ONE of Barnoldswick's best-known schools could face closure as Lancashire County Council begins a review of primary school provision in West Craven.
Staff, parents and governors at Rainhall Road School are extremely concerned about its future after a report went to the education and general purposes sub-committee of the county council.
It highlighted that the town centre school has a potential capacity for 140 pupils, but there are just 65 on the school roll. The report claimed those pupils could be soaked up by other schools within a two mile radius which had spare capacity, and Rainhall Road shut down.
But West Craven county councillor David Whipp told the meeting the report was flawed and its figures inaccurate. He made a plea for it to be thrown out, but it was rejected by the majority of members.
Instead, the meeting recommended to the county's education committee - due to meet on March 14 - that the future of the school should go out to public consultation.
Coun Whipp told the meeting the report included Earby Springfield Primary School as one of those within the two-mile radius, which it was not. Removing it from the equation would reduce by 40 the number of surplus places supposedly available in the area, which the report put at 191.
Subtracting those 40 places would leave 151 surplus places, but if Rainhall Road was closed that would also mean subtracting the 140-place capacity there too.
That would leave just 11 surplus places in all West Craven's primary schools, not including Earby, but six of those 11 were at Salterforth School. So in all of Barnoldswick there would be just five surplus primary school places if Rainhall Road was to close, said Coun Whipp.
He said that was grossly inadequate, especially since Barnoldswick was currently undergoing a small building boom, which would put pressure on school places.
The school itself is already making a strong case against closure. The proposed consultation would involve all the other schools in the Barnoldswick area and chairman of governors at Rainhall Road, Margaret Bell, said she was confident they too would oppose the closure. Integrating Rainhall Road's pupils into other schools would push their class sizes to the limit and lead to overcrowding, she added.
Shirley Cormack, headteacher at Rainhall Road, said she believed it had a great deal to offer children and the wider community. She said the school was often commended for its warm welcome and friendly atmosphere.
"We are a community school in the true sense of the word, children and parents taking part in many events," she said.
"This has formed a common bond and community spirit inside the school and led to us running a very successful 'parents as educators' course last year."
In the past, the school has been well down the so-called performance league tables, but it has a high percentage of children with special educational needs and pupils with English as a second language. The past four years have seen a marked and continued improvement in the school's Standard Assessment Test results, and Ofsted inspectors have praised many aspects of school life.
The most recent Ofsted report noted that "the school has a caring ethos and a supportive environment which provides a good basis for learning. High standards are set by the staff, both academically and behaviourally."
Mrs Cormack stressed: "It is important to remember that no decision has been taken - it is open to full discussion."
She, and everyone else connected with the school, is looking to the community for its full support in the forthcoming consultations on the future of Rainhall Road School.
Coun Whipp added that another justification given for possible closure was that the school was heading for a deficit on its budget. But he stressed it had never had a deficit in the past - unlike many others in Lancashire - and wouldn't have one this year.
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