Most people who attended consultation meetings will be surprised to read the statement in Paper B (Cabinet Committee Report on School Organisation 24 November 2008) which says:
“…all meetings reminded respondents that they could still make representation in respect of the policy move from a primary, middle and high system to that of a primary and secondary system…”
This seems to contradict statements made on the 19th march 2008, when we all thought that the Isle of Wight Council made a decision to abolish middle schools and move to a 2-Tier system of education. This was the statement that they released at the time:
"At a meeting of the Full Council held this evening (19 March), members chose to take forward a new primary and secondary school education model to replace the existing primary, middle and high school structure. The details were outlined in a motion put forward to the Full Council by Leader Cllr David Pugh. As part of the decision, officers will now draw up proposals outlining which school sites will be retained. By choosing a model that allows one and two form entries, this will allow a larger number of primary schools to continue. No major changes will be brought in until at least September 2010.
Council Leader David Pugh said "It's been a long road already, but the decision to move towards implementing a two tier system now begins in earnest. Councillors, officers, parents, those involved in teaching and students now know in which direction the Island is heading. We will now work with all these groups to ensure a smooth transition to the new system."
Isle of Wight Council Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Alan Wells said "This is an historic day for education on the Isle of Wight. I want to publicly thank everyone, including governing bodies, who sent in representations during the consultation period. "Now we know that the Island will adopt a two tier system, officers will be producing a full and detailed implementation plan and the roles each school site will play."
This was further reinforced by Steve Beynon (Director of Children's Services when he addressed the St Helen's Consultation meeting which was recorded:
“One thing I want to make clear. It is not my duty to debate the policy of the Council here this evening. The Council has now set its policy. We’ll talk that through in a moment. I’m not here to debate it. I’m here to talk about the implications of that policy and for you to make comments, to seek clarification and to work through with you how you might choose to make your representations about that policy. This is the Council’s policy, as determined on the 19th March, to move from the current three tier model to a primary/secondary model. The primary schools will be ‘all through’ primary schools from 4 –11 and secondary schools will be 11 – 19. The primary schools will be established with having one and two form classes per year group. That is a minimum size of one form entry per primary school. That means at least around 27 – 28 pupils per year group giving a school size of around 200, as a minimum. Secondary schools will be established and, in response to comments about the size of secondary schools where appropriate they will have separate lower and upper secondary sections. Not separate schools but separate sections within school. They might be one site in some cases and might be on two sites for example the proposal is that the new Sandown secondary school will have the Sandham site as well as its existing site.”