Parents and volunteers, together with Parish and County Councillors, have published a proposed alternative to the closure of All Saints Primary School in Freshwater this September.
The proposed community solution comprises 3 parts: a new leadership team for All Saints; optimising the capacity of local Anglican schools to raise educational standards; and an extended schools programme to generate income.
There has been a school in Freshwater since the year 1715. Out of 606 enrolled primary school children living in the West Wight, 367 live in Freshwater or Totland and 344 of these attend West Wight schools. These 344 children would be sufficient to fill All Saints (210 places) and St. Saviour’s in Totland (140 places) almost to capacity, if parents had confidence in the future of All Saints.
The Hampshire County Council proposal to close All Saints would leave Freshwater and Totland with only 1 school at St Saviour’s, while the more rural part of the West Wight, east of the River Yar, would retain 3 schools for just 239 local children.
According to the Isle of Wight Council, there are 91 pupils at Yarmouth School of which 69 live in Freshwater or Totland (76%), 176 pupils at Shalfleet School of which 56 live in Freshwater or Totland (32%), and 123 pupils at Brighstone of which 17 live in Freshwater or Totland (14%). There are 279 more places than local children in these 3 schools.
Freshwater parish councillor Daniel James commented:
“All Saints is the local primary school for the largest community of West Wight families. With new teaching staff, academic results are improving significantly. It remains to be seen whether Hampshire County Council will leave the school open so that it can obtain a ‘Good’ rating from Ofsted.
“I would encourage all local residents to read the counter-proposal created by parents and councillors, and make sure they respond to the Council’s consultation at https://www.iow.gov.uk/news/West-Wight-schools-consultation-live which ends on April 15th”.
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The community proposal is available to download at https://www.dropbox.com/s/gkskl1sfbfl6f6x/all_saints_proposal-draft7.pdf.
