Brading Crowd Braves Downpour For School Closure Protest

A crowd braved downpour by Brading’s Bull Ring this morning (Monday) to protest against the potential closure of the town’s primary school.

Assembling around the corner from Brading CE Primary School, parents, pupils and members of the wider community held signs reading: ‘We Need You – SOS’.

The protest grew in size from 8am onwards, with children chanting ‘save our school’ as cars streamed by.

Campaign group Save Brading School organised the demonstration in response to the Isle of Wight Council’s School Place Planning Proposals, approved by County Hall’s cabinet last month and currently under consultation until November 1.

Cabinet member Jonathan Bacon and director of children’s services Ashley Whittaker’s plans include a possible closure of primary schools in Arreton, Oakfield, Brading, Wroxall, Cowes and Godshill.

The recommendations, which have been met with resistance through petitions and protests, aim to reduce surplus school places and expand special educational needs provision as part of a new Island education strategy.

As to why Brading CE Primary School has been marked for potential closure, the council has said:

“Due to the level of surplus places within the Sandown and Shanklin planning area, reductions must be made and school closures are not avoidable.

“Brading Church of England Primary School is currently judged ‘good’ by Ofsted and has been for the last two inspections, although academic performance has been consistently below national and local averages in attainment measures.

“The school has been under-subscribed in each of the last two years and pupil numbers fall significantly short of the school’s published admission number each year.”

Those gathered in the cold from were not however convinced by County Hall’s line.

One protester Paul Garratt said:

“I think the village needs a school, it’s going to cause transport problems for lots of people.

“It’s shifting cost onto the people rather than bearing them centrally – it just feels wrong.

“This is a successful school with good results. It’s the wrong choice – there are choices that might be better.”

Nick Binfield, protest organiser and parent of two children at the school, said:

“The closure of the school is wrong – the school serves a really disadvantaged community – the school makes absolutely outstanding progress yet the picture that’s being painted by the council is not the picture that parents here recognise.

“The council’s thinking lacks imagination.

"There are situations on the mainland, for example in rural Nottinghamshire where their population is predicted to decline in primary schools to a similar amount to ours here, yet they’re choosing not to close rural primary schools, they’re asking rural primary schools to achieve savings by working together.”

Kate Benson, a trustee of Brading Community Partnership, said:

“We take the view that it takes a village to raise a child and that’s what we do in Brading – people look after each other.

“This school is part of the community – it’s a crucial part of the community and to take it away would take the heart out of Brading.

“It’s just had a huge amount of money spent on it to expand it so we were absolutely shocked when we heard that Brading was on the list.”