THOUSANDS of signatures have been collected on a petition urging Northumberland County Council to keep their “Hands Off Our Schools!”

Despite not being immediately threatened by closure, parents with children at Broomhaugh First School in Riding Mill have joined forces to coordinate a response to proposals which could dramatically change the future of their children’s education and signal the introduction of a two-tier education system.

Three options put forward by the council for consideration, as part of a review of education in the west, identify more than sixteen schools as at risk of closure with the closure of the middle schools in Bellingham, Corbridge, Haltwhistle and Hexham among them.

Within 12 hours, an online petition which highlights schools as being at the heart of many of Tynedale’s rural communities, was inundated with responses.

As it stands, more than 3,200 concerned parents, teachers, family members and residents have put their name to the document on change.org which calls for an end to the current consultation, the removal of the proposed two-tier model and an improved funding package for schools across Tynedale.

With individual schools already developing plans on how to fight for their future, the petition has prompted a move towards forming one united campaign against all of the closures.

Parent Helen Yates, who lives in Riding Mill, and has two daughters in year one and year three at Broomhaugh First School said: “Broomhaugh is not one of the schools earmarked for potential closure, but my heart goes out to families in villages where this is suddenly looking like a real possibility.

“They will lose the heart of their community and have to deal with massive change and upheaval - and for what?

“There’s no real evidence the system is failing. The way the council is looking at surplus numbers, for instance, is all wrong and totally skews the picture.”

However, Broomhaugh is a feeder school for Corbridge Middle School, which is earmarked for closure along with four other middle schools as part of the council’s Option B, while some first schools would become primaries.

Hannah Thorpe also lives in Riding Mill and has a child at both Broomhaugh and Corbridge Middle.

“Corbridge Middle has been earmarked as a sad casualty in all of this but Northumberland needs to be viewed as the special case that it truly is.

“The area is so sparse and many of the villages so remote, that the current system is the only way to work things.

“And I was brought up in a two-tier system in Gloucestershire. But parents here don’t want to be left with some kind of strange mix of both and have to chose when to pull their child out of school.”

She said the scale of the proposed closures and the fact that an academy trust outside of council control appeared to have a key role in the decisions being made, was a concern for many.

Deputy leader of Northumberland County Council, Coun. Wayne Daley is cabinet member for children’s services and has insisted that the council is seeking other ideas as part of the consultation.

“Many small schools with low pupil numbers and low levels of funding will struggle to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum offer in the future,” he said.

“We are committed to significant investment to drive forward the changes asked of us. We will be working closely with all those involved in education in the west of the county, with staff, parents and the wider community to find a solution that will be in the best educational interests of all the children in the area.”

This phase of the consultation will run until April 9 with the next public drop-in event organised by the council due to take place on Saturday, March 17, between 10am and 3pm at Hexham Mart Function Suite.