Threat toschools

Small village schools including Northill and Moggerhanger were under threat 25 years ago this week. As education chiefs tried to tackle the problem of falling rolls, the future of many lower schools across Chronicle country was in jeopardy.
By The Newsroom
Published 1st Mar 2013, 14:43 BST

Northill Lower School was one which came under the spotlight as facing the axe. With 33 pupils and two full-time teachers it was described by chair of governors Pat Turner as “a thriving establishment at the centre of village life”. She said: “If it ever came to closure we would fight it tooth and nail. We have done it before.”

However, Tony Callaghan, Country Secretary for the National Association of Schoolteachers and the Union of Women Teachers said: “We have to accept that Government money is not available to keep schools open. The only alternative is to amalgamate.” And Bill Hall, Secretary for the National Association of Headteachers said that closures were “inevitable.”

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The first talks were due to take place later that week but Doris Brunt, Biggleswade County Councillor at the time said that she would oppose closure of any village school in the area for as long as humanly possible.