School closures will 'tear heart out' of villages

Campaigners who tried to save two schools said their closure would "tear the heart out of" their villages and devastate the community.

Hertfordshire County Council voted on Wednesday to shut Albury Primary near Bishop's Stortford and St Nicholas Primary in Elstree.

Albury can accommodate 90 pupils but currently has just 11, plus two in the nursery unit, while St Nicholas has 46 pupils but a capacity of 110.

The council said the schools were no longer viable and promised to help find alternative places for affected children.

Mark Watkin, the Liberal Democrat council's executive member for education, told Wednesday's meeting: "Any recommendation we take forward is not a judgement of the quality or commitment of the staff, headteachers, or their governing bodies.

"The question before us is whether they are educational and financially sustainable in the long term."

The authority's head of schools planning told councillors: "Declining pupil numbers lead to reduced funding, limiting the ability to provide a broad curriculum, specialist teaching and extracurricular opportunities."

Parents who had campaigned to keep the schools open said the fall in pupil numbers was partly caused by the threat of closure.

Along with two local Labour MPs, they called for the closure plan to be paused to allow a year for a recovery plan to be implemented but their request was turned down.

Josephine Quinton, who has two children at Albury, said: "The whole community is devastated. People feel like the heart of the village is being torn out and they can't understand how it's come to this.

"Closing a school with good attendance and achievement, which has served the area for 175 years, is wrong."

She added there was no evidence that alternatives to closure had been explored, and families were now calling for external scrutiny of the council's decision-making process.

St Nicholas Primary head teacher Kate Johnston-Grant said: "Losing the only school in Elstree is a massive blow to our community.

"Sadly we are being robbed of the opportunity to grow as a school and showcase all our hard work over the last few years."

The Labour MP for North East Hertfordshire, Chris Hinchliff, said: "The closure of Albury Primary School is a devastating decision that fails the children, families and community it served for generations."

The council said it would "work closely with local schools, staff and parents to ensure all children have a place at an alternative school from September".

It added the closure decisions were very difficult but the schools were no longer viable.

Other small schools in Hertfordshire will clearly be getting worried that low pupils numbers could result in the spotlight being turned on them in the near future.

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