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!

Lanreath Primary School to close

On 8 January I made an upbeat entry in this blog about the new post office in the southeast Cornwall village of Lanreath. Sadly there was a disappointing announcement concerning the village yesterday: their Church of England school is set to close this summer. The school has just 19 pupils and a government appointed schools adjudicator looked at the evidence and decided that in terms of educational viability and value for money it couldn't continue. Not surprisingly the children were all in tears when headteacher Jill Watts imparted the news.

I now feel that things are looking blacker for Chawleigh's school in Devon particularly with the larger Chulmleigh school being not too far away. Chawleigh has just 13 pupils and they must be waiting with some trepidation for their own adjudication result.

Devon school gets a reprieve

Chawleigh is a small village in that lovely quiet rural area that is south of the North Devon link road but north of Dartmoor and the A30 dual carriageway. My late parents once lived the other side of the Little Dart River (not to be confused with the Dart of Dartmoor) at Chulmleigh and I have a real affection for that neck of the woods.

Chawleigh's primary school with its falling number of pupils (13 I read somewhere) is under threat of closure. It has now been announced that it can stay open for another 6 months with its future decided by an independent adjudicator. Governors of the school are working with education officers to show that the school provides an acceptable standard of education.

I believe that "small is beautiful" as they say. Correction: I am passionate about "small is beautiful". This is one of the reasons for my strong feelings about Devon and Cornwall where small villages and vibrant market towns predominate and huge conurbations are absent thank goodness. But the downside, and sadly there has to be a downside, is that in cost terms there is economy of size to consider. In fact, as evidenced by the ongoing threat to post offices for example, one of the greatest problems for decision makers is getting the balance between what is economically viable and maintaining local services. Our much maligned councillors have the unenviable task of getting that balance right, a real problem sometimes.

I wish the villagers of Chawleigh success in their endeavours.