As the schools for the future research teams begin unearthing the reality of school finances and government policy, it’s become clear that the current council proposal for turning Ysgol Dewi Sant into an 11-16 school, would create a school too small to survive.
We have just learned that, right across Wales, budgets for primary schools and secondary schools years 7-11 are to be cut by 25% over the next three years. And on top of that 6th form funding is also being reduced. That will mean finding savings of some £500,000 at YDS.
But YDS tells us that even now they can’t afford the whole range of A levels they offer. They, like many Pembrokeshire schools, are having to take money from the lower years to subsidise A-levels. So the situation on the St Davids peninsula and right across the county is not sustainable. Something has to change.
Another of the reasons for Pembrokeshire County Council to reorganise our schools is to reduce the number of surplus places, based on the number of students each building could hold, because empty classrooms cost money. The council plan is to remove the 6th forms from YDS, Ysgol Bro Gwaun, and a combined Sir Thomas Picton/Tasker Milward school and centralise them at Pembrokeshire College. But that would instantly create more, not fewer, surplus places. At the moment YDS is full at around 420 students , but if the PCC proposal were to go ahead that would instantly leave YDS with 360, projected to fall to 250 in 5 years creating an estimated 170 surplus places by 2020.
In this matter, the voice of the Welsh Assembly is crucial. Any plan to remove a school’s 6th form would have to be agreed by the Welsh Assembly, as is confirmed in this reply to a letter to the First Minister, Carwyn Jones, from our supporter, Architect and former YDS pupil, Keith Griffiths.
“Proposals to remove sixth form education from a school require approval by the Welsh Ministers…. The local authority must send copies of any objections received and an objection report to the Welsh Ministers….. The Welsh Ministers will then determine whether to approve, reject or approve the proposal with modifications.”
But the Welsh Assembly is also pushing councils to reduce costly surplus places. They categorize any secondary school under 600 students as small. ( Inquiry into the Reorganisation of Schools in Rural Wales) So would they really approve a plan to create a school that would soon have only 250 students and 170 surplus places?
If the Assembly were not to approve the plan, then PCC would have to think again, and we would be one small step away from what the council leader had proposed in the first place – the closure of Ysgol Dewi Sant.
It is absolutely crucial that we as a community come up with a better vision for education here on the peninsula otherwise we could end up with no secondary eduation at all.
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