SOS - Stiperstones School spells out its appeal against closure

MORE THAN 70 adults and children at an under threat Shropshire primary school struggled through boggy fields today in a massive show of unity to form a human chain to spell out "SOS" on a county hillside.

Parents, grandparents, staff and youngsters from Stiperstones Primary School, near Shrewsbury, spelled out the letters in reference to Shropshire Council's plans to close the school along with eight others across the county.

The human chain is the latest tactic by the school's campaign steering group to fight the plans to close the school which has 29 pupils.

A song called "Save Stiperstones" has already been produced by youngsters at the school and has been uploaded on Internet video sharing site YouTube to help raise awareness.

Headteacher Sue Cooke today said the human chain exercise had been a huge success.

She said: "We had about 75 people and at times it took a bit of co-ordination with the S's but in the end it looked very good from down at the school and for the photographs it looked fantastic.

"The children all had a great time making it and some people got stuck in the mud coming back which all added to the humour."

But Ms Cooke said the stunt had a serious point that parents were willing to fight to save the school at all costs.

She said: "It was to raise awareness and get as many people as we could in the morning to just show people how strongly everybody in the village feels about the closure of our special village school."

Parent Heather Dale today said: "The message we are trying to get across is please save our school. We are also really pleased with our song on YouTube and it's got some great photos on there which have been taken by Phil Jones (the landlord of the Stiperstones Inn)."

Ms Dale said that the steering group would be thinking of even more ways to raise awareness over the coming weeks.

Shropshire Council wants to shut eight primary schools and one secondary school across the county in a bid to tackle empty classrooms and funding issues.

By Russell Roberts