Those following the school reforms debate will know that the proposal for primary schools in Ventnor is to amalgamate St. Boniface CE VC, St. Margaret’s CE VC and St. Wilfrid’s RC VA Primary Schools to become a voluntary aided single faith school on the site of Ventnor Middle School.
This option is being recommended by officers and will be put to the Cabinet Members on Monday evening (which VentnorBlog will be covering live from County Hall).
However, as the documents that were released by the Council last week reveal, this is just _one_ of the options on the table.
Chris Welsford from Standards Not Tiers has posted a message on the VB forum showing support for another option within the proposal and urging parents to write over the weekend to Alan Wells, the Cabinet Member for Children & Young People.
In Appendix Q of the proposals going before Cabinet, Option 3 states:
Amalgamate St. Boniface CE VC Primary School and St. Wilfrid’s RC VA Primary School, as a one form entry VA school, using initially the two existing sites with an eventual move to the St. Boniface site.
This achieves a primary school provision in lower Ventnor and builds on the existing relationship between the two schools.
Close St. Margaret’s CE VC Primary School and establish by competition, under the Education and Inspections Act 2006, a new one form entry 4-11 age range school for upper Ventnor on the Ventnor Middle site.
This provides both provision for upper and lower Ventnor and diversity within the school provision for Ventnor Town.
If you do wish to write to Alan Wells to make your views known, you’ll need to make sure he gets it by Monday morning. You can email him on alan.wells(at)iow.gov.uk
We’d suggest you also copy in David Pugh and Steve Beynon (using the same logic for email above)
The details of Appendix Q can be found on the SNT Website
