CYMDEITHAS YR IAITH has called on a Council Scrutiny Committee in Carmarthenshire to instruct officers to: “work in partnership with the Governors of a local school to develop a new model which could give new hope for other communities.”
Governors and the local community in Bancffosfelen have fought hard for 12 years to keep their school open since the County Council placed the school, with dozens of others, on its hit-list for closure under ‘modernisation’ plans in 2004.
On Wednesday (Mar 9) Carmarthenshire’s Education and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee will discuss the future of the school.
The draft recommendation before the Committee is to close the school and transfer its catchment to Pontyberem primary school in September 2017.
The report supporting that recommendation claims that there are 98 pupil places available at the school of which only 35 are taken.
Bancffosfelen Governors are presenting the Committee with a strategy to set up a Community Trust to take over responsibility for the running of the building, developing it both as a school and as a community asset. This would involve changing the status of the school into a Voluntary Assisted School.
The Governors’ submission takes a radical new approach to the school’s future and highlights its importance within the tight-knit rural community it services. Their plan, which they describe as ‘a truly innovative model – a trailblazing plan which may be of interest to communities and education authorities throughout Wales and further afield’.
The Governors have submitted that as the County Council has a policy of offering the assets for use by the local community if a school closes, then provided the community is willing and able to maintain the location, it should be given the opportunity to do so.
In implementing this proposal, the transfer of the building and campus of Ysgol Bancffosfelen to a community charitable organization would occur without closing the school, and with the aim of maintaining the school at the heart of the plan.
The community organization would take responsibility for developing the site in a manner that would provide suitable space for the running of a 21st Century school alongside wider community use.
The Governing Body claims to have already made contact with several possible patrons and sources of annual grant funding. Using this, the school believe they would satisfy requirements under the Schools Organisation Code.
Cymdeithas yr Iaith has thrown its support behind the plan and Ffred Ffransis, on behalf of the Society’s Carmarthen Region, said: “This exciting development has the potential of being a Pilot Scheme which could hope to countless other Welshspeaking village communities as the way forward. This is the big chance for the Council leadership to show their willingness now to work in partnership with local communities to ensure a living future.”
In his letter to Cllr Eirwyn Davies, Chair of the Education and Children’s Scrutiny Committee, Mr Ffransis writes: “Please convey to the meeting of the Education and Children’s Scrutiny Committee next Wednesday the fact that Cymdeithas yr Iaith fully supports the plan of the Governors of Ysgol Bancffosfelen to set up a Community Trust which would involve running the school on a Voluntary Assisted basis and developing it as a community asset.
“This is an exciting new development which could act as a Pilot Scheme for the renewal of our Welshspeaking village communities and ensure education for the children within the security of their communities. ”
Through this scheme, the Council has the real chance to break the Vicious Cycle of putting a School on a closure hit-list, which causes parents to move their children, which then closes the school, which in turn means that young families no longer want to live in the village and it declines. Children are hit the hardest in that parents and communities no longer feel then ownership of their children’s education.
“Instead of going for the bureaucratic soft option of proposing to close yet another school, Council officers now have the prospect of working in partnership with enthusiastic Governors and a supportive community to develop a new model which could offer hope for other communities. We urge you to seize the opportunity.”
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