Weston Academy was an

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

run by the

Academies Enterprise Trust The Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) is a multi-academy trust in England. It is a non-profit, educational charitable trust, which sponsors schools with academy status. History Formally established in 2008 by the Greensward Charitable Trust (est ...

academy chain. It closed in 2015.

History

Previously called Weston Community Primary School, the school was located in

Totland Bay Totland Bay is a bay on the west coast of the Isle of Wight, England. It lies to the west of the village of Totland from which it takes its name. It faces north west and has a shoreline, which has a beach, concrete seawall, groynes and derel ...

in the far West of the

The school has always been a small school with fewer than 100 pupils. In 2011 it was threatened with closure by the local authority and the National Secular Society (NSS) stepped in to ask for a reprieve In order to avoid closure by the local authority, the primary school became an academy with the

(AET), becoming the first Primary Academy on the Isle of Wight. Weston had been graded as 'good' by OFSTED but as an AET academy the standards declined and it was graded as 'inadequate' (Special Measures) in 2015.

Closure controversy

In October 2015 AET announced that it was closing the school due to "falling pupil numbers." AET's reasons for closing the academy were publicly queried as it was stated that data showed pupil numbers were due to increase, not decline, and so it was claimed that AET was really closing the academy in order to save money. Further investigations showed that there was also a critical report from the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England. A Department ...

in June 2015 which was alleged to have contributed to AET's highly unusual decision to close the academy so quickly in the middle of a school year at December 2015 The last headteacher of Weston Primary School was Miss Rebecca Wood.

References

External links

The good schools guide: Weston Academy
{{coord missing, Isle of Wight Defunct schools on the Isle of Wight Educational institutions disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in England