Dad's devastation as Great Gidding primary school moves closer to closure

A dad has said he is “devastated” his child’s Cambridgeshire village primary school has moved a step closer to potential closure.

Cambridgeshire County Council has agreed to move to the second stage of the closure process of Great Gidding Primary School.

The chair of the children and young people committee, Councillor Bryony Goodliffe told a meeting on Wednesday, March 8 that a final decision on the future of the school had not yet been made.

The authority had raised concerns about the future viability of the school due to decreasing pupil numbers and how this could impact children’s education.

However, some parents have campaigned for the school to stay open with 884 people signing an online petition opposing the closure.

The county council held a public consultation last month on the potential closure of the school. The director for education at the county council, Jonathan Lewis, said although 86 per cent of people disagreed with the closure, he said no viable alternatives had been proposed.

He said declining numbers would mean the school having to move to only two classes, and said the “shared view of the local authority and the diocese” was that a quality education could not be provided to pupils in this scenario.

Mr Lewis said “sadly” officers were recommending that the authority should move to the next stage of the closure process, and publish a statutory notice to formally propose the closure of the primary school.

He added that if the committee agreed to this, he also planned to bring forward proposals for funding support for parents with new uniform and transport costs.

Chris Jakins, a parent from the school, presented the petition signed by over 800 people opposing the school’s closure.

He said: “My daughter learnt about social distancing, learnt the symptoms of covid before she could read or write. This generation of children has been through a lot, and this closure is another harsh lesson with long term effects.”

Joanne Taylor, a former chair of governors at the school, told councillors that the school had always set a balanced budget and said children “thrive” at the small school.

She said: “In my experience the school is outstanding for children who do not always fit the mould, but they thrive [at Great Gidding] and they are exceptional.”

Councillor Jonas King said he did not think the school should close, highlighting comments made about how the closure could impact the community, and how it had previously set balanced budgets.

He said he believed the authority should support the school to “deliver educational outcomes” with smaller numbers, rather than closing it.

Speaking after the meeting, Chris Jakins said: “We are devastated, although we completely expected this it does feel as though the decision was very much already made, it was a preemptive process.

“They are not willing to give the school a chance. Most of the school’s problems were caused by this consultation itself; it will be the children who ultimately suffer the most.

“We are really grateful and thankful to the school, we were very lucky to find it and did have a fantastic year there with our daughter.”