A PRIMARY school in Ceredigion’s Aeron Valley is under threat due to falling pupil numbers as a consultation on its closure is launched.

Ysgol Cilcennin school will have 13 pupils in September – with only two in the foundation phase – and is £19,000 over budget, Ceredigion County Council’s learning communities overview and scrutiny committee heard.

At its meeting last Wednesday, councillors “only just” voted in favour of launching a public consultation on an option outlined by a School Review Panel that would close the school.

Closure would see a reduction in cost per pupil from £6,435, which is more than £2,500 above the county average, but would result in teachers being redeployed or made redundant.

Cllr Alun Lloyd Williams said he would never vote in favour of closing a small school and proposed a fourth option of keeping the school open until a new area school was built in the next few years.

“Rather than moving children twice, they will move once and go to the area school,” he added.

This was not passed by the committee.

There was a call for more information on potential pupils not yet registered and details on the second and third choice of schools selected by parents, after the committee were told that many in the vicinity already sent children to schools further afield.

This, argued local member Cllr Marc Davies, was due in part to “information going out to the community or people hear the school is going to close so they don’t send their children there”.

See this week’s South Ceredigion paper for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition now