The latest attempt to close a rural Isle of Wight primary school has been lodged — for what could be the final time.
After a turbulent couple of months in the Isle of Wight Council’s education department, the future of Chillerton and Rookley Primary School could be decided once and for all, as senior leaders look posed to close it.
The school’s future has been debated since 2021 after its operational body, The Stenbury Federation, wrote to the council requesting the school be amalgamated with its sister school in Godshill, due to funding challenges.
Over the years, the school now has accumulated a deficit of more than £74,000 — equivalent to a third of the school’s annual budget.
It has been a rollercoaster of emotions for all those involved as over the years decisions were put forward, deferred or revoked while options for the school were considered.
Now though, the Isle of Wight Council has reached the same conclusion that amalgamating the two schools, through the closure of Chillerton and Rookley, would be the way forward.
The matter will be discussed tonight (Tuesday) by the council’s corporate scrutiny committee before the final decision is made on Thursday by the council’s cabinet.
If it were to be approved, the school would close on December 31.
Currently, there are nine pupils enrolled at the school but trouble recruiting a teacher has meant they have been educated in Godshill since January.
The school can take 91 pupils, and in September 2017 was teaching 85 children but the numbers have dropped drastically — with only two of the pupils living in Chillerton and three in Rookley.
A public meeting is being held tonight (Tuesday) to discuss school place planning and the issues the council is facing.
It is being held at Medina Theatre at 6.30pm.
Representations have been made from Island headteachers and school governors asking the council to deal with the issue of school place planning but no definitive answer has yet been devised.
Speaking at a meeting in June, one school governor said it had been almost a year since the matter was first raised meaning it had been another year to which the surplus places had been to the detriment of children’s entertainment.
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