This Thursday, the council’s Cabinet members will be voting on the proposed closure of five Isle of Wight primary schools.
The Isle of Wight council is proposing the closure of five primary schools due to ongoing issues around surplus places. In November 2024, there were 2,311 unfilled physical school places,
The council say that falling rolls make planning and staffing decisions difficult, with schools potentially having to make year on year redundancies.
Defer to Committee system decision-making
At last night’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee, the chairperson, Councillor Clare Mosdell (Con), said the committee had not seen enough criteria to endorse the recommendation of school closures.
The Scrutiny Committee voted on a recommendation to Cabinet to halt their decision-making on the proposed school closures until the new committee system comes into force (May 2025). It was made clear by the council’s CEO, Wendy Perera, that if the decision was taken to not close the schools under the cabinet system, the entire process would have to start again.
Binfield: Proposals should be immediately withdrawn
Following the meeting, Nick Binfield, campaigner with Save Brading School group, told OnTheWight,
“We echo the strength of feeling seen and heard at last night’s Isle of Wight Council Corporate Scrutiny meeting, demanding the Cabinet respect the views of all stakeholders, including the Diocese of Portsmouth, and pause this school closure process with immediate effect.
“We have consistently highlighted our concerns over: the use of evidence; significant community impact; and equality of process. There have been repeated calls by parents, staff and the Diocese for Brading CE Primary School to be removed from this closure list, which the Cabinet – led by the Alliance Group – have continued to ignore.
“We believe that the wrong schools have been selected for closure and, given the proposals did not even command a majority vote of support of Full Council at the end of January, they should be immediately withdrawn.”
You can watch Tuesday night’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee via the council’s YouTube channel.
