Mr Jonathan Finch

Chair of the Governing Body

Carisbrooke College and Medina College
Fairlee Road
Newport
Isle of Wight
PO30 2DX
Rt Hon Justine Greening MP
Secretary of State for Education
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
20th March 2017

Dear Ms Greening,

In November 2016, I wrote a plea to our local MP, Mr Andrew Turner in respect of the funding crisis in education and
asking for assistance from him in relation to this. I have enclosed a copy of this letter as the general content is still
relevant despite the rapidly changing nature of education.

I have now met with Mr Turner and he suggested that I write to you as secretary of state to present a case to the DfE
that there are special reasons why the Island deserves a larger proportion under the new National Funding Formula
consultation. I hope that he has already spoken to you about this matter to enable you to be foresighted of the
current issues on the Island and the reasons behind this letter.

In writing to you I have the support of various Governing body chairs from across the Isle of Wight who are listed at
the end of this letter as signatories, together with Trustees of the Island Innovation Trust, who also support the
views expressed.

As Governing Body chairs for schools on the Island, we wish to highlight three principal reasons as to why the Isle Of
Wight deserves additional financial support beyond what is being offered through the revised funding formula.

1) There is no BESD (Behavioural, emotional and social difficulties) provision on the Island. This results in students
who, for a variety of reasons, find it hard to access mainstream education. In other parts of the country, specialist
provision is provided to enable these students to successfully access education in a tailored way to help them reach
their potential. On the Island, due to a lack of specialist provision, many of these children are retained in main
stream education, meaning that money is spent (rightly so) in helping all students to achieve their potential,
stretching budgets that are already tight. This applies to both our Primary as well as our Secondary schools here on
the Island.

2) There are no recognised Outstanding schools within the secondary provision on the Island and just one
outstanding primary school. Whilst there are many improvements on the Island, it is always vital for staff continuing
professional development, to have the opportunity to visit Outstanding provision and learn best practice. For our
staff and senior leaders, this will require a trip to the mainland. This results in not only travel costs, but most
importantly time out of school to facilitate this. This is different to schools on the mainland who are able to travel
locally to learn best practice and to enable professional CPD to continue. For our Primary schools, this is also of
relevance to ensure that best practice and staff development is available to all Teachers on the Island.
3) Recruitment of high quality staff in certain subject areas has added difficulty on the Island. Whilst I recognise
that attracting people to the teaching profession is becoming more difficult due to the funding crisis, on the Island
attracting staff means that for practical reasons, they will need to move to the Island. This is a huge decision for any
family and results in unique difficulties in recruitment.

There are many other factors and reasons why the Isle of Wight should be recognised as having unique challenges
and difficulties and these may be alluded to by others on the Island with or without the support of our MP. We all
certainly feel that in comparison the Island is deserving of more funding to help education across the Island and
enable our children to have the best opportunities to achieve to their potential.

As Chairs of Governors, we jointly welcome the opportunity to invite you to the Island to visit our schools and to
discuss the contents of this letter further.

We look forward to your response.

Kind regards,

Joe Finch
Chair of the Governing Body for Carisbrooke College and Medina College

Matt Atkins, Chair of the Governing Body for Medina House School, Newport

Nigel Blair, Chair of the Governing Body for Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, East Cowes

Carla Bradshaw, Chair of the Governing Body for the Federation of Shalfleet and Yarmouth Primary Schools

Rob Ellis, Chair of the Governing Body for Haylands Primary School, Ryde

Viv Garrett, Chair of the Governing Body for Northwood Primary School Academy Trust

Jacqui Lamb, Chair of the Governing Body for St Helens Primary School

Ian Looseley, Vice Chair of the Governing Body St Saviours Primary School, Totland

Katrina Rigby, Chair of the Governing Body for the Federation of St Marys and St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic
Primary Schools

Sue Wheeler, Chair of the Governing Body for St Georges Special School, Newport