Rural school closures 'destroy community life'

1 day ago

Giancarlo Rinaldi

South Scotland reporter

Parents at rural and small schools across Dumfries and Galloway have formed an alliance to make the case for their retention

Franziska Weir Three parents - one man with blond hair and a dark beard, another man with red hair and a beard and a woman with long dark hair stand in front of three girls with long hair — Parents at rural and small schools across Dumfries and Galloway have formed an alliance to make the case for their retention

A group of small and rural schools across Dumfries and Galloway is calling for action to be taken to ensure they have a sustainable future.

In recent years, a number of sites across the region have been "mothballed" - closed on a temporary basis due to low pupil numbers - with none of them having reopened.

Now parent councils have joined forces to launch a petition asking the local authority to halt mothballing and look at ways to keep sites open.

Dumfries and Galloway Council (DGC) said it would continue to work with communities to ensure the learning offering was as strong as it possibly could be across the region.

Parents of children attending Kirkgunzeon Primary are involved in the campaign

Billy McCrorie A small school building with a low tiled roof and a white frontage surrounded by picnic tables, grass and a low fence — Parents of children attending Kirkgunzeon Primary are involved in the campaign

Franziska Weir moved to the area about 18 months ago from Germany and has a child at Kirkgunzeon Primary.

She now leads the Rural and Small Schools Parent Council Alliance (RSSPCA) campaign to fight the threat they feel is posed to their future.

The group says such schools were singled out in Dumfries and Galloway Council's budget-setting consultation as a potential source for savings.

It also has concerns about a new model being developed for education in the region.

Now it has started a petition calling for an end to mothballing rural and small schools, a halt to structural changes that reduce class sizes and work to be done to develop a model to make the sites sustainable.

Franziska Weir said the school felt under threat on education and budgetary grounds

Franziska Weir A woman with long dark hair and bright red lipstick in a green t-shirt and a lighter green jacket — Franziska Weir said the school felt under threat on education and budgetary grounds

"They're coming from two sides - from the budgeting programme but also from the new school model," she said.

"And if you look into both of them it definitely shows you that, for us, the hidden agenda is to close to save some money.

"So the frustration is just building up to be honest."

She said she did not believe that shutting schools would deliver the savings hoped for and that the parents thought other options could be explored.

"I think what we really want to see is the council opening up and finding innovative solutions to really make rural schooling possible," she added.

She said that meant discussing the situation openly and coming up with ways to keep access to schools in more remote areas open.

Franziska added that it affected more than education if a site was shut.

"You really destroy this whole community life because normally it's really centered around the school," she said.

Their petition already has more than 1,000 signatures but they are hoping to get more responses than the council received for its budget consultation in order to hammer their message home.