Most Isle of Wight Middle schools will have their books taken off their library shelves before the end of their final term – many weeks beforehand.
VentnorBlog got on to this story after a concerned parent got in touch.
The council was evasive in response to our couldn’t-be-clearer question – “Please advise what dates each of the middle school libraries will be closing on.”
The closest they originally offered was, “before the end of term on 27 July.”
“Not unusual to collect books early”
Janet Newton, IW Council Head of Schools’ Infrastructure then added, “It is not unusual for schools to collect books in early July ahead of the holidays to enable a stock take and make orders for new books ahead of the new academic year in September.”
VB persisted questioning and eventually we got a little closer.
“All schools will begin packing books away from 4th July,” the council press officer later told us, continuing, “However some schools will have their stock taken away on different days to then be redistributed and the collection days have been arranged by individual schools themselves.
“Therefore we do not have a definitive list of dates of when school libraries will be closing but, as their books are collected from 4th July onwards, most will be around this time.”
Most having to close around 4th July
Going by the last sentence, ‘most’ Island Middle school libraries will be having to close their libraries around 4th July, several weeks before the end of term.
VB understands from Nodehill school that they won’t be doing this, waiting until the end of term and have, in addition, chosen to freely give non-council books to their students.
If other Middle schools would like to get in touch with VB, we’d be more than happy to put their specific details here too.
