The ghost school parents fear their children will never return to - Wales Online

Parents at a primary school shut down over a year ago don’t think their children will ever return. They were told at the gates of Godre’r Graig Primary School, Ystalyfera, in July, 2019, that the community school would close immediately due to a landslide risk In September, 2019, the primary school pupils as young as three were moved into temporary classrooms in the grounds of comprehensive, Cwmtawe Community School in Pontardawe, and they have been there ever since.

A number of parents have raised a catalogue of concerns regarding the school’s initial closure and the facilities where their children are now being taught.

The parents claim their children have not had a hot meal at the school since September and that children as young as three have to travel on a coach to get to primary school.

They also say the young children are exposed to swearing from teenagers at the comprehensive school and have little privacy, despite efforts from teachers to make them comfortable.

The parents say they are “suspicious” of the closure because Godre’r Graig Primary is one of three schools in the area proposed to be knocked down permanently in 2024 to make way for an amalgamated superschool near to Cwmtawe comprehensive school.

Currently, Godre’r Graig primary is still deemed unsafe by the council.

Ben Holdsworth, 44, has two children at the primary school and said he and other parents believed the school was shut under “very suspicious circumstances”.

He referred to the risk assessment carried out on the mountain by Earth Science Partnership (ESP) on behalf of the council which led to the school’s abrupt closure.

One risk assessed was the potential for a landslide – known as “hazard type 2”.

ESP data showed there was a ‘possible’ likelihood that a landslide could occur under adverse conditions.

“We consider that this statement has similarities with our assessment for hazard type 2…some probable conditions suggest that instability may not be possible, however, these conditions are unproven and cannot be assumed.

“We consider that a…debris avalanche reaching the school could cause moderate damage to some of the structure, and/or significant part of the site which would require large stabilisation works. Such a consequence is described as medium.”

Mr Holdsworth claimed: “They identified a possible risk to the school under a very select set of criteria, if there was extreme rainfall and if there was no remedial work done.

“And they’ve used that to justify closing the school.

“They concentrated specifically on the quarry area behind the school and how it would affect the school, not on any of the surrounding houses, just on the school.

“The council selected the words ‘medium risk’ from that risk assessment and they recommended to the head and governing body that they close the school immediately as there was an imminent threat to life which couldn’t be further than the truth. It’s been misnamed from the start as a landslide waiting to happen.

“I’m not saying it has been made up, but the facts have been manipulated to make it easier to build a superschool in Pontardawe.”

He said that, as a result, he felt that the children had been left in “limbo” while more investigations were carried out.

“Our children on the Cwmtawe campus have not had a hot meal since September at a time where at the peak of public interest you have Boris Johnson and Marcus Rashford saying every child should have access to a hot meal.

“We previously walked our children to school, it was a sociable and pleasurable experience. Now, because we are 3.2 miles away, I drive my children to school every morning and pick them up in the afternoon because I am not putting my young children on a bus. Other people don’t even have the luxury of that option.”

Mr Holdsworth said he believed there had been a negative impact on the children.

“My youngest will spend most of their early education in temporary classrooms. It’s affected the entire years of children as a whole,” he said.

“It is such a beautiful building, they don’t have space of their own at the Cwmtawe site for concerts or fetes and that was a huge part of the community, it was a focal point.

“The proposed superschool is also proposed to be 3.2 miles away from Godre’r Graig and there is no safe walking route. It’s absolutely awful.

“We also see in the statutory proposal for the superschool that the council need to spend £740,000 to repair Godre’r Graig school and make it viable.” He said he believed that either that figure was grossly inflated or the council had failed to look after the school building.

“It’s over achieving as a school and it’s being decimated. Our community is being decimated for the council’s wish to save money by building a superschool,” he claimed.

“I said at a governors meeting on the Cwmtawe site in July, 2019, if we walk out of this school now we will never go back and I suspect I’m right.”

Lisa Williams has three children who attend Godre’r Graig, she also lives in Graig Road – the same road as the primary.

“I live on the road and have never heard anything from the council to say our house is unsafe,” she said.

“If there was any risk of that mountain being unsafe, how are they happy for residents to live on that road. I’ve lived here 15 years, it didn’t come up on the survey when that was carried out and I’ve never had problems getting home insurance”

Mrs Williams, 36, said her children were just finishing year three, year two and reception when it happened and it came as a complete shock.