Teesdale head issues stark warning about rural school closures

A TEESDALE headteacher has made an impassioned plea to the county council’s finance chief, warning that closing small schools could sound the death knell for rural communities.

It comes as Durham County Council completes a review of all schools in the wake of changes in the way government funding is delivered. It is feared smaller schools could be shut because funding is largely based on pupil numbers. Butterknowle Primary School headteacher Tessa Fenoughty made the plea to the council’s head of corporate finance, Jeff Garfoot.

He had attended a public meeting in Middleton-in-Teesdale last week to give a presentation about the authority’s budget.

Ms Fenoughty urged the county council to protect small schools. She described them as the “heartbeat” of rural communities.

She said: “I would just like to fly the flag for rural schools and say that without the rural schools the infrastructure of small communities can die.

“So something like Remembrance, for example, it is us that go to the memorial each year, we are the ones that hold the Christingle, we are the ones that do the harvest festival service in the community, we are the heartbeat of villages in rural Teesdale.

“Obviously I am aware there is a review at the ment and I am very nervous for small schools.”

Ms Fenoughty said schools had already made huge cuts to their budgets, including reducing hours of backroom staff such as secretaries and caretakers. She suggested the council look into encouraging more house-building in villages, pointing out that there are 16 vacant plots for houses in Butterknowle. She said: “Is there no way the council can help support the generation of new homes in places like Butterknowle, Woodland, Hamsterley to encourage people in? If I can fill my school I can support the infrastructure and stop these rural villages from dying.”

However, Mr Garfoot said there was little wriggle room for the county to move cash to support smaller schools.

He said: “We have been in charge of our own funding formula and that has enabled our small schools to survive.

“But the Government is now bringing in the national funding formula, which is a blunt tool, so that each school in the country is funded in the same way. It is driven about 80 per cent by pupil numbers. So the council’s ability to protect our small schools has been mitigated. It is out of our hands in terms of the funding of our schools going forward.

“We are very proud of our small schools, they give an excellent education for our children, but the funding that comes from Government is driven by a national formula, not our own formula, and so the council is now doing a review of all our school provision.”