Mum at school with two pupils slams 'painful' decision to close it

A parent at a primary school with two pupils which is set to close says the council has "forgotten" about children in the village.

Both of the children currently enrolled at Ysgol Y Garreg in Llanfrothen, Gwynedd, are due to move to secondary school in September.

But Sharon Morgan, whose son Samuel is one of the two, said the closure meant other families in the village would not get a chance at the same quality of education her son has had.

Cyngor Gwynedd, the local authority in Gwynedd, said the cost of each pupil at Ysgol Y Garreg was £21,471 - "significantly higher" than the county average of £5,998.

It called the decision to close the school "painful, but unavoidable".

Earlier this month, the local authority voted to close Ysgol Y Garreg due to "the very low numbers of pupils who attend" as well as "low projections of future numbers".

But Sharon said more should have been done to try to keep it open.

"It's such a shame – they have forgotten about the children," she said.

"My son learned more in a small village school environment than he ever would have done if he'd had to travel further away.

"I'm worried about those families in the village who have children aged two and three, who won't now get the chance to have the quality education that my son had."

Sharon, herself a former teacher in Gwynedd, said her son and his one remaining classmate had tried to protest against the closure, but claim they were ignored.

"They wrote to David Attenborough as part of a school project, and he replied, but Cyngor Gwynedd didn't even acknowledge their letters," she said.

"It's such a pity – the closure will damage the village.

"Our community in Llanfrothen has fought to keep our pub and our shop, but we couldn't keep the school open."

The council said falling pupil numbers across the local authority had made the decision unavoidable.

Dewi Jones, cabinet member for education, said Cyngor Gwynedd had about 9,000 children in its primary schools in 2016, but that had dropped to just over 7,800.

Jones told the meeting at which the closure was confirmed that it was one of the most difficult decisions he had faced.

"Nobody goes into education in order to close schools," he said.

"Our ambition is to see schools thriving, children succeeding and communities staying strong."

But he said the council had a responsibility to consider the current situation facing the school.

"The demographic challenges facing some of our rural communities are real," he said.

"However painful it is to acknowledge that, we cannot ignore the facts before us, and in the specific position of Ysgol Y Garreg, it is impossible to ignore the seriousness of the situation.

"That's a substantial reduction, and in light of that, we can't just continue as we are. It forces us to have to change things."

Ysgol Cefn Coch, roughly 2 miles (3.2km) away from Llanfrothen, will now become the designated alternative school for the catchment area from 1 September.

Ysgol Y Garreg is one of a number of schools in Gwynedd due to close this year.

Two small schools in Dyffryn Nantlle will shut at the end of December, and an independent school, St Gerard's in Bangor, will close next month.

According to the latest Welsh government data, 31 council-run schools across Wales have closed since January 2020.