Decisions are made by those who show up

Some of you will have read my post about school closures.

Yesterday, Northumberland County Council published their report on the responses to their consultation on schools in west Northumberland. Their consultation proposed three alternative options. In each one, our daughter’s fabulous school was proposed for closure.

I objected. We all objected. The school objected. The PTA objected. The parish council objected. The National Park Authority objected. We set up a petition to save the school, and our daughter signed it.

Northumberland County Council have abandoned all three proposed options, and now propose to keep Greenhaugh First School open.

There are caveats, of course: the school must convert to a primary, and must either federate or join an academy trust, but those are fights for another day. In addition, sadly, the Council report proposes the closure of Bellingham Middle School. Our “victory”, if we can call it that, is therefore undeniably pyrrhic.

However, we can now say to our eight-year-old daughter that when local government were going to do something she did not want, she objected, and the Council changed their mind. She shaped the future, and for the better.