Parents of children who have missed out on a place at the secondary school of their choice have revealed their anguish over the decisions.
Many children on the Isle of Wight have been refused school places at their first choice of secondary school despite already attending primary schools and living within the catchment areas.
Parents of children who had chosen to attend Cowes Enterprise College in September have hit out at the decision – with the reason given by the school being that the school doesn’t have enough places available. Further anger has come from the fact that the refusals come just 3 years after plans were unveiled to cut its intake from 270 to 210.
Other schools on the Isle of Wight are also oversubscribed, with Carisbrooke College, Ryde Academy and The Bay CE Secondary Academy also seeing prospective pupil numbers surpassing their Published Admission Numbers.
Both Ryde Academy and The Bay CE have agreed to increase their intake according to the Isle of Wight Council, but Ryde Academy will see the cost of taking on an extra 22 pupils come from its already stretched budget.
The Ormiston Academy Trust which is responsible for the running of Cowes Enterprise College has so far seemingly been reluctant to follow suit after an unsuccessful attempt to gain more funding from the Council.
Many secondary schools on the Island have seen their intake numbers and number of places reduced over previous years – but it’s not just the figures that have changed.
Carisbrooke College for example – which used to boast one of the largest school campuses in the country – has seen its site largely reduced in size as part of a rebuild of its facilities, with several classroom blocks demolished.
The College has now seen an additional 70 applications made on top of its admission figure of 120 – a total capacity of 660 students in comparison to its much larger previous number in 2013 of over 1200.
Cowes Enterprise College reduced its Published Admission Numbers in 2018 after expressing concern that there were not enough children to fill them – but just 3 years later, a waiting list is now in place with approximately 90 children awaiting a place.
On the Island, 21% of students didn’t obtain a place at their first-choice school, with around 10% of children missing out on a place at any of their preferred schools.
Time for a new school or 2, instead of keeping that damn floating bridge going.
Time to pull chid tax credits, so as only wanted children are born and they are not just ‘used’ to obtain a free home and meal ticket for 18 years.
I was led to believe that the island was full of pensioners and all the young families movd over to the mainland?
doesn’t take a genius to work out why – the woefully inept house building strategy bringing more people to the island, where the existing infrastructure cannot handle the influx of demand.
shouldn’t be building any more houses – the warning signs are flashing red…no space at schools, Dr, Dentist, Hospital, roads and other services.
isle of wighter, all true, we all know it. Yet also all the planners, developers, land owners and councillors know it too.
BUT IF you were any of them, making so much money from such, that you could then afford to live miles away from the crime, anti social behaviour, the busy streets, NEVER again worrying over plebs children in classrooms as you were sending your child to private education. Never then having to worry over dentists and medical care as your family were all privately treated for health BECAUSE you just ‘ruined’ people you don’t know or care for lives, can you honest say ‘you’ wouldn’t grab and take all you could?
jerry – there are plenty of other ways of making money and doing exactly the same things you indicate- no one needs to build houses and ruin the environment to do it.
Blame dim parents always late putting in preferences..then moan because miss out..same old story.