Councillors support super-school plan for Llandysul

Councillors have supported a controversial scheme to create an "all-through" super-school in a Ceredigion town.

But it means that secondary school Ysgol Dyffryn Teifi in Llandysul, its primary school and four in the surrounding area are expected to close.

Ceredigion council's cabinet backed the plans at a meeting, and a report will go before the full council on 30 June.

The super-school is designed to educate children from three to 19.

A proposal to replace seven schools in the Tregaron area with an all-through school, has been deferred until 6 July.

Councillors also backed plans by Trewen Primary School, near Newcastle Emlyn, to form an area school with the nearby villages of Cenarth and Beulah.

A feasibility study, chaired by former Ceredigion MP Lord Elystan Morgan, was carried out into the "all-through" scheme.

A subsequent report said secondary schools in Llandysul and Tregaron were not up to standard, and cost per pupil figures for primary and secondary levels in the towns and their catchment areas was among the highest in Wales.

The report added: "Ysgol Dyffryn Teifi's (in Llandysul) site has serious shortcomings in terms of developing the site and the quality of the buildings. The site is not suitable for development into a modern secondary school with adequate resources."

But the proposals have been met with criticism by Welsh language pressure group, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society).

In Llandysul, a Welsh medium school would be built on a new site, but this means shutting the town's secondary, its primary and others in nearby CoedyBryn, Aberbanc, Pontsian and Capel Cynon.

Parents with children at the five primary schools under threat have started an action group.

After the council cabinet met, group spokesman Gethin Jones, a parent at Ysgol Pontsian, said: "We, as parents of pupils at the five primary schools in the Llandysul area, are disappointed but not surprised at the decision taken today by the cabinet of Ceredigion County Council to go ahead and establish the 3-19 school in our area and close Aberbanc, Capel Cynon, Coedybryn, Llandysul and Pontsian primary schools.

"This decision goes against the principles of democracy as well as the principle of listening to the views of parents."

Other councils in Wales are also examining new ways of delivering education.