A letter of objection addressed from the Chair of Governors for Cradoc CP School, Mrs Sue Goodhead, on behalf of the school’s governing body to Powys County Council.

Following the Cabinet decision to go ahead with a decision to close the school in Cradoc, this letter is being sent on behalf of the Governing Body( GB) of Cradoc Community Primary School who unanimously wish to continue to formally object to and reject the proposal to close the school and send the pupils to a new build school possibly at Penlan.

The GB of Cradoc Community Primary School fully supports the building of a new school for all Mount Street pupils if that is what they want. We wish to save and rebuild our school at the heart of our community in Cradoc. The strength of feeling has not waned, in fact it has been fuelled by the erroneous assumption set out to Cabinet that we are asking for a new two class school for 50 pupils. This is not the case we wish for a new larger school to accommodate all those children whose parents are choosing to travel out to a rural school with all its advantages. There are still applications coming in from families who wish to have a rural school environment for their children’s education.

From your own statutory notice:

• Why would providing improved transition arrangements at the Mount Street Schools be a reason to close Cradoc School?

• What enhanced opportunities would the children have just because the school is larger? (Newer would be good but why not in Cradoc?)

• All staff would have the opportunity to secure positions in the new school –except that there will be fewer jobs and redundancies would be inevitable.

• To realise a financial saving–how does this enhance the child-centred education which is the fundamental point in the new curriculum?

The list of objections is long but the main points of concern are:

• Cradoc is a rural school serving its wide rural community –it was built as close as possible to the base of the three valleys when smaller distant schools were amalgamated back in the 1960’s. It has retained its rural etho sof“Providing roots to grow and wings to fly”.The Welsh Government guidance states that everything possible should be done to retain rural schools with closure being the last option; this has not even been entered into the equation.

• Welsh Government guidance and Powys County Council policy is to promote community cohesion; the current proposal is completely contrary to this. Rather, Powys County Council should seek to rebuild the school at the heart of the community, with Community facilities so that both the children and the Community may benefit including the provision of a Community Hall that can be separately accessed by the school or the Community and retain this focal hub with its new parking and playground equipment.The mental health and wellbeing of all age groups in school and in the wider community benefit from the interaction between young and old, as well as peer to peerFunding for such a plan would attract outside investment which Powys has said it is able to do if need be.

• Smaller but efficient classes mean greater cohesion and sense of belonging; children all know each other and are willing to support those who need it -research has shown that bullying is far less likely to occur in a rural school.Dividing a community and sending the youngsters to the other side of the town would be detrimental to all generations and that community spirit would not be recovered once it had been broken up.

• The clubs and activities which are so much a part of the school in normal times would be inaccessible to those who have to travel longer distances by bus; working parents would have to rely on this transport. Why should the pupils from the age of 4 years have to travel the extra distances at both ends of what for them is already a long day, simply to save the Council money?

• Wrap around care is a strong feature of the school’s provision for the community and has been rated as “Excellent” by inspectors. Friendships flourish and can last a lifetime. The grounds are a superb arena for Forest Schools and could not be replicated in the short term, if at all, at a new build. Even the youngsters could see that the answers that they received on this topic were a “brush off”.You would be depriving children of a safe place to learn new skills in a special environment and would be taking away opportunities to learn outside in all weathers, the outdoor education facility in which to develop team working skills, independence, and resilience.How can they feel that they are caring for the environment when they are affecting climate change and increasing pollution by being forced to travel further for their education?

Some of the procedural failures in the Consultation are considered to be:

• The lack of a separate impact assessment –how can one rural school be combined with two urban schools and have an equitable chance to be reviewed. When looking at scoring an Impact Assessment, a positive impact for Mount Street Schools appears to mask the very negative impact on Cradoc School. This cannot be considered to be a fair and true assessment under any circumstances.

• Where is the option for parental choice when all choices are urban? Sennybridge is a rural school but the increased travel from Brecon or one of the valleys would have a detrimental effect on the Council’s aims to achieve net zero by the end of this decade.

• The difficulties in giving the pupils a fair chance to look at the minutes for their School Council deliberations and comment –PCC had weeks to produce the minutes but they gave the School Council, some of whom are as young as four years old, five schooldays to consider and reply. This has made it extremely difficult for the pupil’s opinion to be heard, which is a breach of their rights under Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

• Plans could go ahead in phase 1 without the security of funding for phase 2. If the current suggested plans go ahead time slippage has already occurred.The impact on pupils and staff due to the uncertainty is not conducive to good mental health and well-being and this could extend for several years.Our hardworking staff deserve better, so do our children.

• Recent applications for places mean that we anticipate the largest Reception intake for many years. The numbers are rising and not falling as suggested in the documentation. The portable cabins had to be added on due to the fact that numbers were increasing in the original school so pupils now have to brave the weather to reach their classrooms.

• As a final thought in this letter, the New Curriculum has a focus on Cynefin and Wellbeing. If the council moves the pupils of Cradoc Community School to a school out of their community their Cynefin will have less meaning to them; all their current Cynefin that they feel and experience will be lost. Welsh Government announced on 21 July 2020 that:

• “The (new) curriculum does, however, place great emphasis on the local area, or what it calls Cynefin. According to the new curriculum, Cynefin is defined as: “the place where we feel we belong, where the people and landscape around us are familiar, and the sights and sounds are reassuringly recognisable. Though often translated as ‘habitat’, Cynefin is not just a place in a physical or geographical sense: it is the historic, cultural and social place which has shaped and continues to shape the community which inhabits it.”

You are seeking to destroy that sense of Community in Cradoc.