Madam,

We are constantly dismayed at the publicity given to falling pupil numbers in village schools.

The Local Education Authority appears to have a cavalier attitude to rural village schools which contradicts pledges from the Welsh Assembly Government and fails to honour its own previous undertakings.

After years of being promised a brand new area school in the Aeron Valley, we now find that the plans are back to before they even started. No site is even being considered at the moment. This means that by the time land purchase, planning consent, consultation periods, funding agreements, building contracts etc are completed, even if it were to ever go ahead, it could not possibly be ready before this generation of primary schoolchildren is long gone.

Despite assurances being given to parents two years ago that there was no imminent threat of closure, this on-going saga continues to cause unnecessary anxiety to children, staff, parents and potential parents.

At the latest scrutiny committee meeting our local representative was assured that children would be able to be transferred ‘en bloc’ to a different school. Well, we would like to see how that would work, given that our nearest schools are vastly oversubscribed!

In the meantime, there appears to be a deliberate strategy to allow the school to decline. It is obviously a self-fulfilling prophecy if parents are discouraged from sending their children to schools which appear to be under threat, they are allowed to send their children to over-subscribed schools and no-one is explaining that actually the LEA has no plan B in this fiasco, then all schools will suffer.

The LEA is too devious to actually say that their aim is to close village schools in order to save money, but this is obviously the ulterior motive.

We have evidence that when families moving into the area ring the county for advice on prospective schools, Cilcennin is never mentioned.

Ysgol Gymunedol Cilcennin may well be again in the news but this time we are fighting back. Parents have formed a committee to defend the school.

Calling ourselves Calon Cilcennin, we intend to let people know that this school will not close.

We are a happy thriving community and in the year when dozens of Americans will be here celebrating 200 years since their ancestors emigrated we will be seen to be welcoming, active and enthusiastic.

Yours etc,

Liz Screen, Cilcennin.

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