School closure protest

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Children have made a plea to Comhairle nan Eilean Siar to save their school.

Some 38 pupils presented 454 letters protesting about the council’s plans to axe Lionel secondary school in Ness in the north of Lewis. They also lodged a petition with 786 signatures.

Lionel secondary is the last rural S2 school left in the Western Isles after rounds of savage school closures in recent years.

It was reprieved after a period of roundabout politics when the council voted to shut the school but reversed that decision in 2012.

Parent Derek O’ Connor said: “There is huge support for the retention of Lionel Secondary School in the North Lewis area and the overwhelming opinion is that the council’s proposal to close the school has no educational or economic benefit in their plans of transferring the pupils to the Nicolson Institute.”

Campaigner Martin Adil-Smith maintains there are “serious defects within the consultation documentation that are of such a severe nature as to invalidate the process, necessitating that it is abandoned in its entirety.”

He claimed the proposed receiving school, the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway, often has up to 40 pupils in a class with science lesson taught in computer rooms without the specialist equipment.

It also struggled to recruit and retain staff, he said.

Mr Adil-Smith said he understood it is “common practice during inclement weather” there to send pupils “into the school yard as the Nicolson has insufficient space to host all of the children inside.”

He suggested the situation showed a “crisis within The Nicolson Institute, and it would therefore be wholly inappropriate to put more children into this toxic environment until it has been satisfactorily resolved.”

A council report says there are only eight pupils attending Lionel S1/S2 - two in S1 and six enrolled for S2.

The report highlights: “This constitutes a significant fall in the school roll compared to previous years.”

It adds: “Around half of the parents of children eligible for S1 and S2 at Lionel in August 2014 have expressed a preference for their children to attend The Nicolson Institute.

“A combined S1-2 class of 8 pupils will find it difficult to access an education experience within the broad general education that can match that provided at The Nicolson Institute. They will have access to reduced specialist staff and to peer dialogue and interaction within the learning process.”

The council will debate the school closure plans in February.

Pupils’ plea: Save our school from closure 9/11/14