PARENTS STAGE WALK-OUT

20 October 2005

Angry parents have walked out of a meeting with senior council officers in Swansea after being told of plans for their school. Parents at Dylan Thomas school left the meeting en masse as the council's senior education officer was summing up proposals for the school's future.

Council leaders are proposing to close Dylan Thomas school and transfer pupils to Bishop Gore after a £20 million revamp. However, parents believe the deal will see their children's education suffer.Many are now threatening to pull their children out of the school after listening to council officers' plans for the future.

Rob Lowe, chairman of the Dylan Thomas Parents Action Group, said parents would refuse to send children to Bishop Gore.

He said: "We put it to them that we would put our children in different schools."We do not want to send them to Bishop Gore under the new plans because we think it will be too big. We put that to the officers at the meeting, but they could not explain how their plans would stand up with 500 fewer pupils."

Mr Lowe said parents would fight on."The next step is to consult with ourselves. We will talk to residents in the area and other users of the school.

"There will be an official objection lodged and that means the final decision will go to the Assembly.

"We're confident we can win that, but if we don't then we will take children out of the school.

"The overwhelming majority of parents do not wish it to come to this but they feel they are being forced into it."

School governors are also setting out a response to the council's latest plans. Chairman Dereck Roberts said: "We are working on a formal response to the meeting.

"We are fundamentally opposed to what they are planning to do."

Mr Roberts said governors would be asking to see the consultation documents used by the council to come to the decision.

Staff were told there were no guarantee about jobs.

Cabinet member for education Mike Day said: "Staff expressed concerns about their jobs and it was explained that, as cabinet has not yet made any decision about its views on the proposed closure of Dylan Thomas, we can't be specific about the plans.

"What I can say is that the council will be working very closely with the governing bodies of Bishop Gore and Dylan Thomas Community School to minimise job losses.

"I want to stress to those who take part in this consultation on the transition phase that just as their feedback influenced the last report to cabinet, so their feedback will influence the next one.