Vote to close 167-year-old school angers villagers in North Yorkshire | Primary schools

A 167-year-old village primary school in North Yorkshire with just one pupil is to be closed, with opponents of the move claiming it has been the victim of a “managed wind-down”.

The school in the quiet village of Skelton-on-Ure, near Ripon, has had declining pupil numbers for several years.

Skelton Newby Hall CofE school was founded by Mary Vyner, the local estate owner, in 1856. In 2021 numbers had dwindled to 15 pupils and it currently has just one on its roll, who is taught elsewhere.

No first preference applications have been made for the next school year and no pupils have been allocated a place there, a report to North Yorkshire county council said.

On Tuesday, a meeting of North Yorkshire’s executive unanimously voted to close the school. The decision came despite arguments by the parish council that the school should be retained to join the burgeoning forest school movement, an education concept that puts unstructured play and exploration at its centre.

Guy Critchlow, the chair of Skelton cum Newby parish council, said government guidance was that decision-makers should presume against the closure of rural schools. He said it would be needed with 800 new houses targeting young families being built within five miles of the village and planning permission in place for more. Other primary schools were at or near capacity, he said.

The parish council claims there have been failures of management and governance of the school, leading to the falling pupil numbers. Critchlow said there had been a “managed wind-down”.

A report to councillors said school governors felt they had been active in trying to raise pupil numbers, including the distribution of flyers to new builds in the area.

But Critchlow said: “Despite what is stated in council documents, our school has not been marketed to the local area.” The flyers may, he said, “have ended up in a hedge somewhere”.

He added: “North Yorkshire council has a stated aim of putting ‘local’ at its heart. Closing our school would not be putting local at its heart but [would be] ripping the beating heart out of the local community.”

The council’s Conservative leader, Carl Les, said decisions to close primary schools were always sad ones. Other councillors said they could see no option.

The school was last inspected by Ofsted in 2020 when it was judged as “requires improvement”. That, one respondent to a consultation process said, “added to the exodus of children”.

Officials in their report said there “appears to be no reasonable prospect of recovery for the school”.

The councillor Greg White said: “A decision to close a school is really an unpleasant one to have to make. But this isn’t a difficult decision to make because there are no pupils and we can’t spend money on schools that don’t have pupils.”

He said the building could become a school again in the future if there was a need.