Sample Letter 1
This letter was written by parents and friends at a meeting on October 9th, you are welcome to use it.
Select it and copy/paste to a word file.

Tips for writing your letter:

• Keep letters clear and concise and try not to write more than one A4 sheet – any longer and it probably won’t be read.

• Remember to include your name and address and the name of the school you are writing about.

• Say that you are writing in response to the consultation period on the Shropshire County Council proposed Primary School Organisation Policy.

• Include personal experiences and facts, just saying ‘I don’t want it to close’ won’t be enough.

 Points you may like to include in your letter:

• The current policy for closing small schools is purely based on educational reasons.  The new policy is a significant deviation in that closures will be based purely on financial reasons.

• No cash projections are available to the public and it is not clear how school closure will achieve any significant financial savings.

• Other counties must find themselves in a similar situation, what research has been done to find alternative solutions?

• According to government statistics the birth rate (and indeed the fertility rate) has risen steadily for the last 30 years.  There was a small blip in 2001 and admissions for 2007/8 have reflected this.  There is no evidence to suggest there will be fewer pupils in primary education than there were 30 years ago.  Wholesale school closures based on projections 3-5 years ahead is short sighted in the extreme.

• What is the likely outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review?  Are there any proposals to change the funding methodology?  What can central government do to help?

• There is no evidence to suggest that in small schools:
   head teacher recruitment is a problem because of multi age classes.
   teaching staff struggle to meet the breadth of curriculum delivery for a range of year groups in a single class – in fact staff find little difference than teaching a same age group of mixed ability pupils.
  small schools are vulnerable in terms of performance when staff absence or turnover occurs

• What other ways of cost cutting have been explored?  For example proposals for groups of small schools sharing a head teacher would seem a sensible alternative; alternatively reductions in LEA staff.

• Ofsted reports consistently praise the high standards of both education and social skills in small schools, Shropshire should be proud and encouraging, not dismissive and repressive.

• Pupils thrive in the small school family environment, often their achievements far exceed the expectations, they mature into healthy, well rounded, confident individuals who are ready to enter the next stage of their education.

• Surplus places are simply a statistic which can be changed simply by altering the ‘standard number’ in each school and should not be used as criteria for a school closure policy.

• Countryside Commission (CC) “State of the Countryside 2005” revealed the best results in English education were coming from schools with 100 pupils or less on roll and that generally across the age spectrum through to 16+ pupils living in rural areas did better.

• A CC 2006 report shows that if current urban to rural migration continues the most rural areas will see the greatest growth in population.  Present Office of National Statistics projections suggest most rural areas will grow by almost 20% by 2028.

• DEFRA sees rural schools as central to the concern for rural stability.  Young families are central to issues such as housing, employment, transport and the environment