Parents hand over petition to save Urafirth school

A PETITION signed by 200 people objecting to proposals to shut Urafirth’s primary school was handed over to SIC convener Malcolm Bell at Lerwick Town Hall on Monday afternoon.

Eight parents and three young children made the trip to Lerwick to hand over the signatures. Support has come from as far afield as Japan and Australia.

On Tuesday the local authority’s education and families committee meets to decide whether to shut Urafirth and North Roe primaries, with Hayfield officials recommending that pupils should be transferred to Ollaberry from summer 2015.

Councillors are also being asked to close Urafirth’s nursery class, with pre-school children instead attending nursery in Ollaberry from next August. The report estimates the three changes would save a total of £156,000 a year.

Claire Herridge of Urafirth Parent Council said the Northmavine community felt it was “very important to keep the schools open because we want to keep the level of education we’ve got in the schools at the moment, and the enrolment numbers are going up”.

She said the SIC’s proposal paper did not take into account the projected increase in pupil numbers beyond the 2017/18 academic year. 

During a well-mannered exchange, Bell sought to assure parents that their views were being listened to.

He said elected members “agonise over decisions like this” and that, while the report going before councillors this week recommends closure, no decision had yet been taken. 

Bell stressed that the local authority still faced real terms cuts in the money it was receiving from central government.

“They’ve put up a very reasonable and balanced fight to retain their school, and that’s to be expected,” he said afterwards. “I’ve reassured them that we will take their views seriously, and it’ll be a fair decision.”