WE SUFFERED IN MERGER

8 June 2005

I can confirm Tamsin Green's prediction (Have Your Say, June 4) that Bishop Gore school will become a "monster" if the proposed closure of Dylan Thomas Community School does go ahead.

I was a pupil in Glanmor Girls' School in 1972, when we were merged with Bishop Gore into an education factory of almost 2,000 pupils. It was an appalling experience and damaged my education. The building was inadequate to cope with the huge numbers of pupils, some of whom had to be educated elsewhere. Corridors and staircases became blocked at the change of lessons, causing accidents; the canteens could not cope at lunchtime and I dare not mention conditions in the basement toilets.

All staff did more than their best but many pupils were disaffected and showed it in truancy, disruption and acts of vandalism. Teaching and learning suffered as a result.

Local residents complained because the roads grid-locked twice a day (there were fewer cars then) and the pavements were congested by the numerous pupils who had to walk to and from school.

I would not wish any pupil, teacher or local resident to have to endure again the chaos that the merger created.

Closing Dylan Thomas school is not the solution the council seeks to its financial problems.

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