The Isle of Wight Council’s children’s services will come under the spotlight today (Thursday), with figures showing only half of the Island’s secondary schools being graded good or better by Ofsted.
The children’s services, education and skills committee (CSESC) will examine the operational and financial performance of the children’s services directorate – currently budgeted at over £40million.
A 2024/25 performance report due to be presented to councillors later on displays diverging outcomes for the Island’s mainstream primary and secondary schools. Its most recent figures show 75.68% of primary schools being graded good or better by Ofsted, compared to only 50% of secondary schools.
Ofsted stopped using overall effectiveness grades as part of its inspection reports in September 2024.
Suspensions rates are also contrasted: 3.27 out of 100 pupils for primaries and 26.90 for secondaries.
The report notes ongoing high levels of need among children, young people and families ‘in common with experiences of children’s services teams across the country’.
It says:
“Requests for education, health and care plans remains high, with 96 requests during the summer term 2024/2025, this is lower than the number received in the spring term (156).
Article continues below this advertisement “As part of the 2025/26 budget strategy, an additional £4.1 million has been allocated to the children’s services department to address pressures identified during the budget-setting process.
“This includes funding for increased staffing needs associated with the ongoing reform of the social care system.
“The Children Looked After budget, which primarily funds homes for children in our care, remains the key driver behind the overspend in Children’s Services.
“This financial pressure has been impacted by a rise in the complexity of children’s needs, leading to increased placement costs and a decrease in the number of local authority foster carers.”
Education and health care plans are for children and young people aged up to 25 who require more support than is available through special educational needs support, according to the government. They identify educational, health and social needs and lay out extra support to cater to those needs.
CSESC will meet at County Hall at 17:00.
Twenty-six point nine out of a hundred — 26.9% — “suspensions” in the Island’s secondary schools?!?! Thart refers to kids being excluded for a time from their schools and their education, doesn’t it? That’s catastrophic, not least because they’re increasingly missing out on the remaining “civilising” effects of education! There must be sheer mayhem in some schools’ classrooms. Gawd help the poor “teachers”, too, not to mention the 73.1% of kids who are civilised enough to want to learn something. The school system has evidently gone to pot — I’m so glad that my own kids and grandkids, growing up outside the UK, haven’t had to face such chaos!
The problem is kids are having kids, also many
children come from single parent homes and some
young mums change their partners all the time
so it is not surprising that children are confused.
In the good old days, people met, got married and had
children, not in todays society.