Campaigners against the closure of Brading CE Primary School hosted a community meeting yesterday evening at the town’s St Mary’s Church.
The fairly small audience heard arguments for saving the school from Vix Lowthion, a teacher at the Isle of Wight Education Federation and the Green Party’s education and lifelong learning spokesperson, as well as Kate Benson, a trustee of Brading Community Partnership, Nick Binfield, parent of 2 children at the school and a teacher statement.
Kate spoke in a personal capacity and said closing the school would rip the heart out of Brading.
The concerns she raised included children having to walk 1.8 miles along a busy road from Brading to The Bay area following a possible closure.
Kate added:
“Those children are going to arrive hungry, wet and cold – they will not be warm, fed and dry – and then they’ll be expected to learn”.
Vix chaired the meeting and drew comparisons between the possible closure of Brading CE Primary School and a similar situation in the west of the Island around 5 or 6 years ago. She had been a parish councillor in Freshwater when the Isle of Wight Council opened a consulation to close All Saints CE Primary School in the village.
Vix said:
“We had a campaign which involved members of the community, parents, children, governors – but in particular it also involved local business owners who let us meet in their cafes, in their businesses because they knew if the school in Freshwater shut it would be devastating for their businesses in the same way we have shops and busineses in Brading which are visited every day on school runs.”
In a rousing speech criticising the council documentation and reasoning behind possible school closures, Nick commented it had deliberately selected statistics which have long since been disregarded at secondary level in order to prove its case for closing schools they wanted to shut at the outset.
He also commented that, having met with Brading councillor and the council’s education cabinet member Jonathan Bacon recently, he believed Bacon was very clearly divided about the closure of Brading CE Primary School due to his ties to the area.
Last Thursday, Councillor Bacon and Director of Children’s Services Ashley Whittaker’s recommendation to start a consultation on the closure of 6 Island primary schools was passed by the council’s cabinet.
Nick said:
“Brading’s a well-run school, financially, it’s got £300,000 in excess in surplus in the bank.
“Now I ask you this, are you happy that your children are going to be placed into Sandown school, where they’re reducing the numbers of pupils that can attend there to 45 per year?
“So the Isle of Wight Council are either saying your child has got to be taught in a class of 45, or if we need to be taught in two classes of 30, with only funding for 75 per cent of those children.
“That school is in debt.”
Its such a shame this usless council will take no notice of not s dingle one of you.
just like they took no notice of all to 300+ highway restrictions they have approved that is every single one not some but every single one.
i wish you all good luck but sadly they won’t listen
‘Children having to walk 1.8 miles along a busy road from Brading to The Bay. Those children are going to arrive hungry, wet and cold – they will not be warm, fed and dry’
Well, I guess their parent(s) could feed them before their 1.8-mile hike and could walk with them, or they could catch a bus, or the train like a lot of other children do?
The fact that a child might have to walk further than the end of their road to school, or maybe catch a bus or train, isn’t really a reason which is going to convince the Council to change their minds. You need solid facts and figures, not emotional stuff like that.
As an aside, the ‘fairly small audience’ shown in the photo doesn’t seem to include many parents, unless I’m very mistaken, which seems strange? Are the majority of parents not that bothered? You’d have to assume not.