WITH just over three weeks until cabinet members at Gloucestershire County Council make their decision on whether to shut the Vale of Berkeley College the Gazette looks again at why the school should be saved.

SINCE the Gazette launched its Save our School campaign in October over 2,500 people have pledged their support for Vale of Berkeley College.

Many of these are parents, pupils and former pupils, all of which know first hand why the school is such a great place.

Alex Greenway, a parent and governor of the school, said: "The support we have got during the campaign has been fantastic, the whole community has got behind us.

"We are campaigning to keep the school open for all the reasons we said at the start, because it is small and every child matters, because it has excellent track record for children with SEN (Special Educational Needs) and pupils actively choose to come here from bigger schools where they haven’t coped."

The Vale of Berkeley College was catapulted into the headlines in October when, after a year of being part of the Government’s National Challenge programme, it was announced that education expert Graham Badman had recommended the school for closure.

It later emerged that the county council had been looking at the option of closing the school prior to this announcement.

The consultation into the closure ends on January 27 and on February 10 cabinet members on Gloucestershire County Council will make the final decision on whether or not to close the school.

Staff and governors at the school are now working hard putting together a plan for turning the college into a co-operative school trust, which they hope the council will consider as another option.

Top five reasons why Vale of Berkeley College should not be shut: 1. The Berkeley area will lose its only local secondary school, which has become an important part of the community.

2. Children with Special Educational Needs will lose the specialist support they receive at the school and will be severely disrupted by the move.

3. Talented and highly skilled teachers and staff could lose their jobs.

4. Children who actively chose to join the small school, where ‘every child matters’, will be forced to join a new big school where they will feel lost. Friends will be split up and parents will have to travel further to take their child to school.

5. Pupils taking vital GCSEs will be disrupted by a move they don’t want to make and their grades could suffer.