Watch as primary pupils as young as five protest at planned school closure
A group of primary school children, some just five years old, have been protesting outside their school to prevent its closure.
The pupils at Treowen School in Newtown, Powys gathered outside the school with placards on Monday morning.
Powys County Council is currently consulting on whether to close the school and merge it with another in the town.
Under the plans, Treowen Primary School pupils will eventually be sent to nearby Ysgol Calon y Dderwen when new school building is finished.
The merger is intended to remedy the school surplus spaces problems in the town.
Treowen currently has 106 pupils with a capacity for 172, which means it has 38.4 per dent surplus spaces, say Powys County Council.
However, parent of one of the children at the protest, and a dinner lady at the school, Louise Swann, 35, has started a petition and an action group to block the plans.
She said: "I’m trying to stop the closure of Treowen School as Powys County Council want to shut our little local school and make a new super school with another school in Newtown.
"My six-year-old boy Riley goes there and I work in the kitchen. Iit is a lovely school. He has only been at the school for the last 12 months but his confidence has grown immensely.
"I don't think it would be the same if we have ti put him in a school with 359 pupils. There are only 105 in Treowen.
"I went there and so did my brothers and sister, it would be awful if it closes."
The public consultation goes onto February 24 and Louise is urging other parents and residents of Newtown to make their views know.
She has also launched a petition and formed an 'action group', which is to meet at the school on February 20 at 6pm.
For more information and to sign Lousie's petition visit: change.org/p/prevent-the-closure-of-treowen-school
To visit Powys County Council's consultation page, visit: en.powys.gov.uk/article/15287/Current-School-Consultations
