An online petition has been created on 38 Degrees Website calling on the education minister to reverse her decision to allow Weston Academy Primary open.
News was announced last week that due to falling numbers the school, which was placed in Special Measures earlier this year, the academy was exploring the possibility of closure.
Created by George Metcalf, the petition argues,
“Weston Primary is the only non-denominational school locally, and whilst its numbers are relatively small, it does not suffer from large overcapacity as some others locally do, consequently the children and parents have an amazing ‘Team Weston-spirit’, everyone really matters here.”
Gaining support
The petition, which has been signed by over 400 people at time of publishing, reads,
Rescind the agreement in principal to the intended decision to close Weston Primary Academy, Totland, Isle of Wight.
Why is this important?
The Academies Enterprise Trust, the Department of Education along with various Isle of Wight councillors have an intended decision to close Weston Primary Academy.The Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan has ” in principal ” agreed to this decision. This agreeance is based solely on the AeT and DfE paperwork, that seems to be based on a projected “forecast” that has yet to be released to the public. Not foregoing that all of the teaching staff, work staff and the parents of the 56 children who attend were informed by an email, followed promptly by a letter, inevitable job losses will occur – zero consultation with those that matter has taken place behind closed doors. We now find ourselves in a public consultation period **edit : there is NO public consultation, only a time to air views and opinions** that has a limited time-scale to air any counter arguments or views.
The purpose of this petition is to clearly show that our beloved school has supporters. Weston Primary is the only non-denominational school locally, and whilst its numbers are relatively small, it does not suffer from large over capacity as some others locally do, consequently the children and parents have an amazing ” Team Weston”-spirit, everyone really matters here.
With a lot of recent housing developments in the West Wight region, and acute awareness that schools are becoming overcrowded, it makes no sense to close this school based on a forecast, when the school is getting on its feet and showing marked improvement. The AeT has over the summer period spent an undisclosed sum of money bringing much needed modernisation to the school.
If the school is shut down, it would be a huge waste of resources. The adjoining nursery has also seen investment and is already showing that it is feeding more and more directly into the school itself. As people move into the local area, I suspect that Weston will see a marked increase in admissions.
We at Team Weston are appealing directly to you, the reader, to show your support for this school. You may be an old pupil or parent of an old pupil, you may have had an association with the school in the past or present. maybe you understand that good schools should be kept open, especially considering this school is well over 100 years old.
Please, please take a few moments to sign to show your support for us in our battle. It might just be the linchpin that sways the final decision in our favour. Kindest regards – George Metcalf
How it will be delivered
In person with a small contingency of parents and children to the Office of the Secretary of State for education. Perhaps combining with a press conference
Image: pagedooley under CC BY 2.0
