amalgamation with other schools which was backed by three school within the South Wight area at our last consultation period in 2024.
Ideas put forward
Ideas include to create a SEND provision within the existing Wroxall primary school site to improve education quality to SEND children which will also reduce surplus places.
Expansion and development ideas to invite a wider invitation to families with children from pre-school to secondary school at Wroxall site.
Offer incentives for children to come out of home education in the South Wight area and be a part of Wroxall School.
Shuttle bus services for vulnerable residents outside of Wroxall who want their children to attend the school, but don’t have transport/financial support available attend the school.
Pre-school will be affected
This is only a couple of our suggestions. The school site already has the benefit of a pre-school facility – (Wroxall Robins) there is no alternative pre-school premises in the community.
It important that this is also safeguarded. The school heritage was established in 1873, we want to protect that heritage.
Impact on Year 5s
Our current year 5 children have already lost education due to the Covid-19 pandemic and they are now at risk of having their final academic primary year lost because not every school on the island has placement availability or is suitable for each child.
This is a big threat to their SATS exams and preparation for Secondary School start in 2027.
It is not too late to change the outcome
Please we ask you to strongly support Wroxall school at this time. It is not too late to change the outcome and protect our education and community.
We cannot predict what happens today let alone accurate data for the next year and so fourth.
