School closure will `rip our heart out'

From the Echo, first published Monday 22nd Mar 2004.

PARENTS and supporters are up in arms because the heart of their village will be ripped out if the school is closed, they say.

But county bosses say no decisions have been taken yet.

The whole of the Blandford pyramid is up for re-organisation and the knock-on effect could mean the Winterborne Stickland base of federated Dunbury School could be closed.

County Hall is suggesting that Dunbury - which also has bases in Milton Abbas and Winterbornes Kingston and Whitechurch - should be scaled down into a three-base school.

Former Dunbury governor Tracy Parsons believes education chiefs have Stickland in their sights.

"We are demonstrating to show our anger and frustration with the education authority," she said. "The federation has been going for 12 years. There's a lot of anger and people have been lobbying hard. We've collected 261 signatures in a week."

Mother-of-three Mrs Parsons, 40, said it was unfair that ten other schools in the pyra-mid had been consulted about the future of Dunbury when they know nothing about it.

"Stickland hasn't been given a fair chance," she said.

"They say the school is too small but there's adjacent farmland that the owner is ready to negotiate over. There's planning permission for a new building in the competing village of Milton Abbas. But it's quite a split community with quite an exodus of children going to Milborne St Andrew. Here they mostly go to the local school and stay in the village.

"And we don't know where the education authority gets its figures from - we have a lot of young children, a very active pre-school and sustainable numbers of children in the village. We really feel the school is the heart of the village."

Education chief Phil Farmer said the committee would look at the recommen-dation to downsize to three bases at today's crucial meeting but there was no decision as to which base would close. He admitted that it was probably between Stickland and Milton Abbas.

"We're still in consultation - the governing body is working very hard and their views are very, very important," he said.