Weston Community School on the Isle of Wight has been saved from closure by its local council after the school was successfully granted an Academy Order by the Department for Education earlier yesterday. The order allows the school to become an Academy School and operate outside of local authority control.
At the beginning of August the Accord Coalition wrote to the Isle of Wight Council after the authority proposed to close the school, urging that it instead explore options that would not reduce the number of places at inclusive schools in its jurisdiction. Had Weston Community School been closed then the West of the island would have only been served at the primary level by faiths schools that discriminated on religious grounds in their pupil admissions policy.
Local parent Jeremy Cangialosi, who helped run the local campaign and has four children at the school, said, ‘I don’t think our confidence would have held up so well without all the support and advice we got from the BHA [British Humanist Association], the Accord Coalition and all the other members and individuals who stood up for the campaign – thank you.’
Chair of the Accord Coalition, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, said ‘Schools should be open and suitable to all children, no matter what their parents’ or their own beliefs, and classrooms be as diverse as the local area from which a school draws its pupils, helping to promote better mutual understanding between children from different backgrounds as they grow up and learn together.
‘We are therefore delighted that the campaign against the council’s initial plan has succeeded and the number of places at inclusive schools on the Isle of Wight will now be maintained.’
