News story

9th October 2004

MP welcomes "Signs of Progress" in Campaign to Save Village Schools

Local MP Steve Webb has welcomed the publication of papers by South Gloucestershire Council which tone down the threat to village schools in his Northavon constituency. In the draft School Organisation Plan, published by South Gloucestershire Council earlier this year, several village schools were threatened with closure or big cuts in their  admission numbers. As part of the consultation process, Steve Webb wrote to the Council stressing the importance of village schools and joined forces with governors, parents and community groups to express his support for the threatened schools. A revised draft plan has now been published and will be put to the Council's cabinet on 18th October. Significant changes include:

* the original document talked of "amalgamating" Horton School with Old Sodbury school on the Old Sodbury site, effectively closing Horton School; the revised draft simply talks of a "review of the two schools in discussion with the Governing Bodies and Diocese";

* the original document planned to cut admission numbers at Hawkesbury Primary School from 19 to 10; the revised document says: "discuss.. a reduction in the Admission Number from 19 to 15.

Commenting on the changes, Steve Webb said: "I very much welcome the change of language about the plans for Horton and Old Sodbury schools, and also the less severe cuts in admission numbers at Hawkesbury school. But this document still leaves village schools highly vulnerable, and I believe that it is in need of some further significant changes".

The plan still puts question marks over the future of several village schools. On Severnside, the plan still talks of reviewing the three existing schools to reduce places to 420 - the equivalent of two standard primary schools with 30 pupils per class - with Redwick & Northwick school seen as being the most vulnerable. The future of Tortworth school is called into question by plans to "consider appropriate size and location of places needed" between Cromhall and Tortworth schools, whilst the future of Oldbury-on-Severn school has been called into question by plans to reduce surplus places in the Thornbury area.

Steve Webb said that he would be attending the Council's cabinet meeting on October 18th to make the case for preserving village schools across the area. He is expected to present early results from his survey of the views of local residents on education issues, including a key question on public attitudes to village schools.