PARENTS say two of Weardale’s primary schools can continue to “flourish” after their futures were secured.

St John’s Chapel and Wearhead Primary Schools faced being merged in 2017, as part of a consultation by Durham County Council to “future proof” the county’s small schools estate amid falling pupil numbers.

A consultation was due to begin after Easter, which also included plans to close Forest-of-Teesdale Primary School, in Teesdale, and Rookhope Primary School, in Weardale.

However, after both closure-threatened schools launched campaigns; the council did a u-turn on the plans and announced yesterday (May 4), that all schools would remain open with St John’s Chapel, Forest and Rookhope sharing a headteacher while Wearhead was told it would remain unaffected.

Today (May 5), the parents of St John’s Chapel and Wearhead Primary Schools welcomed the news.

Chair of governors at St John’s Chapel, Dominic Eavis, said: “We have had a part-time headteacher on a temporary basis so for us we wanted to secure a permanent leadership on a part-time basis because that makes us financially viable – it seemed an obvious solution if three of us merged together and shared.”

“I think the schools in the dales have to work together more closely to make them more viable in the future, especially with the national school news,” he added.

Craig English, who has children William, seven and Amelia, four, at Wearhead and is expecting his third child, Sophie, three, to start in September, said he and his wife Rachel were “over the moon” that the school had been saved.

“There was a meeting last week and things were thrown up in the air and obviously we thought it was going to be amalgamated and that was inevitable but it’s great that they have backed off and are willing to compromise,” the 34-year-old said.

However, County councillor John Shuttleworth, who represents Weardale and originally leaked the council’s plans to The Northern Echo, said he agreed that the best way forward was to make a school federation but was also calling for council’s head of education, Caroline O’Neill, to resign following the way the council handled the proposed consultation.

“I think the general feeling is of relief really but the bottom line is that those who made the recommendations to merge schools and close schools should now really consider their position and resign and that includes the head of educations,” he said.

The council declined to comment.