Education Reforms On The Isle of Wight - History

History

In 2004, the Isle of Wight Council undertook a consultative process aimed at changing local education structure, to a two tier school system which would bring the island in line with the rest of the country. The move was opposed by a lobby known as Standards not Tiers based in Upper Ventnor and the Conservatives, who, after they won the local council elections in May 2005 shelved the proposals pending further investigation.

The Annual Performance Assessment of the Isle of Wight Council's Education and Children's Social Care Services 2005, carried out by Office for Standards in Education and the Commission for Social Care Inspection, found low levels of achievements for pupils in schools and a lack of significant and sustained progress over the last five years. Overall, the Isle of Wight Council’s capacity to improve its services for children and young people was judged to be 'adequate', out of the four ratings 'very good', 'promising', 'adequate' or 'inadequate'.

In 2006, the regional Learning and Skills Council proposed an option which meant replacing the secondary schools' sixth forms with central provision at the Isle of Wight College. In January 2007, the authority rejected this proposal, and instead offered its own, which included a reduced number of secondary schools and the retention of Year 9 pupils in Middle schools, extending their range to form 9-14 schools and 14-19 provision at High Schools, an arrangement adopted nowhere else in the United Kingdom.

The debate took on new urgency at the start of 2008, when three 'key options' were put forward by the Isle of Wight Council for public consultation, each of which meant the closure of at least half of the Island's primary schools. On 14 January 2008, the Council announced that at least 23 primary schools and one middle school (expected to be Nodehill Middle School) would be closed, whichever education pathway was chosen in March.