The Action Group would urge everyone who wishes to save Pentre
School
Many of you may be discouraged by the treatment we received
at the hands of cabinet last July when not one member appeared interested in
listening to anything we had to say. You probably reason that if they could
treat us with such contempt face to face what chance is there of them even
considering a letter?
The simple answer is none. The final consultation paper
presented to cabinet was over 500 pages and many of them were comprised of
letters of concern written by parents and residents of Pentre and Treorchy
primary schools. It is very doubtful if any member of cabinet read them all, if
any.
However, this time the letters will be sent to the Welsh
Assembly and the Minister for Education, Mr Huw Lewis, has assured us he will
scrutinize them carefully. Remember, we are not only fighting to save the
school and community but, above all, to ensure the safety and well being of our
children. A comprehensive survey of the safety of our roads around schools was
recently undertaken by insurance giants AXA
and Road Safety Analysis. They state:
“(We) examined over 1 million pieces of data related to
local areas around all 29,142 schools in Great
Britain . The results are shocking. It found
that in the past six years more than half a million vehicle collisions have occurred
within 500 metres of a school. Tragically, more than 85,000 children were
casualties (injuries reported to the police) of these incidents – equating to a
deeply worrying 1,192 every month.”
You can access the data related to Pentre and Treorchy primary schools' online
by following this link on the internet: http://www.axainsurancezone.com/local
I have no idea if the cabinet or the Director of Education are
aware of these statistics. They certainly were happy to ignore ministerial
guidelines that clearly state, “Proposers should assess likely walking or
cycling routes for safety and accessibility prior to bringing forward proposals.”
This did not happen in the case of Pentre and the survey contained
in the consultation document is hardly worthy of the name. This really angers me because, as a former head teacher, if I had
ignored health and safety guidelines before embarking on a school trip or
educational visit and an accident occurred to one of my pupils I would have
been disciplined and possibly dismissed, and rightly so. We should expect no less concern and rigour from our local LEA .
So please, get writing.
(This letter has been submitted to the Rhondda Leader and hopefully they will print it next week.)
BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ATTENDED THE MEETING AT THE SCHOOL TODAY.
