Councillor Chris Whitehouse, a prominent Catholic who until recently led for Island Conservatives on education, has welcomed an announcement by the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth that Catholic schools on the Island may not now convert to academies.
Owing to the stark financial pressures schools are and will face and the apparent lack of political motivation to convert to become an academy, the Bishop and Trustees of the Diocese of Portsmouth have decided to halt plans to covert their schools into academies until the political outlook is more certain.
A spokesperson for the Diocese has said:
“Once the political picture has been clarified, we can work together to establish the most appropriate partnerships and structures needed to achieve the strengthening of the Catholic life and mission of our schools, the development and retention of Catholic teachers and leaders, whilst ensuring our schools continue to strive to be places of academic excellence”.
Cllr Whitehouse has said:
“Government attitudes towards academisation have changed, in part because of the poor record of AET and other academy sponsors, and there is no longer the same political pressure on schools to convert to academies.
“I welcome the prudent pause announced by the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth that had been willing to lead from the front in delivering academisation of all its schools, but has now observed a change in the political weather and wisely decided to put the programme on hold pending imminent clarification from Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, of her priorities for schools in the future.
“What matters is not the bureaucratic structure of any one school, whether it is an academy, a free school, a voluntary aided school or a community school. What matters is that a school has the right ethos, strong and effective leadership, collaborates with other schools and has high quality, committed teachers – those are among the key factors in delivering educational excellence upon which the Catholic Diocese and the Isle of Wight Council’s Conservative Administration are rightly focused.”
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