Parents launch fight to save Waterton J&I School
A FIGHT to save a village school began this week after the council finally revealed radical plans to tackle falling pupil numbers.
Council chiefs are set to give the green light to consultation on the future of 15 of the district's schools when they meet next week, with options including closure and amalgamation.
Waterton J&I School in Lupset is among the schools listed for closure in a cabinet report titled Our Children, Our Future: Building Aspiration and Ambition in Wakefield.
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The news has devastated local residents who say they will not give it up without a fight.
Angry parents and children gathered at the Waterton Road school's gates in droves on Wednesday to protest.
They have launched a Facebook campaign and will present a petition of more than 1,000 names to council chiefs next week.
Mum of four, Katrina Fawcett was one of the organisers. The 36-year-old, of Haselden Road, said: "It is a fantastic school with amazing staff and it cannot be allowed to close."
Fellow organiser Dawn Bradley, 32, said: "This school has served generations. It is more than just a school, it is part of the community."
The cabinet report said the school was only judged to be performing satisfactorily by Ofsted inspectors because of weaknesses in past provision, and that the building needed more than 1m spending on it.
But campaigners say the school is worth it and that the headteacher has done a brilliant job turning things around.
Sally Kincaid, Wakefield NUT secretary, said any campaign against the closures has the union's backing. She said: "The falling birth rate should be a chance to reduce class sizes and make a real difference to the education of our children.
"The schools being threatened with closure support some of the most vulnerable children who could get engulfed in larger schools."
The nearest school is Snapethorpe Primary and it is thought pupils will attend there.
There are also plans to merge Clifton Infant School and St Peter's Junior School in Horbury, which are both in need of modernisation and repair.
The report said: "The schools are a considerable distance apart, which creates difficulties for parents with children at both schools.
"Both governing bodies are supportive of an amalgamation and have approached the local authority suggesting this."
Further schools will be identified for consultation in the future.
Here's how we broke the news < /em>of the decision to close the school.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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