At a meeting of the full Council on 16 December 2010, Gwynedd councillors supported recommendations to reorganise schools in the Tywyn catchment area.
This follows a period of discussion held in the catchment area along with the statutory consultation period held over the summer 2010.
At the full Council meeting (16 December 2010), councillors approved the following recommendations:
- to approve the proposal to close Ysgol Abergynolwyn by 31 March 2011 and to issue statutory notices to that effect
- to approve the proposal to close Ysgol Bryncrug, Ysgol Llanegryn and Ysgol Llwyngwril during the school year 2013-14, and to issue statutory notices to that effect with the aim of formally closing the schools once the new area school is open
- to approve the commencement of a consultation process under Section 28 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 for the establishment of the area community school to open during the school year 2013-14 on a site on the outskirts at Llanegryn subject to the outcome of the proposal to discontinue Ysgol Bryncrug, Ysgol Llanegryn, Ysgol Llwyngwril and Ysgol Abergynolwyn
- to approve the proposal to close Ysgol Aberdyfi by 31 August 2013 following the completion of improvements at Ysgol Penybryn, Tywyn. Statutory consultation will be held on this recommendation due to a change in the closing date
- to make a prescribed alteration to Ysgol Penybryn, Tywyn, by permitting Ysgol Penybryn to admit pupils of nursery age in line with the Council’s policy from September 2011 and to issue statutory notices to that effect
- that the Council responds to the concerns of parents about transporting children in buses for the first time as a result of the reorganisation or primary schools in Tywyn. It is intended to provide temporary local transitional arrangements so that an additional adult will travel with the bus driver transporting the children from Aberdyfi to Penybryn, Tywyn and back from Abergynolwyn, Bryncrug and Llwyngwril to the new area school and back. The transitional arrangement will be reviewed after being operational for one school term. It will also be made a tendering condition that safety belts are installed in school buses when agreeing on new transport contracts as a result of the reorganisation in the Tywyn area.
Councillor Liz Saville Roberts who leads on Education for Gwynedd Council said:
“As a Council, we are committed to a programme of investment to improve the quality of education for children in communities across Gwynedd. In the Tywyn area, we have been successful in attracting over £5.5 million of Welsh Assembly Government grant funding towards a £7.9 million project in the Tywyn area which will see the building of a new area school and improvements to the facilities in three other existing schools within the catchment area.
“The aim of this strategy is to ensure that the area’s young people are educated in modern facilities which offer them every possible opportunity to fulfill their potential.”
