** Text Extracted from a Letter dated 8th May 1990 sent by the Church Lawford and King’s Newnham Women’s Institute addressed to the County Education Officer **
Dear Ms Maden
The members of Church Lawford and King’s Newnham Women’s Institute wish to protest most strongly at the proposed closure of Church Lawford First School. The School is an integral part of the community. In fact it is the central focus for the village. It is very likely that the Shop and the Post Office will also close if the School is closed. Without the School there will be nothing to attract young families to the village.
The Women’s Institute is a body that is very much concerned with the quality of life in rural areas. Closing the School will affect all members of the community, mot only the 5-8 year old children. Pre-school age children will have no Parent and Toddlers or Playgroup sessions. There will be no Summer Playscheme, no evening classes for adults. Senior Citizens will no longer enjoy Christmas Concerts, Sports Day etc.. The School has been used for many occasions, e.g., barn dances, fashion shows, local history exhibitions, harvest festival suppers, W.I. Group meetings, as a polling station, and for many fund raising activities.
Church Lawford School has a high standard of education. The teaching staff are very professional and are more than capable of coping with the extra work of assessment for the National Curriculum. To ensure the staff keep up to date with all new developments in education the School is part of a cluster group of small schools.
Once children have to leave their own community to go to school there is never the same communication between teachers, parents and children. Nothing can replace the informal daily contact as the children arrive and depart from the School. The close contact between parents, children and teachers produces a friendly, family atmosphere in which to introduce children to the discipline of learning. However hard the Head of another school may try to make parents feel welcome at all times, difficulties with transport may prevent them from participating in school life as much as they would like. Lifting the threat of closure would encourage more parents to send their children to Church Lawford School.
The school offered as an alternative at Long Lawford is a very good school, but class numbers are high enough now, too high in some cases, without increasing them with children from Church Lawford. How can a child expect as good an education, let alone a better one, in a class of 35 or more compared to that a child in a class of 16 will receive. To say that parents prefer single age classes is to believe generalisations. Parents of children attending Church Lawford School have chosen to send them to that particular school. These parents have shown they prefer to have small numbers in a class to having single age classes.
Rural life has changed significantly in recent years. Many villages have become commuter suburbs and have lost that community spirit that is so vital to bring villagers together. Warwickshire County Council is trying to cut financial costs regardless of all the social costs that will ensue. If the School is closed the community of Church Lawford as an independent unit will disappear, and village life as we know it will cease to exist.
Church Lawford and King’s Newnham Women’s Institute urge you to reconsider your proposal to close Church Lawford First School bearing in mind the wider repercussions such an action will have on this small community now and in the future.
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