Ofsted Chairman David Hoare has withdrawn his recent controversial remarks about the Isle of Wight. At a teacher conference he described the Island as “a ghetto… a mass of crime, drug problems, huge unemployment.”
The comments received huge publicity nationally and were questioned by many. The Isle of Wight is known to have a very low crime rate and is in the top 20 per cent of safest areas in the country, it has no significant issues with drug use and average levels of unemployment are not any different to the national average. Councillor Jonathan Bacon, the Leader of Isle of Wight Council, spoke with David Hoare over the weekend and they have now issued a joint statement.
David Hoare said:
“I have offered Councillor Bacon a full and unreserved apology for my recent comments. I would like to publicly extend this apology to everyone on the Isle of Wight.
“I understand that some of my specific comments were offensive as well as being unfounded. For this I am truly sorry.
“I now also recognise that my comments regarding crime, drug-use and unemployment on the Island were factually inaccurate and I therefore formally retract them here.
“As I made clear in the statement I issued on Friday, my intention had been to highlight the problem of poor educational outcomes in many of our coastal communities, especially among low-income white British children. I was using the Isle of Wight as an example to illustrate this point because of the concerns Ofsted has raised in the past about low schools standards on the Island.
“I would like to formally acknowledge that while there is much more still to do, school standards on the Isle of Wight are rising. The overall performance of both secondary and primary schools has been improving steadily over the past few years and the quality of the school improvement support provided by the council was found to be effective when last inspected by Ofsted.
“I would therefore like to place on record my appreciation for the hard work of students, teachers, school leaders and educational professionals and their role in bringing about this improvement.
“Following my conversation with Councillor Bacon, I now have a better understanding of the particular challenges and barriers facing island communities like the Isle of Wight, including around the recruitment and retention of professionals such as teachers. I am keen to assist its residents by making sure these challenges and problems are fully recognised.
“There are many positive lessons to be learnt from the past three years on the Island and huge signs of optimism for the future. The Isle of Wight is a wonderful part of the country, as is recognised not only by those who live there and move there to achieve a safe and rewarding quality of life for their families, but by the thousands of people who seek its benefits of tranquillity, beauty and many points of interest when holidaying there each year.”
Councillor Jonathan Bacon in welcoming Mr Hoare’s comments, said: “If Mr Hoare had been describing an inner-city area in the terms he had there would likely be significant levels of government intervention and funding to turn around the ‘causes’ of poor educational performance. But, because the causes are less easy to define for an Island or indeed a coastal community, and because in general terms we get bracketed with the prosperous south east of England, the Isle of Wight always seems to get overlooked for the help and assistance it deserves. Nevertheless, we have delivered the needed improvements in educational performance as identified by Ofsted in 2013.
“We are a strong, proud and resourceful community and have had, in partnership with Hampshire County Council, an unrelenting focus on the things that really matter in education – improving the quality of learning and teaching, making the curriculum more relevant, challenging, stimulating and developing leadership and management at all levels.
“But I am concerned that our rate of progress will be slowed as government continues to reduce our levels of funding to support education and public services in general, unless it recognises our unique challenges as an island.
“I am very pleased that Mr Hoare has agreed to come to the Isle of Wight to learn more about the challenges we face and ensure that Ofsted is playing the fullest possible part, working alongside the other agencies, to support the further improvement of educational outcomes on the Island.
“I am therefore content to accept the unreserved apology made by Mr Hoare on behalf of the Isle of Wight Council and look forward to welcoming him to the Island in due course.”
