Council’s apology to threatened school

Castle Caereinion Church of Wales Primary School has received a letter of apology from Powys County Council over the way news of its possible closure broke last month.

 

But, in snippets leaked to mywelshpool, it does not say the school will be removed from a hit list of 11 small Powys schools that are faced with closure because of pupil numbers dropping below 30.

 

Parents, and even governors, learned of the 11 local schools possibly closing through mywelshpool after we were notified of the closures by Powys County Council.

 

But Paul Griffiths, Strategic Director of Communities, Skills & Learning offered his “profuse apologies” in a letter sent to the Chair of Governors.

 

The letter states “I accept entirely the lack of appropriate timely communication ... for which I offer my genuine apologies”. It carries on to say that “The main concern of the Programme Board was that leaked information would be communicated to the school prior to some form of communication from the Council. It was therefore our intention that the school receive at least some verbal notification which I now accept did not take place.”

 

However, the letter addressed only a small part of an initial letter of complaint sent by the school’s Chair of Governors, Canon Rowell, who has nonetheless welcomed the apology.

 

Castle Caereinion believes Powys has got its numbers wrong and can prove that it will have at least 30 pupils on its books over the next three years. The governors will again ask Powys to contact the school to get accurate numbers and subsequently remove the school from the list.

 

If you would like to offer your support to the school, please visit www.castleschool.org.uk or call 01938 850 275.