The year-long battle to save Tonyrefail Nursery School, a 60-place unit in Rhonda Cynon Taf, from closure came to a head last week after the council confirmed that the nursery school will close on 31 August next year.
Nursery provision will be incorporated into the neighbouring Tonyrefail Primary School, which will be extended and refurbished for the purpose.
Local parents and nursery school staff campaigned rigorously to save the nursery school, and their efforts resulted in a deferral to the original proposed closure date of 1 September this year. The final decision was referred to the Welsh Assembly Government.
The council's proposal, published last September, stated that the need to remove surplus places or make financial savings was 'not applicable in this particular case'. It said that the 'prime consideration' was the 'achievement of the council's stated "preferred" method of delivering primary education provision, namely an "all through" Primary School, which children can attend from the age of three years, right through to the point that they transfer to secondary school'.
It also said the new Foundation Phase for three-to seven-year-olds would be 'best delivered in one educational setting, rather than two, where children have to transfer schools midway through this important early phase of their education'.
On hearing the news, Rowena Harbour, who has been head teacher at Tonyrefail Nursery School for 16 years, said, 'We are heartbroken. There is absolutely no need for it. We have the funding, we've got the children and we know they get the best education possible here. The parents don't want it. They've split up a highly-experienced team who have worked together for years - and who the parents trust.
She added, 'We have been treated abysmally. We have not been consulted and the feeling at the moment is that many of the staff will get out of education entirely. What a waste.'
Early years specialist Pauline Trudell, in a letter to Wales' First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, said, 'The Welsh Foundation Phase has offered real hope of a distinctive curriculum and pedagogy for a distinctive age and stage of development. It is, therefore, ironic that in Wales, where the public recognition of these principles is beginning to change educational structures, the institutions that have best embodied these principles - that is, the local authority nursery schools - are closing.'
A council spokesperson said, 'It is the Council's agreed policy to provide 'all through' education for three-to 11-year-olds wherever circumstances permit. We undertook a full and open public consultation process in line with Welsh Assembly Government guidelines. The consultation process began in September 2005, and the formal statutory notice was issued in December and published in the local press.'
On 1 January, Hirwaun Nursery School in Rhonda Cynon Taf closed and nursery education provision was transfered to the nearby Hirwaun Primary School.
The nursery school went through the same procedures and the council cited similar reasons for the closure.