CAMPAIGNERS say their fight to save Ripple School, the smallest in Kent, is not yet over after county councillors voted for it to close.

Kent County Council’s eight-strong Conservative cabinet unanimously agreed that the village school, near Deal, with just 34 pupils, should close.

The decision came in the face of further appeals for an eleventh-hour reprieve. Although the news disappointed parents, governors and teaching staff, it was not unexpected and does not signal the end of the fight.

The school’s fate will not finally be determined until July, when Kent’s independent Schools Organisation Committee – which consists of governors, councillors and church schools’ representatives - meets to discuss whether to uphold KCC’s decision. If it does not, the matter will then be referred to an independent Schools Adjudicator.

KCC’s education chiefs defended the closure plan but were chastised by the Conservative leader of Dover District Council, Cllr Paul Watkins and local Labour county councillor Reg Hansell. Both addressed the meeting to appeal for a reprieve.

Cllr Hansell said KCC had deliberately released misleading statistical information about the school’s finances and achievements to undermine the school’s case.

He said: “These [statistics] were totally inaccurate and presented in a way to have a detrimental effect on Ripple School. It is in the top five per cent of schools nationally for value-added performance. Why disrupt the success and desire of the school?”

Cllr Watkins accused KCC of ignoring its own policy of supporting local village schools and of defending rural communities. He, too, accused KCC of releasing information slanted against Ripple.

If KCC did close Ripple, it would send a “shockwave” through other small primary schools who now would fear the threat of closure.

“There is a proposal to put more affordable housing in Ripple which would bring new families into the area and support existing families,” he said.

Some of the neighbouring schools where KCC envisaged Ripple pupils would go already had difficulties with large numbers of special needs pupils.

“Rather than helping these pupils, you may be doing them a disservice,” he said.

Cllr Leyland Ridings, cabinet member for schools organisation, defended the closure.

He said: “The really important issue is the quality of education provided by this school. When you have four year groups being taught as a single class and three other year groups in another, it makes differentiated teaching very difficult.”

New Government rules on the school’s finances, which will mean they must break even each year, would make it very difficult to remain viable, he added.

After the meeting, headteacher Sue Hope, who travelled to County Hall with chairman of governors John Adam, said: “This was not unexpected, but we are disappointed. Not one of the cabinet members appeared to look at the evidence that became clear during public consultation. But there is a long way to go and we are not going to be beaten.”

Cllr Watkins talked to KM-fm about the decision...