PET(4)-05-11 Paper 13a

P-04-323 Save our Small Schools from closure

Petition wording

We the undersigned call upon the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh Government to support small schools and in particular to support councils in keeping small schools open. We believe small schools to be a bedrock of rural communities, essential in the survival of the Welsh language, and most importantly, as loving, centres of academic excellence for our children. We politely request the Assembly to reconsider its use of the Audit Commissions classification criteria for schools as small, and its preferred funding for new build over refurbishment.

Link to the petition:http://senedd.assemblywales.org/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=1016&Opt=0

Petition raised by:Leila Kiersch

Number of signatures: 244 signatures.

Supporting information:
There are small schools being closed across Wales.  This petition is to bring together all who are concerned that their school is under-threat and to recognise that this is a Wales wide issue.  The assembly has powers to help prevent these closures.  Many schools have been in existence for decades, if not hundreds of years.  Not everyone has access to a car and shipping young children for miles on buses everyday is just wrong.  These closures go against the founding principles of sustainable development built into the Assembly’s constitution.