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Pupil Shortages Threat to Schools

Posted on: Saturday, 16 July 2005, 12:00 CDT

FALLING pupils numbers may force the closure of North Wales primary schools, education bosses revealed yesterday.

The move could see dozens of teachers and classroom assistants losing jobs.

Education chiefs across North Wales are drawing up a list of radical solutions.

In Wrexham they include closing schools, giving them a new lease of life as community venues, axing spare space or merging schools.

Anglesey and Gwynedd are also looking at slashing surplus places.

Denbighshire councillors will meet again next week over cutting places after its initial plans to close and merge rural primary schools met a storm of parent protest.

Wrexham primary schools have almost 2,800 spare places, the second highest surplus in Wales.The figure is expected to rise to more than 3,000 by 2010.

In just 13 W r e x h a m i n f a n t a n d junior schools and two nurse r i e s a l o n e t h e r e a r e m o r e t h a n 1,000 spare places.

W r e x h a m council child r e n a n d young people scrutiny committee co-chairwoman Shn Wilkinson said the council needed to know all the problems before looking at solutions.

"We have come up with the problems but we do not have the solutions."

In September 2004 there were 2,065 spare places in Gwynedd's primary schools, and 648 empty desks in the county's secondary schools.

In Denbighshire, authority bosses held seminars and met communities and school heads.

Dewi Owens, cabinet member for lifelong learning, said: "Feedback has convinced a working group, established to review the initial proposals, that a fresh approach is required to examine in more detail the whole agenda for modernising education in Denbighshire."

On Anglesey, a county council working group is investigating its 2,000 surplus school places.

CASE STUDY 'We're full up - and there'll be a fight if they try to close us'

FRONCSYLLTE CP School, near Corwen, has twice successfully fought off closure threats over the last 25 years.

During the 1980s, it was feared the school would shut due to its large number of surplus places.

In 1999, plans to establish a larger school in nearby Trevor sparked another fight by parents and staff to keep it open.

The school, with 69 pupils, is currently nearly full, with only two spare places.

Parents, teachers and governors said that they would fight any plans to close the school, believing that such rural schools played a vital part in the education system.

A school governor spokeswoman said: "We only have one or two surplus places at the moment and are full up.

"We were given a glowing report in 2001, so we don't think we will be closed. But any moves to do so and the council would have a major fight on their hands.

"The governing body is against the closure of rural schools which provide so much more than larger schools and are friendlier.

"Closing rural schools would not solve the problems that are faced. There would be a big transport problem."

Parents, teachers and governors of Ysgol Froncysyllte, near Corwen, are experienced in fighting off closure threats

Source: Daily Post; Liverpool

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