April 21, 2021 • 10 mins
Interview with Manon Gravell on small school closures
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm with Manon Grevelle, the daughter of Ray and Marie Grevell,
who went to us skull Manedegaric School, and as did
her father, as did her sister and a lot of
the family. Really. Manon the council have proposed a consultation
with the premise of closure of the school. Their view
is that it's old, it's got too few children in
(00:24):
its vertical grouping of children, children of different ages. That's
not more and that's not what they want. They want
to give children the advantage of in a twenty first
century and all those facilities. There's a slight death for
sitting in the school, and the school has fallen into
a bit of disrepair. The campaigners say, look, this is
the heart of the village. There's nothing left. We've been
(00:45):
stripped of all our community. This is the only thing
that keeps us going. The consultation is unfair being conducted
at the time of a pandemic. Can you give us
the cost of what it takes to get this Monedegardic
school up to twenty first century. We're willing to help,
willing to pay for that. Children that win, fine, the scores,
the inspectorate, everything has been fined. They've come out with
(01:07):
great results. Small schools have benefits. They are being used
in countries where we send out teachers and lecturers to
train in education, to see what's working properly. You went
to the school, you walk to the school. The policies
of the Welsh Assembly and the councilor that we must
lower our carbon footprint they are proposing. This school is
(01:28):
in Kidwelly, on the other side of a bypass with
no pavements, no crossing. And what are your views other
councils right, in part or in full or other campaigners right?
Do you support the maintaining of the school and maybe
looking at different ways of keeping the school here within
the village.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, I fully support the campaigners. Losing the school I
feel would be a massive, massive loss of the village.
Like you said, we've already lost so much to kid
really and you know our our post office twenty years ago,
our we no longer have any pubs in the village.
The rugby club and Chef we have not well, it's
(02:10):
mostly schefed. We have no team anymore. It's all gone
to get really, and you know the village is transforming
literally every day, there's more and more houses going up,
there's more and more developments being discussed, and there's more
and more land going for sale, and I just think
that with all this development, closing the local school just
(02:35):
wouldn't make sense. There's alread so much potential in the
families that have moved to the village and that will
move to the village in harnessing you know, the Welsh
language in them and in learning the Welsh language, and
I just feel like closing the local school where that
(02:56):
could be, that could be done so well in such
a small comfort and environment where these children could be
brought up with Welsh is either a second language or
almost their first language, even if they weren't first language
speakers to start with. I just feel, you know, losing
(03:17):
that that resource in the village would be such a
massive shame. And then to take everything to Kidwayli where
the bike passes, the bike passes wild anyway, to have
to take all those children from well, even just thinking now,
(03:38):
I think there's three or four housing developments in one
of the girl rag at the Innet to take if
there's a child in each in each home, that one
that needed to go to primary school, to take all
those children because a massive increase in traffic in the morning.
There's no way that Man of the Girl nor Kidwayy
could support that kind of traffic even as it is now.
(04:01):
There would have to be some sort of traffic even
lights or something, some sort of traffic control put in
to support that. So you're not only talking about building
a whole new school, but you'd have to transform the
entire the entire look of tool a village and a
town to support that. I mean, there's nothing wrong with
(04:25):
the site that Men of the that's common geg is on.
Nothing in there. There's plenty of space there for further
development if they wanted. I just don't see how viable
or how financially sensible it is to take a school
which really there's nothing wrong with. Yes it's old, yes
(04:47):
it's an old building, but structurally it's not that bad.
I mean, I don't think anything anything right has changed
there since I was there, and you know, it's it's
well looked at. We've had amazing facilities put into the
playground and you know, so much has change there. I
(05:09):
just I don't know how they can justify just letting
it go to waste when it's doing so well and like,
you know, I went to the school myself. I was
a pupil then, and I went to secondary school. And
I never once I feel at a disadvantage for being
a primary school pupil in a small school. But you know,
(05:33):
if anything, I felt more confident than my pears because
I'd had that opportunity to support others, to support younger
children who were in my class, the opportunity to to
harness that that confidence in myself. And you know, I've
had no different education to anybody else. I've graduated, I've
(05:54):
left sixth form, I've graduated university, I've graduated with a masters.
Like I've done, I've done pretty well. And you know,
I feel like my education has been no different because
I was in a small primary school. And I just
feel it would be a real shame to the village,
especially to lose another thing and to lose that sense
(06:17):
of community when at the moment especially community is everything,
And yeah, it would just be it would just be
a real shame and just something I wouldn't want to
see my children. I would have hoped, would luck would
have gone just gone in the garag and I hope
they still will. It's just whether whether or not the
(06:39):
council will agree with what we say is another thing.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Your father was a very proud Welshman. A Welsh speaker
supported the Welsh language a campaign as a claiming this
is going to have an impact on the Welsh language.
As you say, families moving in, families moving back like
yourself when you you know, eventually mar and have children yourself,
you would want to come back. There has to be
(07:04):
something for you to come back to, doesn't it. And
a school is critical, It's essential.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, definitely, And you know, especially now thinking about having
families and things, having a local school is a massive
ball nets especially when you have been there yourself, Your
father has been there, his father and his sister have
been there. You know it would be it would be
lovely just to keep that tradition going. But not only that,
(07:29):
it's it's such a it's being a small school. You've
got that opportunity to harness talents and and confidence that
might not be something on the priority list in a
bigger school. We've got the opportunities in smaller schools to
have those conversations that you might not have time for
(07:52):
in bigger classes. And you know you can you can
spot things that might be not easily spotted in in
bigger schools, and I just feel former such a small
village anyway, which is de blin by the day, to
have a school local is such a big advantage to
us and it's such a it's such an eye catching
(08:17):
part of why people want to move to the village.
I just feel to lose it, we would have nothing
really to offer anymore and it would just be really sad.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
So your your message to the council then would be
take another look at it, Maybe look at the future
of the school, as you and he in it's saying,
rather than the premise of closure, look at the option
of maybe transforming that school into a smaller, moderan twenty
first century school on the grounds it's on an investment
(08:50):
in effect in the future for the village, the community
and education. Nobody you're saying, nobody's against the modernizing of education.
But it can be done equally, Mandygard because it can
down on a piece of land in Kidweli where they
have to travel and all of these kind of things.
That that's your message, is it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Absolutely, I just feel like it would wait, it's a
waste of a very very good school. To have to
just ignore it and move away. It just makes no
sense to me at all.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And the consultation is going on during a pandemic. You're
I know you're heavily involved as well with that. Do
you think that is fair at the moment, given the
stress and strain on people who having the home medicaid
in the village and look after their families who may
be suffering and hold down jobs.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, no, I don't think it's fair at all. I think,
if anything, it might be a little bit sly. It's
almost as if it feels like they've tried to push
this through the back door but before anybody could really
make any notice of it. I feel with not being
able to get together and to have these conversations in
(10:05):
person with people make things very difficult. A lot of
the older generations that have attended Ascomaga I don't have
massive thing like big objections to close in the school,
can't partake in the conversations because they don't have the
facilities to get involved with the conversations that are going on.
And I just feel like if if this was delayed
(10:29):
and held maybe to a more suitable time, they would
see the true impact that clothes in a common The
gag would have on the villages and the children of
the community.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Do you come a shot? A deview
I'm with Manon Grevelle, the daughter of Ray and Marie Grevell,
who went to us skull Manedegaric School, and as did
her father, as did her sister and a lot of
the family. Really. Manon the council have proposed a consultation
with the premise of closure of the school. Their view
is that it's old, it's got too few children in
(00:24):
its vertical grouping of children, children of different ages. That's
not more and that's not what they want. They want
to give children the advantage of in a twenty first
century and all those facilities. There's a slight death for
sitting in the school, and the school has fallen into
a bit of disrepair. The campaigners say, look, this is
the heart of the village. There's nothing left. We've been
(00:45):
stripped of all our community. This is the only thing
that keeps us going. The consultation is unfair being conducted
at the time of a pandemic. Can you give us
the cost of what it takes to get this Monedegardic
school up to twenty first century. We're willing to help,
willing to pay for that. Children that win, fine, the scores,
the inspectorate, everything has been fined. They've come out with
(01:07):
great results. Small schools have benefits. They are being used
in countries where we send out teachers and lecturers to
train in education, to see what's working properly. You went
to the school, you walk to the school. The policies
of the Welsh Assembly and the councilor that we must
lower our carbon footprint they are proposing. This school is
(01:28):
in Kidwelly, on the other side of a bypass with
no pavements, no crossing. And what are your views other
councils right, in part or in full or other campaigners right?
Do you support the maintaining of the school and maybe
looking at different ways of keeping the school here within
the village.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, I fully support the campaigners. Losing the school I
feel would be a massive, massive loss of the village.
Like you said, we've already lost so much to kid
really and you know our our post office twenty years ago,
our we no longer have any pubs in the village.
The rugby club and Chef we have not well, it's
(02:10):
mostly schefed. We have no team anymore. It's all gone
to get really, and you know the village is transforming
literally every day, there's more and more houses going up,
there's more and more developments being discussed, and there's more
and more land going for sale, and I just think
that with all this development, closing the local school just
(02:35):
wouldn't make sense. There's alread so much potential in the
families that have moved to the village and that will
move to the village in harnessing you know, the Welsh
language in them and in learning the Welsh language, and
I just feel like closing the local school where that
(02:56):
could be, that could be done so well in such
a small comfort and environment where these children could be
brought up with Welsh is either a second language or
almost their first language, even if they weren't first language
speakers to start with. I just feel, you know, losing
(03:17):
that that resource in the village would be such a
massive shame. And then to take everything to Kidwayli where
the bike passes, the bike passes wild anyway, to have
to take all those children from well, even just thinking now,
(03:38):
I think there's three or four housing developments in one
of the girl rag at the Innet to take if
there's a child in each in each home, that one
that needed to go to primary school, to take all
those children because a massive increase in traffic in the morning.
There's no way that Man of the Girl nor Kidwayy
could support that kind of traffic even as it is now.
(04:01):
There would have to be some sort of traffic even
lights or something, some sort of traffic control put in
to support that. So you're not only talking about building
a whole new school, but you'd have to transform the
entire the entire look of tool a village and a
town to support that. I mean, there's nothing wrong with
(04:25):
the site that Men of the that's common geg is on.
Nothing in there. There's plenty of space there for further
development if they wanted. I just don't see how viable
or how financially sensible it is to take a school
which really there's nothing wrong with. Yes it's old, yes
(04:47):
it's an old building, but structurally it's not that bad.
I mean, I don't think anything anything right has changed
there since I was there, and you know, it's it's
well looked at. We've had amazing facilities put into the
playground and you know, so much has change there. I
(05:09):
just I don't know how they can justify just letting
it go to waste when it's doing so well and like,
you know, I went to the school myself. I was
a pupil then, and I went to secondary school. And
I never once I feel at a disadvantage for being
a primary school pupil in a small school. But you know,
(05:33):
if anything, I felt more confident than my pears because
I'd had that opportunity to support others, to support younger
children who were in my class, the opportunity to to
harness that that confidence in myself. And you know, I've
had no different education to anybody else. I've graduated, I've
(05:54):
left sixth form, I've graduated university, I've graduated with a masters.
Like I've done, I've done pretty well. And you know,
I feel like my education has been no different because
I was in a small primary school. And I just
feel it would be a real shame to the village,
especially to lose another thing and to lose that sense
(06:17):
of community when at the moment especially community is everything,
And yeah, it would just be it would just be
a real shame and just something I wouldn't want to
see my children. I would have hoped, would luck would
have gone just gone in the garag and I hope
they still will. It's just whether whether or not the
(06:39):
council will agree with what we say is another thing.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Your father was a very proud Welshman. A Welsh speaker
supported the Welsh language a campaign as a claiming this
is going to have an impact on the Welsh language.
As you say, families moving in, families moving back like
yourself when you you know, eventually mar and have children yourself,
you would want to come back. There has to be
(07:04):
something for you to come back to, doesn't it. And
a school is critical, It's essential.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, definitely, And you know, especially now thinking about having
families and things, having a local school is a massive
ball nets especially when you have been there yourself, Your
father has been there, his father and his sister have
been there. You know it would be it would be
lovely just to keep that tradition going. But not only that,
(07:29):
it's it's such a it's being a small school. You've
got that opportunity to harness talents and and confidence that
might not be something on the priority list in a
bigger school. We've got the opportunities in smaller schools to
have those conversations that you might not have time for
(07:52):
in bigger classes. And you know you can you can
spot things that might be not easily spotted in in
bigger schools, and I just feel former such a small
village anyway, which is de blin by the day, to
have a school local is such a big advantage to
us and it's such a it's such an eye catching
(08:17):
part of why people want to move to the village.
I just feel to lose it, we would have nothing
really to offer anymore and it would just be really sad.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
So your your message to the council then would be
take another look at it, Maybe look at the future
of the school, as you and he in it's saying,
rather than the premise of closure, look at the option
of maybe transforming that school into a smaller, moderan twenty
first century school on the grounds it's on an investment
(08:50):
in effect in the future for the village, the community
and education. Nobody you're saying, nobody's against the modernizing of education.
But it can be done equally, Mandygard because it can
down on a piece of land in Kidweli where they
have to travel and all of these kind of things.
That that's your message, is it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Absolutely, I just feel like it would wait, it's a
waste of a very very good school. To have to
just ignore it and move away. It just makes no
sense to me at all.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And the consultation is going on during a pandemic. You're
I know you're heavily involved as well with that. Do
you think that is fair at the moment, given the
stress and strain on people who having the home medicaid
in the village and look after their families who may
be suffering and hold down jobs.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, no, I don't think it's fair at all. I think,
if anything, it might be a little bit sly. It's
almost as if it feels like they've tried to push
this through the back door but before anybody could really
make any notice of it. I feel with not being
able to get together and to have these conversations in
(10:05):
person with people make things very difficult. A lot of
the older generations that have attended Ascomaga I don't have
massive thing like big objections to close in the school,
can't partake in the conversations because they don't have the
facilities to get involved with the conversations that are going on.
And I just feel like if if this was delayed
(10:29):
and held maybe to a more suitable time, they would
see the true impact that clothes in a common The
gag would have on the villages and the children of
the community.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Do you come a shot? A deview
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