Crickhowell education catchment area completed

8 December 2022

A review of education in a south Powys catchment area has been completed, the county council has said.

Powys County Council carried out an area review of education in the Crickhowell catchment to identify how education would be delivered in the catchment in the future.

To help with the review, the council produced an initial questionnaire so that parents, school staff, headteachers and governors could contribute their ideas.

Based on the findings of the review, the advice of officers is:

• To implement the decision made by the previous Cabinet to close Llanbedr C. in W. School from the 31 August 2023 as circumstances have not altered since the decision of the former Cabinet on 8 March 2022, such that implementation would be "inappropriate altogether".
• To retain primary provision at Crickhowell C.P School, Llangynidr C.P School and Llangattock C.i.W Primary School and to retain secondary provision at Crickhowell High School.
• To support the Crickhowell catchment to deepen their collaboration as set out in their responses to the engagement exercise.
• To support Crickhowell High School and Crickhowell C.P School to explore the option of appointing a shared headteacher which would provide a basis for further consideration of the all-age model at a later date.
• To undertake further work in the Crickhowell catchment, as outlined in the Welsh Education Strategic Plan, including discussions with Mudiad Meithrin to explore the establishment of Cylch Ti a Fi/Cylch Meithrin initially. This will also include discussions with neighbouring authorities.

The review and questionnaire findings will be considered by Cabinet on Tuesday, December 20 and by the council's Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, December 14.

Cllr Pete Roberts, Cabinet Member for a Learning Powys, said: "Earlier this year, Cabinet agreed to delay the proposed closure of Llanbedr Church in Wales School by 12 months to August 2023 to allow a full area review of the Crickhowell catchment to identify how education will be delivered in the catchment in the future.

"As part of the review, governors and teachers from the catchment attended workshop events to allow them to share their vision for transformation in the catchment and a questionnaire was produced to enable the wider community to engage with the council.

"This review has been completed and I would like to thank all those that responded to the questionnaire and attended the workshop events.

"This work allowed consideration of community-based ideas for how to improve education provision in the catchment in the future alongside those suggested by officers before engaging on preferred ways forward.

"Unfortunately, despite comprehensive review the officer advice is that no new proposals or information came forward during the engagement that suggest that the case for closure is no longer valid, and we are therefore legally-bound to implement the Llanbedr closure in the form that was agreed by the previous administration.

"The papers will now go before Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee and their views along with those of local members will be added to the findings of the review, the questionnaire responses, and the advice from officers for consideration by Cabinet before it makes its decision."