The following Motion will be proposed to the Council Meeting on March 19th:
Council on March 19th resolves to add the following 4TH OPTION to the three currently available to Members within the Education Reorganisation decision-making process tonight:-
A Referendum of the Isle of Wight electorate to be called immediately, to decide between;
*** Continuing to raise standards within the current 3-tier system, retaining small schools and avoiding a major reorganisation;
or
*** A reorganisation to a 2-tier system, which emphasises the importance of small schools and community-based learning.
I don't normally support referendums, except when there is a clear lack of leadership from the top. That is the position now. A referendum can be delivered within 10 weeks and still meet the current timetable for capital funding submissions to central government.
The motion offers Island people a clear choice and at a cost of no more than 75p per adult would be money well spent. Certainly better than the 90p per adult spent on the current private and confusing consultation.
27 comments:
so i would have to vote between retaining small schools or importance of small schools so no choice if I don't believe that small schools are viable not really a choice is it?
if you don't appreciate the importance of small schools then it's clear you don't know much about education and all the research proving how small schools are better. We live on a small predominantly rural island, not a conurbation.
Small schools certainly are well regarded externally. I think the issue will be over 'very small' schools and 'micro' schools.
ebod,as I have two children being educated on the isle of wight clearly i know a little about education here. I am allowed an opinion - or do you not allow people to disagree with you - my point if you had read my comments, and not made personal attacks, was that the two question are not a choice, and why should my children go to a school with 30 in a class why I pay for others to be educated in classes of 12?
Frank, I see your point about the two suggested choices. However the same criticism can be applied to the present consultation which similarly doesn't give an real choice, only a difference in the number of schools closed.
I agree that the present consultation also lacks real choice but two wrongs do not make a right
Frank, the choice is between 2tier or 3tier.
As far as paying for classes of 12, will your council tax bill get reduced if they shut Chale school?
Have you considered the effect that closing these schools has on the wider community?
Frank - I agree; how are these proposals for a referendum offering any more choice than the current consultation?
I don't see the need for a referendum - after all, our local Councillors were elected to act on behalf of their constituents (i.e. us); for those same Councillors to call for a referendum suggests that they are not happy with the responsibility we entrusted in them.
A referendum provides a good "get out" for Councillors at the next election - after all, they would have implemented the option that the public wants, even if it is impracticable and doesn't work.
see stuff here
ebod
re-read the question - one says "retaining small schools" the other says the "importance of small schools " I respect your opinion that small schools are important and therefore you are able to decide between the two but I am not left with any choice as I feel small schools are part of the problem
I do not want to see any reduction in my poll tax but would like to see the money spent on education at a secondary / high school level where the IOW council is currently failing all our children.
I appreciate and sympathise with the problems of a small rural communities but we have to do something about the failing high school situation for the sake of all our children.
The way I interpret the two choices is that we:
a) Keep three tier without closing loads of primary schools.
b) Move to two tier without closing loads of primary schools.
However, I would prefer to extend the consultation so the three tier two tier debate can be explored further - especially as we aren't being rushed into a decision because we now know there is no withdrawal of funding....
Apparently the results are improving, depending on who you talk to...
I'm interested to know why you think small schools are part of the problem. Would you prefer if the choice was between having large schools and small schools? Why are large schools better?
ebod,it is not a question of better or worse but simple economics if a child is in a class of 15 they are costing considerable more than a child in a class of 30. Money we should be spending on improving the appalling GCSE / A Level results on the Island. So apologies - what I meant was class sizes rather than school size. There is only so much money in the pot - and I am not sure why you expect everyone else to subsidies your child being taught in a small class. Out of interest what is the class size at Chale?
I don't really see why you have a problem with small classes. A village school teaching children within their local community will always have small classes, whereas older schildren who are able to travel on buses and need more advanced teaching facilities can go to the larger school in the town.
We should be talking about driving up the teaching standards in the larger schools to match the good results in the smaller ones, not taking resources away from the smaller ones - regardless of whether they are primary, intermediate or tertiary schools (or whatever you choose to call them)
Frank, Chale has about 20 on the roll, so I think the kids are taught in the same class but I'm not sure. The school my kids attend have class sizes of 30 - which is too big for condusive learning.
I would be interested in the actual figures on how much you would save per child by closing these schools, then paying to transport them elsewhere along with all the administration costs and also bearing in mind the wider financial implications to the local community. Don't you think it's stupid to close successful primary schools to try and improve the crap high schools? especially as there's no guarantee it will actually improve the standards?
Why skirt around the core issue of teaching and tackle it head on? We're only delaying the inevitable and causing unneccessary pain and wasted expense for everyone involved... Northamptonshire moved from 3 to 2 tier and as a result now has more failing schools than any other county in the UK with councilers and teachers blaming the change as the reason. Norfolk is currently moving from three tier to two tier and also as result is now second worst county for failing schools - the writing is on the wall...
Frank,
Just found out some figures you might find interesting.
The highest per-pupil figure is Chale school - £7459. Next highest is Weston - £4909.
The island average is £3005 per pupil. The average in England for 2006-7 was £3360.
ebod,
Assume for a moment that Chale school were closed and the children bussed to another school with the average cost.
The amount saved per pupil will be £7459 - £3005 = £4454. Multiply this by the number of pupils at Chale, then subtract from this total the annual cost of bussing them.
Then spread the saved amount amongst the schools having average or below average cost per pupil.
How much extra cash will that actually give to each pupil in those schools?
The budget for chale is 168,018.
Crudely divided by the number of children on the island (roughly 20,000?) = 8 pound 40 pence
without taking into consideration any administrative or travel cost.
Is 8 quid going to make a difference to your child's education?
It seems you are only wrong on this issue if you don't agree with the Standards not Tiers or SOS minority who have shouted the loudest. The majority of islanders have just kept quiet.
Thankfully in just a few more days it will all be over. Perhaps then the hysteria will end and reason will return. Those schools which survive will prosper, they'll still have the same kids, the same staff and probably the same governors. Only time will tell if the reorganisation works. One thing is certain, our current fudge and poor results have gone on far too long. In my view Pugh and Wells could yet become local heroes.
"8 pound 40 pence
without taking into consideration any administrative or travel cost"
Thank you ebod. And it will be evern less than that because you haven't allowed for the cost of bussing.
So even on the pretext of financial efficiency, the scheme fails.
It is change for change's sake and will only lower standards all round.
yeah nice 1 anon, kind of reminds me what Tony Blair's supporters said before he took this country to war against Iraq, he - like Pugh - also fudged the evidence to make a case for regime change.
I think the majority of islanders realise the council is a total shambles and there is no point in making their voice heard
Oh yeah, very comparable, a war where thousands die or a reshuffle of schools on the IW.
Your post perfectly illustrates the hysteria surrounding these sensible proposals.
The world has many real and serious problems, gettiing so steamed up about the proposed closure of a few tiny rural schools is stupidly disproportionate.
The comparison was of the pig-headed mindset and similaries to the campaign tactics...
Let's close successful primary schools to try and improve A level results, yeah, reeeeaally sensible :)
And 23 is a lot more than a few, methinks the council have washed your brain, sir!
"a few tiny rural schools"
Do you realise just how heartless and callous that sounds?
You so casually dismiss these schools working in the heart of rural communities - many of which are producing excellent results. You have no evidence whatever that the changes will improve any larger, failing schools. The money saved will be insignificant, the damage done will be great.
You have no evidennce of that either! The schools system on the island may improve. How will that make the 150 or so feel who bothered to turn up for yesterday's demo? Disappointed is my guess.
Glad to see the GMB there with so many placards. They were joined by a ragbag of Labour and Liberal candidates trying to gain any tiny advantage they could by opposing the Tory council. How sad.
"The schools system on the island may improve."
"may improve" indeed - what sort of justification is that for all the disruption to childrens' and parents' lives, increased commuting and pollution, and tearing the heart out of small communities.
You should be looking at how to improve the standard of education at those large schools that are failing, not destroying the many smaller ones that have been shown to do good work.
The rest of your post was just petty political propaganda. When will you realise that we ordinary parents are NOT INTERESTED in the party politics - we just want to keep our good local schools. But, if one party continues to attack our schools - whichever party that might be - you may be sure we will remember at the next election. That is a promise!
The Liberals and Labour have tried to make cheap party political points by kicking the Tories.
Education is always political, it's where we spend a lot of our money, investing in it, getting it right is vital. Making it as good as we can for all our children is vital to our future.
The Tories will lose votes but nowhere near as many as some think. The GMB lot wouldn't vote Tory in a million years, no votes lost there then.
Here's a fact ingnored by the No change lobby. Almost all small schools kids have Mums and Dads delivering/collecting their darlings by car. The image of people having to battle by walking to school in the wind and rain is a myth.
The antis have done what antis always do, they over egged their pudding.
"The image of people having to battle by walking to school in the wind and rain is a myth."
No it's not. My children walk to school every day, rain or shine. I don't have the option of driving them.
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