Rural primary schools under threat
Rural primary schools under threat, say campaigners


Rural primary schools are under threat, say campaigners, after it emerged that 219 schools with fewer than 100 pupils had shut since 1997, with about a third being in the countryside. There are now 2,605 schools with less than 100 pupils.
Primary schools with fewer than 300 pupils has fallen from 14,182 to 12,975, while primary schools with more than 400 pupils have risen in number from 1,450 to 1,886 in the same period.
Jim Knight, the Government's schools minister, is apparently writing to rural councils to remind them that popular schools should be preserved as a 'top priority'. He also says that the closure rate of rural schools has fallen under Labour from 30 a year in the early 1990s to seven a year now.
Protests are currently underway this morning outside Shirehall in Shropshire, however, after it was announced that 38 primary schools face closure or are merging in 2009. The public consultation begins on 4 February.
Campaigners say that rural schools are under threat, with 219 schools with fewer than 100 pupils closing since 1997.
To comment on this article, use the comment box below, or email us at clonews@ipcmedia.com. Read more about the countryside.
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by His Majesty The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
-
23 of the best antique dealers across country, as nominated by Britain's top interior designers, architects and garden designers
Giles Kime asks some of Britain's best creative minds where they source their antiques in the latest look at the experts' experts.
-
A lush, 'tropical' garden in Devon where bananas and ginger grow happily alongside the staples of an English country garden
Steep inclines and rocky outcrops are nothing to the owners of this coastal garden, which is filled with plants-many from the southern hemisphere-that thrive in such conditions, finds Caroline Donald.