By Isle of Wight Observer
From the 1st of September 2018, The Bay CE School will be extending its age range to become the first All Through School located on the Island, providing education for children aged four to 16 years.
The school will comprise of two sites; the primary school site for pupils in reception to year six in Winchester Park Road and the secondary school site for years seven to 11 at The Fairway, Sandown.
With a new name and extended remit, a decision was taken by the Governing Board to
create a new school badge, under which both sites could together work as one new school.
Duncan Mills, Executive Headteacher of The Bay CE School explains: “It’s important that
all the children and staff feel that they belong to the same school and that together we have a clear sense of our identity. Our design brief aimed to capture the ethos of the school and create a new badge that we could all be proud to wear. We’ve been working closely with Solent, a local design consultancy, to develop this new look and we’re delighted with the result.”
The new school badge features a castle that represents the town of Sandown together with a union rose that reflects the combining of two schools into one new school. The rose and castle were a feature of several previous Sandown school badges and the rose is the national flower of England. Both the castle and the rose are featured with waves that are taken from the Isle of Wight county badge and that underline Sandown’s proximity to the sea.
The new badge, together with the full uniform will be presented to parents at meetings later in June.
Tim Addison, Managing Director of Solent added: “From the outset, there was an expectation by many that we would need to make a clear break with the past. In fact, we’ve embraced the history of both schools and looked to see how we could forge links to a time when most people felt that Sandown was a great place to go to school. My team are most proud of the great reaction that the new look has had from the children who will be wearing this badge on shirts and blazers from September.”
A number of options were produced, but the final decision was easy following feedback
from the students across both sites, which was positive and decisive. They chose this
version without hesitation.
The Bay CE School represents a watershed for education with the creation of the first
state all through school on the Isle of Wight.
Councillor Paul Brading, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services commented: “I love the
new badge and everything it represents. This is the Isle of Wight creating a positive and
forward thinking development for local education. We have the full backing of our MP,
the Department for Education and our colleagues at the Hampshire LA. I have no doubt
that under the stewardship of Duncan Mills and his team, this school is in safe hands and
will become a great place for educating young Islanders”.
A new website for the school has been produced so that everyone can keep in touch with
the latest developments and news. Please visit: bayceschool.org
