Regarding the closure of Ampfield School - in today's world of academies there is a total lack of support for the benefit of small schools and group teacher ratio.

Special needs support for children is at the bottom of the list and the importance of staff and the attention pupils get from smaller schools is of no importance now. 

The powers at be have totally lost sight of the advantages of smaller schools in favour of the large unsustainable academies. The attention pupils can ever expect from large class numbers and large schools is of no importance to them.

The way the meeting to discuss the closure of Ampfield School was run was a disgrace. The staff who work there must have felt totally demoralised by the comments made and the attitudes that came across from the people that obviously want to close it. It was dreadful - in this day and age we are losing experienced teachers and we need to consider the benefits to be had from small schools over large clinical academies where a pupil is just a number and get totally lost if they need extra support.

We need to try to hang on to our small schools. I came away from the meeting thinking well they have already made up their mind and signed it off as not worth saving. Let's face it, the land the school is built on is probably worth a pretty penny to a developer - so enough said.

They should hang their heads in shame for not trying to keep this school open and to see the benefits the school is providing. 

I will be interested to see how this pans out for the children and the future of the school but think their decision has already been made despite their very weak pathetic comments of the closure process.

An angry bystander supporter and believer in small schools. 

Brenda White,
Cornwall Crescent,
Southampton 

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