DD's small village school may have to close because there are spare places in the nearest town.

[Fubsy]

Ive posted a little about it on my new blog

Is this happening to anyone else? I know of a school in Cornwall that closed last year.

We are rallying the troops, but do you think it is worth starting a petition to No 10 or anything like that?

Campaign at local level, not petition to no.10. Gordon Broon won't give a flying fuck.

But if your local MP is Tory or Lib Dem, get them on side.

Get councillors on your side. Local paper. All that sort of thing. Small schools which are under threat do get a reprieve if there is sufficient strength of feeling. Really angry feeling.

The cynic in me says that it helps if parents are "influential" people. A school round here (not ours, thankfully) is under threat of being merged with one in a less "desirable" area and the parents campaigning for it are, sadly, being ignored - partly, I think, because they are ordinary people without key jobs in council or city infrastructure.

UQD, Ive just come off the Govt petitions site, and one for having elephants as pets has got more signatories than one about the closure of village schools.

So I guess thats not the way to go!

I dint think we have any "influential" parents, but by god we have some gobby ones!

Good advice BTW, thanks.

Other ideas:

Does your local area/ town have an internet forum? Post something on there to rally support.

Look for articles about other schools which have been saved and see if you can get in touch with the key movers and shakers for advice. Recent one here

Is your area in a key marginal council ward where a potential councillor will be likely to get on side? This happened in Sheffield - Lib Dems took a seat from Labour on the "save the school" platform. It wasn't quite enough to swing the decision their way on the council, but it was very close.

Brilliant. Will look into all of these.

Get your local vicar/priest involved. What ever you do when you and your fellow petioning parents go to the local government meetings DO NOT HECKLE YOU LOOSE RESPECT AND RESPECT IS KEY, be as polite as possible. It worked for us, when our school was up for closure we were very respected for our 'good' behaviour.
Also, you need to do a time and motion study get several parents to do the school run to the town school, both before and after school, you could comment on how much earlier the children would have to leave, how the little ones woould have to hold there bladder. Get the local papers, tv and radio involved. Try to find a way in which your school is different from the town school, ie/ the kids are taught a different language, the religious aspect, is there any future building work on the cards for your village. Go to the council and have a snoop.
Get fundraising, the school should also have some sort of insurance to help with problems like this.
What ever you do, set up a comittee. Organise marches, tshirts, get the kids to make a huge banner we did a sheet of a4 for each child, get them to draw a picture of themselves showing them looking sad with a short piece of text above saying why they want it to stay open and laminate it and you can get it welded (sorry can't think of another word) and then we hung it up. My mate did this, I would have to ask her how she got it going.
You need to raise your profile and do some seious fundraise. But DONT HECKLE.

Thanks, violetsky. Did this happen to your school?

Sorry, I meant did they keep yours open in the end?

Yes, we was up for closure and we were reprived, and have stayed open.
I wasn't to clear about the school run thing. I ment do the school run to the town school, as if you wanted to be at the school in time for morning registration,

Fusby, I am still wary of the school being kept open. There is a school local to us which beat closure in 2004 but then went on to close last August. here I would google them (Ripple school) mind you they put up a very good fight the first time around.

We may be facing this soon too, seen a questionnaire go out and now rumours are circulating that most small village schools will face closure.

I am dreading it if we do get picked, I dont drive and the closest school is too far for DS to walk too and no pavement for most of the way.

Fubsy, some great suggestions here - as long as their are lots of parents like you I would fight it all the way.

The sad thing is that the DFCSF guidance for local authorities repeats again and again that this about losing the schools that are run down and really beyond repair.

But because of the way it is worded, it is also a licence to close small schools.

According to the Guidance paper itself LAs should be consulting local service users (including pupils!) service providers, investors, and child health services. Seeing as the consultation document has only just reached our school, and the questionnaire has to be returned by the 22nd Feb (the middle of our half term) it is unlikely many people know about it.

OK, it does not say outright that our school will be closed, but as we are one of the smallest in the county, and are only 3 miles from the nearest town, we are a likely candidate.

But I think we are well armed now to fight if we need to.

Thank you all for your advice, it has been really useful.

Violetsky, Happymummy, I really hope it doesnt happen to you.

The independent ajudicator just saved ours!!!! Look at local birth rate trends ours are on the increase which was a factor that the LEA ignored. Our LEA wants to sell the lands as it worth loads and recently shut one of the highest performing infant schools in the COUNTRY after rumours of it shutting for 10 years led to number declines within the school.

Roughly speaking, birth rates are down in West devon, but the population is rising faster than anywhere else in the country because of people moving in. So someone would be able to fiddle the stats to prove that its the older population that is actuually increasing.

However they are building a lot of new homes in the area, and that will be one of our pieces of ammunition!

You need to make contact with Nat Assoc of Small Schools. They have lots of helpful advice and are familiar with the many & varied ways councils try to close schools.

My dd's village school was threatened with closure about 6 yrs ago, along with several others, but the villages all fought back. The council backed down, saying there'd be no money invested beyond H&S issues but a couple of years later, a lot of money has been invested and the school is thriving.

The two local schools are consolidating and moving into the bigger one. By the expedient of moving two of the external (caravan) classrooms to the bigger school, because their census says that there will be even less children in the area by 2010. In 2010 they will get rid of the external classrooms.

Suedonim, thats good news. Ive looked at their site, and it could be useful.

Im quite encouraged by the stories of schools that have survived. I realise that if there really are hardly any children in an area then its senseless to keep a school running, but I dont like the way they have to make general forcasts so far ahead, and over such a large area.

Discoverlife, what will they do if more children move into your area? Will they have to change their minds and perhaps build permanent classrooms?

I have no idea, When we moved to the area we had a choice of 3 within a 3 mile radius, one was closed at the end of last year and the other is expected to close within 2 years.
Its a very rural area and very expensive, there is not likely to be a baby boom anytime soon.

We're in Devon, so the overall birth rate isnt rising, but the population is because of in-comers. However our very local population has risen recently, and our school is almost at capacity, with more in the wings as it were.

But it is a small school, max numbers 49, and we dont fit into the shiney modern all singing and dancing school design the govt is so fond of.

And thats why we like it!