My children and I are devastated that Myddle School, which is a brilliant school, is proposed for closure. Myddle School is the heart of our village; it provides a safe environment for the children and has fantastic facilities. Myddle School bridges the gap between the young and old within the village which is so important. The developments of new homes are a great advantage to Myddle, BUT the loss of our school will most definitely put families off from moving to Myddle! How can we sustain our village life when then Government are intent on destroying it!!

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Both my children attend Welshampton CofE School and we are devastated at the possibility of closure. The school is “outstanding” in every aspect. The children are very proud of their achievements and thrive in a small community school environment. They are happy and well adjusted and enjoy learning about their local area and it’s history. Isn’t it about time our Government started to look after children in rural areas? After all they have failed miserably in the inner cities. Funding would be better spent in smaller schools teaching respect for each other and pride in the local community.

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Lisa, consolidating schools to make them more financially efficient may also provide a more stable and socially diverse environment for your children to grow up in.

You haven’t made it clear why you ‘need your school’ and ‘every child matters’. As far as I can see, other than a minority having to travel a little further, there are great advantages to closing these small and over-funded schools.

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I am afraid your pleas will fall on deaf ears because the people making these decisions know the price of everything but have not got a clue about the true value of these village schools. We only have ourselves to blame, we voted them into office.

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The proposed closure of Myddle School is devastating news for the village of Myddle. It is yet another example of Shropshire County Council taking a short term financial decision at the expense of the the future viability of our small village community.

Myddle has a school we are all proud of. The new homes being built should attract families to move to the village but NOT if the school is to be closed.

Myddle School is at the centre of our community. Without it, the village will cease to be an attractive place to live for families with young children. We know – 15 years ago we moved to Myddle because it had an excellent primary school. Let’s stop this crazy decision NOW!

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How can a council justify closing a school that is in the top 1% in the country. Buildwas School consistently performs at the top of the tables, not only in the county, but also in the country. The last ofsted report congratulated the Head and Staff for such an excellent school and learning enviroment. A safe place for all children to develope into polite, well rounded individuals who look forward to going to school, quite an achievement in this day and age. My son, along with Lisa’s, had a fantastic education at Buildwas and my daughter is in reception and loves every minute of it. She is especially looking forward to performing with the Buildwas dance club at the exhibition at The Edge. The council talk about empty places, but this is not the case in Buildwas; It is a school that has a waiting list for pupils to join…Now we are told that the 84 pupils are to be divided up,like cattle, between 4 schools. How traumatic will that be for the children.. so much for a duty of care.. Come on Shropshire CELEBRATE your successes, not destroy them.

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My youngest attended a small school and there were only two in his age group. He is now 20 but says he wishes his school had been amalgamated to make a bigger one so he would have had chance to play football etc and have a choice of friends. He also says it would have not meant such an age range in the class (it was a 2 class school)as this made it hard to work as a year 6 pupil when much younger children (some 4 years younger) were in class and needing all the teacher’s attention. I understand your fears and anxieties but 2 class schools really are too small.

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Matty has a point. If people are serious about maintaining a community they will… a community is people doing things together not a building. I am part of an active community, but also one with no school. Our school is in the neighbouring village.

I don’t see what the problem is if neighbouring schools are brought together carefully, with improved facilities and money being spent on the kids’ education (teachers) rather than some of the victorian buildings on these images.

And shame on the parents who dreamt up using their kids on the images above.. surely school should be haven. There is definitely an educational/ itizenship opportunity here,but I didn’t see much evidence of it in the behaviour on our screens and above. Can someone tell us how they justify using their children in that way?

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What is getting me is i am a builder and welshamton (20006-07) and i think builwas in(04)have had a lot of money spent to get up dated , may i say tax payer money, and now closing them , what the hell is going on with the government. we need our small village school it make us part of a community,what left of it. I went to clive,i know we need them. everything in the village rolls around the school………..good luck to all,

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I have heard a lot of comment by parents and teachers on Radio Shropshire. What staggers me is that the vast majority of these people cannot pronounce the word “school” – it has become a two syllable word and contains a “w”. For this reason alone, I support the closures.

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Big Matty,
Do you have children at school?
Do you live in a small rural community/village?
Do you still have a post office and a bus service?
Please enlighten me as to why you feel so strongly.

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The catchment areas are historic and often arbitrary and don’t necessarily reflect the community from which the school draws. We for example have a number of children which are ‘out of area’ but this was in the main the result of a previous closure of a small school and that catchment being attached to the town school rather than the nearest village school.

There has been considerable miss information about relative costs per pupil. Yes small schools are more expensive but in the main not significantly. The average cost across the county is £2760 there is a small number (less than 39 pupils in total) that cost more than £4500 (and most of these places were under review under the old policy) the average for those school up for closure is around £3100 per child. Yes above average but we do have to recognise that we are a county with a high rural percentage. The larger schools do in the main offer economies of scale however some of these are not efficiently managed. There are schools with 190 pupils (which I could name) that cost more per pupil than several schools with less than 70 and are down for closure.

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JF (post 15)

As the parent of the child on the left(holding the pink sign). I can assure you NO ONE dreamt up the idea of using the children. In the protest, those that participated chose to or asked if they could take part.

All the children are thouroughly confused and extremely upset at the news. They can not understand why, when they and the school have worked hard together to achieve what they have. That they are the ones who are to close. To many it goes against all that they have been taught at home and at school, you work hard, you work as a team and you will succeed. They have all done what has been asked of them, only to have it taken away from them.

As for the many posts failing to understand the sense and potential loss to the “Community”. You all understand nothing or at least pretend to of Rural life. Your comments are downright ignorant at best, downright inflamatory at worst.

As someone who spent the first 35 years in Birmingham and went through the system in an inner city school, I KNOW what it’s like on the both side’s of the fence and how difficult (impossible at times). To achieve anywhere near what they have at Buildwas, because of the shere numbers involved.

If wanting a good education for our children and giving them a good start at Primary School level, and wanting to save that for them and future generations is a crime (against what I don’t know). Then I and Mrs Duvall-Willets the mother of the other child in the picture (who I have spoken to and knows I will be posting this) and indeed ALL the other parents are guilty as charged.

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dear reasoned debate …how out of area do you have to be… those children deemed out of area to our school live under 3 miles from the school, well within most schools catchment areas and an awful lot closer to any school they wish to send our chidren to. My daughter, instead of having a two minute walk to school, will have, once all children have been picked up a 40 minute bus journey through narrow twisty country lanes, providing the road isn’t closed due to floods in which case add on 30minutes then a full day in school provided they haven’t sent her home because she has been sick on the bus. The pupils here are part of the community, they take part in many village events and without the school the village hall and church would decline. As for mixed age groups in classes, it is absolutely brilliant, it works so well that bigger schools really ought to think about putting two year groups together.
Perhaps then they will get the results the smaller schools get.

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SCC could easily justify the proposed closure of schools such as Buildwas, with year sizes a third of the national average.
Just look at previous OFSTED reports and Performance tables to reason SCC’s justification.

These performance tables are a farce that cannot be relied upon as being definative of achievement.

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as a former pupil of one of these soon to be closed schools i am shocked nay apailed of the prospect of these closers. Back the cause. Big up the welshampton possie

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