Hundreds at Llanfyllin High School meeting
Thursday 5th May 2011, 1:35PM BST.
Hundreds of protesters packed into a mid Wales school to air views over planned changes to sixth form education. Three rooms were used to hold the 700 people who attended the meeting in Llanfyllin High School.
The evening was for Powys County Council to hear thoughts on its plans for a shake-up of secondary and sixth form education in mid Wales.
The proposals for Llanfyllin High School included options to merge it with Caereinion High School using one head teacher and management, be part of a Welsh medium reorganisation plan or move students to a post-16 education hub.
Tom Ellis was a pupil at the school in 1951 and he returned as a teacher until retirement. He said it would “send me to my grave” if officials followed through with proposals and pleaded with officials to “consider Llanfyllin in isolation”.
The public also pleaded with officials not to take Welsh language away from the school curriculum.
Huw Williams, Llanrhaeadr community councillor, said: “I am astonished to be standing here. I never thought I would be in a Welsh school in Wales pleading for the Welsh language to be kept in Llanfyllin School.
“We live our lives as Welsh people, don’t you dare take our language away from us. This is a threat to our heritage and our language.”
Paul Griffiths, from Powys County Council, said: “We need to understand this as much as the facts and figures. We are at the beginning of the processes. We are here to understand issues.”
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A very successful meeting. The head teacher and the sixth form showed some of the reasons why this is such a successful school and were well briefed, eloquent and clear.
This is much more than could be said of the Powys School Modernisation Team. They admitted that they were unable to provide answers to questions asked in writing by pupils in mid February. They could not justify their proposed changes either educationally or financially. They displayed a woeful lack of knowledge about the north Powys area and spoke of matters totally irrelevant to that area.
The principal of Coleg Powys spoke but seemed not to realise that his organisation is simply an expensive irrelevance to this part of the county.
Surely if financial savings are needed then the first place to start would be those not up to the job and there were several of those sat on the stage at Llanfyllin High Schoollast night, representing the Modernisation Board.
A very successful high school of nearly 1000 pupils, with the largest 6th form in Powys and said at the last inspection to provide very good value for money should surely be able to stand alone and continue to serve its community so very well, as it has done for many many years. That was certainly the unanimous wish of the audience present last night.
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