Welcome to Isle of Wight Parent Partnerships

Parent Partnerships helps parents and carers whose children have special educational needs, from pre-school age until they leave school.

We support parents across the the Isle of Wight. If you or your child's teacher think there may be a special educational need, we may be able to help.

Many children have difficulties learning at some stage of their school life and parents need information to help them make decisions about their child's education. We can explain how the education system works and how pre-schools, schools and local authorities aim to meet special educational needs.

Details of workshops and booking forms will be available here soon!  To express your interest please click here

Proposed new way forward for school admissions

The Isle of Wight Council has launched a consultation on proposals for a new way school admissions are arranged.
The proposals would also mean children with an elder sibling at a school will be given priority for places at the time of an application. This will mean young family members can learn at the same school.
Currently, parents who live in a catchment area are given priority for the school that serves that particular area, even though this may not be the nearest school to a parent's home address.
Catchment areas removed -
Under the new admissions proposals, catchment areas will effectively be removed and parents will now be given priority for their closest school.
However, parents will still have the opportunity to express a preference for their choice of school. As with the current admissions policy, parents will still be required to submit their first, second and third choice schools.  These do not have to be the closest school to their home address and places at these schools will only be allocated once priority admissions  from parents living closer to the school have been awarded.

 You can view the consultation documents by going to www.iow.gov.uk/council/consultation/schoolad.asp
 
Comments can be submitted until 4.30pm on Wednesday 22 February 2012.
 
You can email comments to admissions.consultations@iow.gov.uk or by post to Schools and Learning Business Support,
Isle of Wight Council, County Hall, Newport, PO30 1UD

 Changes to DfE funded parental helpline on exclusion matters

There have been some changes to the Department of Education's funded parental helpline on exclusion matters.
From the 30th of September, this service will be provided by The Children's Legal Centre. The CLC aims to provide free legal advice and information to parents on education matters. They can be contacted on 0845 345 4345 or on www.childrenslegalcentre.com The advice line is open from 9.00 am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday.
The Dof E are also currently updating their on-line guidance: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/behaviour/exclusion.

IPSEA

has launched a survey to find out more about what is happening as schools become academies. To find out more please visit visit  www.ipsea.org.uk

New Online Questionnaires  for Parents

Ofsted has launched Parent View, a new online questionnaire that will allow parents and carers to give their views on their child's school at any time of the year. Covering over 22,000 schools across England, the 12-question survey will help other parents as they make important choices about their child's education and provide Ofsted with information about schools that will help inform priorities for inspection.

You can access the site at http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/   after which you'll be able to search for results for schools or if you have children attending a school, register to complete a questionnaire. The questions have been carefully chosen to cover those issues that parents have told Ofsted are the most important to them. They are also designed to provide Ofsted with the information to support decisions about inspection and will give headteachers a direct route into gathering the views of their parent group. 

Launching Parent View, Baroness Sally Morgan, Ofsted Chair said:
"Parent View will give mums and dads a voice and will give Ofsted important feedback about their children's schools"

The long awaited Government Green Paper on Special Educational Needs has been published

What does it mean for your child?  Read the summary here or find out more on the DFE website
http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/CM%208027