Yate primary school facing closure

South Gloucestershire Council announced this week its intention to close the south Yate school as of next year.

The announcement came as bitter disappointment to staff and parents who had fought to keep the Barnwood Road site open.

Pauline Dixon, a governor at Rodford Primary School, said: "The decision is to close Rodford but the decision is flawed. All the way along we have done what the council asked us to be but we have felt that it was always a done deal. The consultation was just a sham.

"We don't feel this has been terribly fair."

The local authority announced last year its proposal to merge Rodford Primary School with nearby Kings Court, on Sundridge Park, because of falling intake figures and a significant surplus of places.

However, the amalgamation will mean the closure of one of the school sites and South Gloucestershire Council launched a public consultation on the proposal in January.

The consultation received 370 responses, with 77 percent of those who responded agreeing that the two schools should be merged onto one site and a further 57 percent agreeing that Kings Court should be the school that remains open.

Parents from Rodford collected more than 400 signatures on a petition against the closure.

A council spokesperson said: "The council and the two governing bodies are concerned that if no further action is taken falling pupil numbers will lead to serious funding problems for the two existing schools, difficulties in staffing and class organisation, which would threaten educational quality.

"The proposed change will help to create more stable and sustainable primary school provision to serve that area in the long-term. The intention is to publish statutory notices of reorganisation in September 2009 with the changes to take place in September 2010."

Once the statutory notice is issued in September interested parties will have six weeks to make representations before the executive member for schools formally approves the proposal.