Some ill-judged remarks may mask the real issues and prevent support and assistance.

Reports of Ofsted chair David Hoare’s comments to the Teach First conference have already resulted in calls for his resignation from many sectors of the Isle of Wight community.

Mr Hoare may well regret reports made to references he made to a “ghetto” on the Isle of Wight. Feelings are already running high in council departments and in the local paper there are calls for an apology at the very least.

Undoubtedly offence has been caused, but underneath the unflattering depiction of the island there are complex issues. To some extent, he recognises these problems in his other comments on social issues such as unemployment, although these afflict not just the island but many other communities nationally.

A quick read of the local press will quickly show that actually the crime rate on the island is very low.

What he is missing is a discernment of the particular failures deriving from national and local educational and organisational initiatives that combined so detrimentally for the island’s teachers and pupils. Perhaps if any good can come out of his faux pas, it might be that island pupils share more equitably in the benefits that their urban counterparts have derived from national funding and the work of charities such as Teach First and the Sutton Trust.

Economic and funding factors

In educational and economic terms the Isle of Wight suffers twice over: first as “an area of coastal deprivation” and secondly as an island. As a businessman, Mr Hoare would recognise that the crossing between the Isle of Wight and the mainland, in terms of cost to distance, is one of the most expensive in the world, which impacts significantly on the island’s prosperity and industry, trade and recruitment. 

The Isle of Wight ferry services do not attract subsidies accorded to ferry services of other island communities, hence in part the costly fares. Cheaper fares could also improve recruitment to the island of specialists in shortage school subjects in what is a difficult period of recruitment and retention nationally.

A more discerning judgement by Mr Hoare would have taken in the difficulties presented by serious underinvestment in the education of each island pupil. For example, in 2014 a pupil in Tower Hamlets would have attracted £8,595 spending compared with the Isle of Wight pupil receiving just over half that sum: £4,488.97. This inequality, even taking in the cost of living in London, must account for differences in outcomes. Unfortunately, the government has deferred any adjustment.

Structural probems 

Clearly documented in a draft report by the director of children’s services for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in 2013, arising from Ofsted’s damning report in 2012, are failures associated with the transition from the three-tier system to two-tier, and subsequent shortcomings by those responsible for embedding the reforms. Not least among them was that training for teachers at the sharp end of the reforms was “not forthcoming”. The document makes very sobering reading for any authority making wide-scale change to its systems.

Recent national reports show that the impact of academies has been mixed. Examination results from the island’s academies within different multi-academy trusts (MATs) indicate that MATs have not made the dramatic positive changes expected of them by their supporter, Michael Gove. Instead, the overall effect has been to fragment the island’s system and lose coherence. They were not the silver bullet and perhaps they needed to be more carefully monitored.

To be fair, there are strategies in the report of the director of children’s services to try to bridge the many gaps that were made by the transition and academisation, but they all focus too much on leaders and attendance. Without properly funded, concerted support, driven by a single person or group of committed and informed professionals, reforms will founder.

The ‘right kind of investment’

The Isle of Wight is a beautiful place to live, bring up children and work; and, contrary to Mr Hoare’s assertions, it does not have a high crime rate. It needs the right kind of investment in education because of the relative absence of large industry. Young people need to develop the skills, independence and confidence to look more widely for opportunities, maybe to start and grow businesses or to become self-employed. In the interests of social and economic equality it means providing an island education that is as good as the one funded and provided in the capital.

Mr Hoare made his presentation at a Teach First conference, an organisation that has had most of its success in London and other urban settings. Perhaps he hoped that Teach First would take up the gauntlet and extend its work with the schools and academies on the island and in similar communities. This would be one small way of redressing the inequities of the current funding for pupils. Perhaps it might draw in expertise from other charities such as the Sutton Trust and Education Endowment Foundation to provide overdue support. 

But islanders do not necessarily want charity or patronage, nor do they relish being denigrated for an educational situation over which they had - and continue to have - very little control. Fairer funding, focused and ongoing support would be steps in the right direction. But most of all, whoever wishes to ride to the rescue will have to recognise that teachers have been at the mercy of forces rather larger than themselves, and empower them to overcome the barriers they face.

Yvonne Williams is a teacher and resident of the Isle of Wight

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