WE WILL NOT BE MOVED!

Leon Watson - 20 May 2005

Furious parents today vowed to fight off shock closure plans for their children's Swansea school. An action group has been launched and says it is determined to save the comprehensive Swansea Council wants to shut down in 2007.

The move came within hours of the Post yesterday revealing the shake-up proposals for the 558-pupil Dylan Thomas school in Cockett.

Two other much smaller schools are also in the framework to go.A meeting has now been scheduled for next week in which stunned governors will thrash out a battle plan to save the doomed school.

The changes are part of a 10-year package to tackle a slump in pupil numbers across the city. Every school is being looked at, but Dylan Thomas is the biggest likely casualty so far.Bryn Nursery in Townhill and Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg in Garnswllt have also been earmarked for the first raft of closures.

Parents and governors at Dylan Thomas say they are horrified by the proposals, outlined in a letter handed to pupils yesterday.

A group met with school staff almost immediately and vowed to fight the plans - set to be put before the council cabinet on June 9 - all the way to the bitter end. Today chairman of governors Dereck Roberts claimed Dylan Thomas had been picked on by County Hall because it was an easy target.

He said: "The proposal to close the school is a kick in the teeth for the staff, parents and in particular the pupils.

"They have all worked hard at the school to improve attendance, behaviour and educational achievement.''

Parent governor Robin Lowe claimed the school has been sacrificed to help solve the problem of falling pupil number across the west of the city.

Mr Lowe, who is co-ordinating the campaign, said: "Dylan Thomas is too good a school to lose.

"We will fight it all the way until the decision is reversed. It is a small school and I think County Hall decided that the political battle would be smaller and the parents less likely to object."

Education bosses had pointed to predictions that the school would have fewer than 400 pupils at its desks by 2010 as the reason for its closure. Details of the implications the city-wide shake-up will have on jobs in Swansea's schools have not been released yet.

But teaching staff and parents across the city are bracing themselves for further cuts.

Mum Sheila Lewis from Cockett has two sons in the school, the youngest of whom will be affected by any closure in two years time. She said: "It's just so sad and disheartening. My youngest son Stanley is in year seven and he is distraught. He likes this school and he's happy there. This is a community school and it is a community. "