At a meeting of the Langton Matravers parish council in Dorset, residents expressed their devastation at the possibility of the closure of the village school site, although the school’s academy chain now says no decision has been made.
The parish council listened to the views of the St George’s primary school parents and former parents, and considered its own response to the plans at the packed village hall on Thursday 11th June 2026.
St George’s primary school is under the threat of closure, despite achieving top results
Academy chain says consultation will be open and transparent
Academy group Coastal Learning Partnership (CLP) which runs St George’s in Langton Matravers, has launched a consultation to address the predicted reduction in the number of children at St George’s and at St Mark’s primary school in Swanage – both Church of England schools.
It initially said its preferred option was to merge the two schools by closing the St George’s site in Langton Matravers and moving the pupils about a mile away to St Mark’s in Swanage, but now it has changed part of the consultation form to widen the options including merging St Mark’s with St George’s on the Langton Matravers site.
The Langton Matravers parish council meeting in the village hall was packed compared to usual
“Highest SATs results of any school in Purbeck”
At the parish council meeting, parents spoke during the public participation time.
Many were concerned that prospective parents may incorrectly think there was a problem with St George’s and send their children elsewhere in the meantime to avoid the merger with St Mark’s.
Later they could find their children were at a less well performing school than St George’s. And like many times before, St George’s may survive for another generation.
One father said:
“As many of you will know, St George’s is a fantastic school. It is genuinely thriving. It receives the highest SATs results of any school in Purbeck and is also the only school in the area to appear in the The Daily Telegraph primary school rankings with a grading of Very Good and that is an exceptional achievement.
“It really is a very special place. The children are all doing incredibly well there. It is a school that should be nurtured and cherished, and certainly not a school that should be closed…
“The outcome of this proposal may well be that children are dispersed among many different schools, while St Mark’s does not receive the expected number of pupils, and at the same time the Langton community loses this hugely important local resource…
“Looking at the figures within the document, it is unclear where some of the projections have come from. The methodology behind the financial forecasts appears opaque, and the projected pupil numbers are not adequately explained.
“What we do know, and the CLP has acknowledged this, is that the new housing developments taking place in Langton and potentially at Harman’s Cross have not been included within these projections.
“Given that, as I understand it, local planning applications usually take account of the impact on school places, this appears to be a significant omission.”
St George’s at the beginning of the 20th Century
More than a 100 years later it is still at the heart of the village
“Our beautiful village school”
A local resident added:
“I was a pupil at St George’s and five generations of my family have been to the school. I still have strong connections with the school today and was there only a couple of weeks ago, volunteering and listening to children read.
“The thought of not having our beautiful village school where it is today is simply unbelievable.”
“Closing the school seems absolutely crazy”
Another resident said:
“The school is the beating heart and fabric of rural life, sustaining our community identity and providing a supportive environment for our children. If we lose the school, we lose part of the social fabric of Langton. We have already lost a pub, our shop, and our post office. I do not believe we should also lose our school.
“New families have recently moved into the village, many with very young children. My understanding is that one of the reasons they chose to live here was because the village has a school, and I think that is really important.
“We also have new housing developments underway and potentially other developments, all of which will bring new families and children into the area. Therefore, the idea of closing the school seems absolutely crazy.”
The school and St George’s church are closely linked
“Believe so strongly in what this school offers”
A mother said:
“I was a pupil at the school myself, and now, many years later, my daughter is also there and absolutely thriving.
“We actually live in Swanage, but we make the journey every day because we believe so strongly in what this school offers. We visited the school and the nursery, the children showed us around, and both my husband and I fell in love with the place immediately.
“What I would like to say is that the school is actively attracting young families. I take my daughter to the park, she goes to the Rainbow Hut, and we attend church services and the Christmas Christingles – many of the same traditions that I took part in as a child. She is intrinsically involved in the community, just as all the children at the school are.
“I am trembling and this is the first time I’ve become tearful, but it is an emotive subject…The school is not something that is declining – it is something that is attracting the next generation of young families.”
A campaign has been launched to stop the closure supported by parents, villagers, and further afield
“It is possible to achieve whatever you want to achieve against the odds”
One person who successfully helped to prevent the school closing in 2009 said:
“The school is part of the cultural life of children and young people and their parents and grandparents and wider families that live in this community. And once that is gone, it cannot ever be replaced.
“I was a founding member of Education Swanage, a governor at The Swanage School. We set the Swanage School up from scratch. I would say to parents at St George’s school, do not be disheartened by any argument against your campaign because it is possible to achieve whatever you want to achieve against the odds.
“And you can do it even if it means setting up your own school or getting out of the academy trust. Children need to learn in their own community and they transition best when they transition in a gradual way and reach new horizons having started in their home community.”
“I’m not going to apologise for my passion”
Another parent who fought and won last time added:
“Believe me, we’ve all been there, done it, and thank you, because that needs to be said, it needs to be done. A lot of people have already given a lot of time, energy, and expertise to keep the school, so I was shocked to hear it was happening again.
“And I have to say, first of all, I thought, oh my God, can I go through that again. But yes, I will be there, because it is the heart of the community.
“Those same arguments of why we had to keep the school 18 years ago still stand. And I’m not going to apologise for my passion either, so there we go.”
Church activities depend on a thriving village with young people contributing to events
“Drip feed of new information every two days”
Responding to the heartfelt and well considered questions and statements from the public, the chair of the parish council Daryle Pearson told the meeting that councillor Peter Golob had been scrutinising the information published by the Coastal Learning Partnership and asked him to brief the room.
He explained that in his opinion it was difficult to see how St George’s financial figures projections or the future pupil numbers had been derived or how they relate to one another in a consistent way.
Councillor Peter Golob said:
“Having looked at the documentation, I am astounded actually, about how poor this consultation is. And the evidence of how poor it is, is the fact that the CLP has issued no less than three Frequently Asked Questions updates in the last nine days since the original consultation document was published.
“Normally, what happens in a consultation is you put out a consultation document, it contains all the information that all consultees might need in order to form a view on the options or the issues to be discussed. In this case, we have a drip feed of new information every two days. And this is just no way to run a railway, as they say. You just can’t do that.”
He suggested:
“The whole consultation should be put on ice until they can be in a position to provide consultees with accurate information based on consistent metrics, disclose all the relevant assumptions, and allow consultees to examine that data in a proper manner, as with all other normal consultations.”
The numbers of pupils at St Mark’s are predicted to decline rapidly
“The elephant in the room”
Councillor Pete Christie chipped in:
“I wish to address the elephant in the room. Why is St Mark’s school losing pupils? It’s because, frankly, St George’s in Langton is a much better school…
“My children who went to our village school, now aged 40 and 44, when I told them the news about the school they were gobsmacked. They said, ‘Dad you need to fight this’, and I said don’t worry, I will!”
“It’s not all down to the birthrate”
Councillor Maggie Sutton questioned:
“Where is the challenge in regard to St Mark’s? The number of pupils is rapidly reducing at St Mark’s and it’s not all down to the birthrate.”
The Langton Matravers school around 1918
“Fighting for the community of Langton Matravers”
Chair Daryl Pearson concluded:
“I love this school and I love this village. In this year alone, we’ve had five young couples who’ve moved to the village and they’ve all moved here because of the school. They are joining the allotments, the Scouts, and the church.
“It’s really important for older people to see young children in the village. We could end up with no young people if the school closes, and then we all might as well just move straight to the Rectory nursing home! I for one don’t want to do that, although I’m sure it is lovely!
“What I’m saying is that already my life has changed because the shop closed and so you don’t see people walking backwards and forwards. I do see all the mums parking outside and I do think oh no I won’t be able to park now, but they get their kids and they are all chatting and that is absolutely wonderful and that is the joy of village life. So this school is critical and it would be catastrophic if they close the school
“So I thank the parents – you have got the ability and the stamina to fight, because you’ll be fighting not just for your children, but you’ll be fighting for the community of Langton Matravers.”
The parish council voted to write to the CLP to get answers to their many questions.
St George’s has seen generations of local families attend the school
Decline in pupil numbers
The issue of falling pupil numbers is both local and national but particularly acute at St Mark’s school. St George’s has always been a small school by design, offering a distinctive option to the larger primaries.
However the number of children requiring a place in a primary school in England is expected to fall by around 300,000 by 2030. There were 16 percent fewer births in England and Wales in 2025, compared to 2015.
Coastal Learning Partnership says it is keen to emphasise that no final decision has been made, and that the consultation process is absolutely open and transparent.
It says the challenge is the decline in pupil numbers and the options are to do something between the two schools, or to do nothing and accept that teaching will have to be done in increasingly wider age group classes.
The school survived World War Two but may get scuppered by the Coastal Learning Partnership
Consultation timeline
The consultation is open until Friday 10th July 2026. Three information sessions have been organised for parents, carers, and members of the community, where they can find out more about the proposal and ask questions.
- Monday 15th June 2026: 2 pm at St Mark’s for parents and carers of either school
- Tuesday 16th June 2026: 2 pm at St. George’s for parents and carers of either school
- Thursday 18th June 2026: 6 pm at St George’s for wider community members and parents
St Mark’s in on the site of the old Swanage middle school
Resistance to closing schools in 2008
The debate has opened the old wounds of the Purbeck Review of Schools by Dorset County Council in 2008.
When the county council proposed changing the school system from three tier to two tier by closing all the middle schools including the one in Swanage, there was also the suggestion of amalgamating the first schools in Swanage to make a large primary school on the old middle school site.
In the end, due to fierce campaigns by parents and the local community, the non denominational Mount Scar now known as Swanage primary school, the St Mary’s Catholic school in Swanage, and the St George’s Church of England school in Langton Matravers became individual primary schools.
The money was found by the county council to expand the schools and improve their facilities. It was only St Mark’s which moved to the new site. It joined the Coastal Learning Partnership as an academy on 1st July 2015.
Both St George’s and the Swanage primary school officially converted to academies and joined the Coastal Learning Partnership on 1st January 2024.
Further information
- Read the letter and consultation document
- Complete the Coastal Learning Partnership consultation form or submit comments and queries via email mergeconsult@coastalpartnership.co.uk
- Websites of St George’s and St Mark’s primary schools
