Behind the Isle of Wight ‘ghetto’ headlines is an extremely complex educational picture

Ofsted chair David Hoare’s controversial comments may have attracted coverage, but both he and the media fail to understand what is going on in the island’s school system.

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.

….

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.

Read the full article here.