By SC Cook, A home made poster for the campaign to save Churchstoke Primary, one of the schools earmarked for closure. Photo, Rebecca Gotthardt
Parents, teachers and school workers have hit back at plans by Powys County Council to close four rural primary schools that they say will tear small communities apart.
Over 130 children across the county face returning from lockdown with the news that their school could soon no longer be in existence, and the prospect of long bus journeys to wherever they end up.
Parents have spoken about how heartbroken they are, with one describing being in tears every day since the announcement was made.
The proposals to shut Castle Caereinion Church in Wales (CiW) Primary, Churchstoke County Primary, Llanbedr CiW Primary and Llanfihangel Rhydithon County Primary would also see jobs disappear from rural Wales and could impact children’s mental health.
Workers in the schools, which span the large rural county, have said that closing them will have a “significant negative effect” on the social fabric of the communities they serve. Their union, the National Education Union Cymru, has said that extra anxiety over their jobs and pupils’ education is the last thing they need during the pandemic.
The planned closures were announced last week and put through to consultation in a council meeting Tuesday. There is now around 40 days before a final decision is made, but both parents and workers say they’ll fight to save the schools.
Lost Friendships
“I’m so upset and angry, I’ve cried every day since I heard the news,” says Rebecca Gotthardt, who started sending her daughter to Churchstoke County Primary in September.
She describes the school in Montgomery as the heart of the community, which connects “everything and everyone within the village.”
On top of this, she worries that the mental health of the children affected hasn’t even been considered by the council.
“They would lose friendships, family members… due to maybe having to move and being split from their friends and teachers in different schools.”
The council says there are currently around 36 children registered at Churchstoke primary school, but with 28 houses having just been built in the village, and a further 100 houses either in construction or soon to start building, more children will inevitably arrive.
Rebecca points out the threat to Welsh language education from the closure. Three out of four of the council’s proposed alternative schools are over the border in England, meaning children won’t be taught any Welsh at all. In addition, the playgroup attached to Churchstoke primary would also disappear. In response to the news, a save our school campaign has been launched.
Isolation
In a statement written in consultation workers in the affected schools, the National Education Union Cymru’s Powys branch says that “if the school were to close, the community could lose its central hub for activities…for people of all ages to gather, celebrate and build social networks and relationships.”
“Each school is the focal point for not only the village but also the communities of the parishes and the remote surrounding areas,” they write. “The schools host numerous events…[and] also makes a significant difference to the problem of isolation for both younger and older people. Some people that visit the schools live in sparsely populated areas miles from the school, but they still join together for these events.”
The union attacked the timing of the announcement during the Coronavirus pandemic, and said that it “only adds to the difficulties faced by families and staff members, and the local community.
“Gut wrenching”
On Tuesday the council voted unanimously to close all four schools, much to the shock and anger of parents who had joined the Zoom meeting.
“It was absolutely gut wrenching to hear the way the schools are spoken about in such a business like manner,” says Janine Phillips, who sends her 7 year old child to Llanbedr Church in Wales School, Crickhowell, and had planned to enrol her two year old there as well.
“When the unanimous vote came to forge ahead with plans to close all 4 schools I felt physically sick and all I could think was if this is how I’m feeling how the hell is Bailey going to deal with this…”
She describes the feeling as “heart-breaking,” and can’t bear the idea that the school – which has around 40 children attending – will close.
“As a parent, to have to flip your child’s world upside down, due to another person’s actions, especially at such uncertain times… unforgivable when our children are already displaced due to Covid.”
On a petition page launched for one of the other affected schools, Castle Caereinion CiW Primary, parents point out that the school in North Powys has great outdoor space for learning and large classrooms. These could soon be lost, along with the recreation hall and the pre-school group which are used beyond the 23 pupils who attend. The fourth school earmarked for closure, Llanfihangel Rhydithon County Primary School in Llandrindod Wells, has 37 children who attend.
For many small communities in Wales, the primary school is the only thing that’s survived a twelve year period of austerity where so many services have been shut down. Libraries, youth and leisure centres, GP surgeries and post offices: many of these places which brought people together have gone.
Determination
Unions, parents and school workers now have a matter of weeks to stop the final decision on closure going through.
“Deflated and heartbroken, but then more determination in saving our school,” was Rebecca’s reaction to the meeting on Tuesday. NEU Cymru has written to local authorities saying that no workers should be made redundant.
Petitions have been launched for Churchstoke, Llanbedr and Castle Caerinion, but more may be needed to save the schools.
Lessons can be learned from the successful campaign to stop the closure of the Royal Glamorgan A&E department in South Wales recently. In January last year, the health board announced it would shut down the emergency service, provoking a ferocious backlash from people across The Rhondda. A campaign was launched, an activist network established and huge meetings and rallies held.
The scale of the fightback took the health board by surprise, and even before Covid hit they were finding it hard to justify closure and eventually scrapped the idea.
Just this month, following a national campaign involving unions and people all across Wales, 30 job cuts at the National Library of Wales were stopped when Welsh Government performed a U-turn and suddenly announced funding.
The situation presents its own challenges in Powys, given the size of the county and the fact that the communities are smaller than somewhere like the Rhondda. But nevertheless, a united campaign bringing together people from each community, workers and their unions can build wider solidarity and put pressure on the council and Welsh Government.
