School governor hits out at "industrial scale" school closure programme

At a meeting of the Powys County Council’s cabinet on Thursday, March 18, the decision to start the closure process for Llanfechain and Llangedwyn Church in Wales primary schools was taken by the Independent/Conservative administration.

Finance portfolio holder, Councillor Aled Davies, who represents a ward which includes Llangedwyn, criticised the issuing of the press release.

Cllr Davies, said: “I’m extremely unhappy about the communications from the education team.

“The chair of governors and staff found out about this meeting from a press release, which is simply not good enough.”

And this isn’t the first time that schools have read about issues relating to them in a press release first.

Cllr Davies, added: “I know I’ve had discussions behind closed doors about this in the past, and it’s been repeated.

“I’m making my views public that and I’m extremely unhappy about what has happened.”

Education portfolio holder Councillor Phyl Davies apologised and said: “When the press release was agreed I should have checked that the chair of governors and headteacher had been informed, it’s not good enough.”

Head of transformation and communications, Emma Palmer, said “I want to be clear, communication with the area did actually start in September last year, and there have been a number of meetings.

“The press release for this week didn’t go to the chair of governors for which I also apologise.”

Chris Richards, the chairman of Llanfechain and Llangedwyn schools who work together as a federation spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, about the “sharp end” of transformation.

Mr Richards said: “We had an apology for the communication, it’s about the third time they have done this.

“Announcing it without informing the leadership of the school and giving them the chance to give parents a heads up, is disgraceful.

“Once the genie is out of the bottle, it doesn’t matter how hard you try and explain the nuances to parents, they’ve seen it, and in their minds, that’s it, we’re closing.”

In 10 years as a school governor, Mr Richards, has been through previous reorganisations, but believes this is different.

He said: “Previously it was piecemeal, a smaller school would be picked off, this is literally an industrial scale school closure programme.”

Cllr Phyl Davies has said in past learning and skills scrutiny committee meetings, that he expects around 30 primary schools to close during the decade long Strategy for Transforming Education.

This would bring the number down to around 50.

With a stretched team in the education service, trying to do too much at once, Mr Richards believes this will leave the authority open to challenges.

Mr Richards said “People like me, sets of governors all over the county will be looking at every single line of what they do.

“I’m sure there will be challenges.”

Mr Richards felt that the pace of the process is becoming too rushed and the well-being of people and communities are being forgotten about.

“To the people in my school, they feel that the council don’t care, they will go ahead anyway.

“They have sacrificed the well-being of people in small schools for speed, it feels horrible.

“They are not taking communities with them.”