Opposition to the proposed closure of 6 Isle of Wight primary schools has been stepped up with another protest held this morning (Wednesday) – this time outside Oakfield Primary School.
Parents, teachers and community campaigners have called public meetings and organised petitions to try and put a stop to proposals to close schools in Arreton, Brading, Cowes, Godshill, Oakfield and Wroxall.
Earlier this morning a silent protest – silent as to not further disrupt pupil’s learning – was attended in Ryde as families fight against the closure of Oakfield Primary.
Current plans will see the primary school closed and transformed into a satellite of Medina House special school.
Campaigner Jen Hughes’s ‘Save Oakfield C of E Primary School in Ryde’ petition has 1,039 signatures.
In Arreton, parents of children at Arreton St George’s CE Primary School staged a protest outside the school on Monday, as previously reported by Island Echo. A petition to save the school has so far gathered 381 signatures.
Over in Brading, the campaign to save the town’s Church of England primary school has called a public meeting which will take place at 18:30 on Thursday 19th September at St Mary’s Church. Ahead of that, a protest is planned outside the school gates at 08:10 tomorrow (Thursday).
Another protest is also planned outside County Hall at 16:00 tomorrow as the Isle of Wight Council’s cabinet convene to discuss the closures and get the ball rolling.
Brading resident Lee Keenan has also started a petition opposing the closure which currently has 393 signatures.
A parent spokesperson for the Brading campaign said:
“We need as many people who support our school and our town’s future to get together behind our campaign to save our school.
“The staff are fantastic and support our children so well. We must get together to keep Brading Primary School open!”
Meanwhile, Godshill parent Laura Dupré’s petition to save her village’s primary school has reached 416 signatures. Wayne Sheath’s petition to save the school has 271 signatures.
A public meeting with Wroxall Parish Council and Councillor Rodney Dower who represents Wroxall, Lowtherville and Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight Council, will discuss the closure of Wroxall Primary School at 20:00 on 16th September at Stenbury Hall.
Also on 16th September, the Save Cowes Primary School campaign will host a meeting at Cowes Primary School at 18:00. Craig Gillam’s ‘Save Cowes Primary School’ petition has collected 414 signatures.
Councillor Jonathan Bacon, cabinet member for children’s services, has previously said:
“Our results are extremely poor in comparison to other areas and have been for many years. We must do better.
“The first step is to acknowledge the problem. With our new education department, which is focussed solely on Island children, we have been able to do that. This is essential so that we can now work to address the issue rather than side-stepping it, as has been the case for too long.
“As has been made clear, we have serious structural challenges, including, most urgently, the oversupply of places in primary schools.
“Following what the data tells us means we are facing some incredibly difficult decisions on reducing the number of school places across the Island. This is the only way to ensure that we can minimise the long-term negative impact on the Island’s education.”
Sorry parents,but you are wasting your time,the decision has been made by our dopey council,and theres nothing you can do about it,at the end of the day its all about one thing MONEY,and more than likely,there will be developers already queuing in the background,ready to build shoddy,overpriced shoeboxes for the migrunt influx.
I can understand parents being upset that the school their child attends is closing, but standing outside with a few placards is not going to change anything.
You need to show clear, logically thought out reasons why the school needs to stay open. That means facts and figures about class sizes, SATS results etc.
If Oakfield School is closed, for instance, where are all the kids who move into the Pennyfeathers estate going to go to school? There’s something like 900 homes planned for that site, and that’s an awful lot of kids looking for school places in the coming years. Wouldn’t Oakfield be one of the nearest schools for that estate?
The Council won’t respond to half a dozen people standing outside the school holding up pieces of cardboard. If the school should remain open, you need to convince them why.
If it is deemed sensible to close numerous schools because of the falling birth rate, then there can be no need to build more houses because of the shrinking population..
Government housing policy clearly states planning permission should be based on local needs, i.e the difference between births and deaths in the area.
As the clear trend here is more deaths than births and an aging population, none are needed.
This does not condone closure of so many schools though if cost is the only determinant.
A considerable amount could be saved by standardised on-line interactive audio-visual video teaching with the syllabus “taught” by a person every lesson followed by selective choice questions and answers to see if they listened and understood it.
This solves the problem of kids learning nothing for a year and then being given an exam about things they have forgotten about and failing.
If they fail that daily or weekly on-line test, they stay behind and have to
pass the test they did pass the lesson before, thus helping them memorise it and incentivise them to learn.
No teachers are needed to design or mark the course, its national curriculum AI designed. Fewer teachers cheaper schooling, all pupils get the same education.
Those families need to have the kids to fill the spaces. Science tells me that might take a fair few years. You don’t see enough people with young families moving here because we are cut off from what the UK has to offer due to the awful cost of ferries and lack of jobs here.
Council need to address their future plans in line with their forward planning re future housing developments. Ratepayers want to know…for instance if they close Oakfield are they planning on building a new school for the planned new Estate, or are these homes not destined for families?