Chawleigh School closes

I had previously blogged about the fact that Chawleigh Primary School was under threat of closure and sadly the start of the school holidays last week meant the bell has rung for the last time for the 15 pupils. Next term will see them going across the valley to the larger school at Chulmleigh.

There are two particular observations I want to make: firstly I'm glad in a sense that it was left to an independent adjudicator to make the fateful decision, if it was me I wouldn't have known whether to let my heart or my head decide. The other point is that the pupils will move on to a comprehensive school eventually. Going from a very small village school to a comp with huge numbers of students could be too much of a culture shock. It was bad enough for me I recall after the 11 plus moving up to a school with just over 200 on the roll, how I would have fared going to a large comprehensive I don't know!