Thanks to regular VentnorBlog contributor Wendy Varley for sending through her opinion on the proposed schools reorganisation being discussed at County Hall tonight. Ed
Is it just me, or has the Council’s proposed schools reorganisation – a massively important issue that affects thousands of our children – dropped off the public’s radar? A parent from my son’s primary school said to me yesterday, “What’s happening about schools? It’s gone very quiet.”
She was blissfully unaware that the formal consultation period on the schools reorganisation had finished (on 10 October) and that the results of that consultation are being considered by Cabinet tonight. The papers were published on the Isle of Wight Council Web site a week ago.
Another parent gave a clue as to why she hadn’t been paying attention. “I thought any decision to go two-tier was on hold until next year’s local elections,” she said. She was quite sure she had heard David Pugh saying so on the radio some time back.
She is in fact recalling the coverage of the press release of 1 July from the IW Council Conservative Group, which began: “Final decision to implement two-tier will be made after 2009 local elections.”
But if you carried on reading, it also said “Preparations for the two-tier change will continue apace over the next 10 months”¦”
Another parent thought that the submission she made to the Council during the spring would continue to count during the formal consultation. As did a number of middle school pupils who wrote in support of their schools. What a harsh lesson in bureaucracy for them to realise that their letters, because they arrived ahead of the formal consultation period, do not count, and to find the words “no significant representation received” against their school’s name.
The fact that so few middle schools have made a noise about their proposed demise this time around might well be down to them having been under the impression that the formal consultation was purely about the move to a two-tier system.
Though they will now see, reading point 15 of the Cabinet paper on Schools Organisation, that, apparently, “all [consultation] meetings reminded respondents that they could still make representation in respect of the policy move from a primary, middle and high system to that of a primary and secondary system”¦”
Not everyone is digesting this meekly. Standards-Not-Tiers offers robust scrutiny of the paper and its appendices (which is where a lot of the important detail is contained) on its website.
VentnorBlog will be reporting live from County Hall on Monday night. Tune in for coverage of the Cabinet meeting where the future of the education system on the Isle of Wight will be decided.
