North Yorkshire County Council rejects claims it is failing to prevent small schools from closing

A meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s executive saw members express sympathy with those wanting to maintain both Hovingham and Skelton Newby Hall schools, but extremely low school rolls had left them with few options.

The accusations levelled by Skelton on Ure Parish Council’s chairman Guy Critchlow follow those from numerous other community leaders, including Hovingham, as a succession of small rural schools across North Yorkshire have been closed in recent years.

Urging the council to consider alternatives to simply closing the school, Coun Critchlow said the school was “viable and valuable to the surrounding areas” and the fact that pupil numbers had fallen to a single child was “not organically driven”. He said a policy was developing “on the side of closing small schools”.

Coun Critchlow said while Skelton Newby Hall school had been failed by its federation with Sharow school, while it had been run by the council it not been marketed appropriately to attract new pupils.

He added: “The community feel this was a consultation in name only. We are a canary in the mine for the very essence of rural communities in North Yorkshire and for the new North Yorkshire Council.”

The meeting heard despite parents of children attending Skelton school being advised to find places for their children elsewhere several months before a consultation to close it, neither the Sharow school or the county council had discussed the matter with the Skelton community.

Wathvale and Bishop Monkton division councillor Nick Brown said: “I would like to think in future that whenever a school is in danger of closing, because of the pattern of warning signs from falling school numbers, then this information should be shared with North Yorkshire councillors and parish and town councils, much much earlier, so they can help with any ideas that would help prevent closure.”

However, the meeting heard “sharing early information” about school concerns on other occasions had seen parents vote with their feet.

Executive member for children and families, Councillor Janet Sanderson said the council was frustrated with the small school closures situation and the restrictions of the closure process that had been handed down to it by government.

Executive member for education Councillor Annabel Wilkinson said no applications had been received for pupils wanting to attend Hovingham as their first choice school from September, and that as a long-standing institution in the village near Malton it would be greatly missed.

She said North Yorkshire had about 50 schools and academies with fewer than 50 pupils, which was a sign of the council’s commitment to provide education in deeply rural communities.

Coun Wilkinson said: “The stark reality is that many of our schools, particularly those in rural areas, are seeing pupil numbers reduce year on year. Low numbers not only make the school unviable to keep running, but it is not always possible to provide children with a broad curriculum and high quality education.”

She added governors believed they had been proactive in trying to maintain pupil numbers, launching nursery provision four years ago and that marketing had included distributing leaflets to new homes in the area.