“A school of which capacity is full and a school which carries no financial debt. A proactive governing body and staff which have sought to provide children of the village and the wider rural community with a quality of education which is the envy of many so-called super schools within the county. “The flawed decision to place Llanfihangel Rhydithon into consultation in the midst of a global pandemic shows the council’s desperation to close small rural schools, believing that the local community, due to Covid restrictions, would be unable to organise a structured response. However, this has only strengthened, and galvanised peoples resolve in the area to fight and keep their local school open.
PUPILS past, present and even future at a primary school in a thriving rural Radnorshire community have made an emotional video hoping to save it from closure. In the three-minute, 52-second video, generations of pupils who’ve attended Llanfihangel Rhydithon Community Primary School in the tiny village of Dolau are filmed initially catching and then passing on a green/turquoise-coloured school jumper. The jumper is a symbol of the school being passed down among the generations, with the heart-warming video set to the song ‘This Is Me’ by Kesha. At the end of the video, the youngest current pupil is seen receiving the jumper as she stands in the middle of a green-shaped heart formed by fellow learners in a field.
THE decision not to hold a public meeting on the proposed closure of a Powys primary school has been condemned by a prospective new Senedd candidate. Welsh Liberal Democrat candidate Alison Alexander says a decision not to hold a public meeting on Churchstoke County Primary School’s prospective closure damages confidence in Powys County Council. In an open letter to the education portfolio holder Phyl Davies, a member of the Conservatives, Ms Alexander states poor communication on school closure consultations has already damaged confidence and the refusal to hold a public meeting on the future of Churchstoke risks entrenching this lack of trust even further.
Montgomeryshire Senedd candidate Russell George has said there is a strong case for keeping Churchstoke s school open, and raised concerns over holding a consultation into its closure during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Conservative politician, who holds the Montgomeryshire seat in the Senedd going into next month s election, was speaking while on the campaign trail with former Conservative leader William Hague in Welshpool on Tuesday. Churchstoke is one of a number of rural schools in Powys which are in line for closure. Local parents have launched a petition aimed at saving the school from closure, with more than 1,400 people having signed so far.