UPDATED: A consultation document on the proposed amalgamation of Sandown Bay and Ryde Academy has been published to give local communities the opportunity to express their views during a 6-week period ending Thursday 6th July.
Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), the organisation responsible for both schools, says it believes the new combined school has the potential to be truly outstanding to the benefit of students, families and the local community. However, the proposed merger has been blasted by students, parents, councillors and the Isle of Wight Council as a whole.
AET have today (Thursday) confirmed that if the plans go ahead, the Sandown Bay Academy site will be closed for good with all students transferred to the new 1,500-place school at Ryde Academy by September 2018.
According to the controversial Trust, these proposals result from over-supply in the number of secondary school places on the Isle of Wight, where Department for Education figures show there are currently nearly 4,000 more places than the number of students. As a result, over the past 5 years the number of students at Sandown Bay Academy has almost halved from 2,084 in 2011/12 to 1,122 in the current year. Because the school’s income is tied to student numbers, this has led to a rapid decline in the academy’s budget from £12 million in 2012/13 to £7 million this year.
The consultation document can be download here: https://cdn.islandecho.co.uk/uploads/2017/05/RYA-SBA-Amalgamation-Consultation-Document.pdf.
Islanders can give their views on the proposed merger by filling in an online questionnaire at https://surveyc.orcinternational.com/orc/start/j3000956/AETSurvey.html. Hard copies of the proposal document and the questionnaire are available from the receptions at Sandown Bay and Ryde Academies. Views can also be expressed by emailing [email protected].
Arrangements are being made for information sessions at both schools and further information on these will be announced after the schools return from their half-term break.
The results of the consultation process will be gathered together in a report for the Secretary of State to make a decision on the proposals. The report on the findings of the consultation will be published by Island Echo.
UPDATE @ 15:15 – Councillor Chris Whitehouse, who leads for education for the Isle of Wight Council, has today said:
“How typically crass and insensitive of AET to spoil half term holiday for all the pupils by launching this consultation the day before they break up. A thoroughly insensitive move made for AET’s administrative convenience without a thought for the welfare of the children.
“Parents, students, staff and well-wishers alike should go online and tell AET what they think of them in response to this consultation.”
