The campaign to save the Shropshire village schools threatened with closure is the subject of an article in today's Independent by Jeremy Sutcliffe. It concentrates on the schools at Stiperstones and Lydbury North.Sutcliffe quotes the information officer of the National Association of Small Schools:
Small schools bring significant benefits, not just in sustaining rural communities. Ministers should see small schools as assets not liabilities. They offer a family-friendly, community-based model for education which is too precious to lose."The article also reveals that the Hereford diocese of the Church of England is looking at alternatives which could mean the five church schools under threat - including Lydbury North and Stiperstones - being turned into a primary academy. All five would stay open on their present sites, under the direction of a single governing body.
Localism about to win there, perhaps? It has won somewhere else with a different service: First Group has sold its small Kings Lynn bus operation to local operator Norfolk Green - First's corporate team has recently changed with the retirement of its founder and long term boss.
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