In towns and villages across the country, local schools sit at the heart of the community, however, in Cornwall, one community has proven this more than any other, after locals rallied together to save their primary school. 

Lerryn Church of England Primary School faced disaster at the end of the last academic year, after it was told by its academy trust that a lack of funding would mean they needed to scale down to a single class. 

While the school only has 17 children, this would leave one teacher having to educate students in reception, all the way up to Year 6. 

However, the community was certain they wouldn’t let this happen to the school which has been at the heart of the village for so many years.

An emergency meeting was held with more than 60 attendees from the local area, staff and the academy trust CEO. At the meeting it was decided that something needed to be done to save Lerryn Primary. 

Katrine Musgrave, chair of the Lerryn School Association, and parent of two of the school’s students, explained: “Out of this bad news came overwhelming positivity. Everyone rallied round and everyone said ‘we just need to buy ourselves a little bit of time’. 

“It was an opportunity for people to say ‘We care enough and this is special enough to keep it going’. This is a school of generational teaching.”

Following the meeting, it was decided that the community would fundraise to employ a second teacher, and keep this special place alive. With everyone playing their part, more than £30,000 was raised, enough money to hire Miss Banner, the school’s second teacher and maintain the two-class system. 

Now, fundraising once more, they hope to gain funds to pay Miss Banner’s salary for next year, which they hope will give them enough time to take on more students and become sustainable. 

“There is a sense of being one big family at the school,” continued Katrine. “We recently had an Ofsted visit and one of the children said to the inspector ‘we’re basically a great, big family’.

“Because there are less of them [students], there is a lot of scope for every child to be noticed, and for every child’s talents to come to the fore, because they are all getting a wonderful amount of care and attention up there!” 

Having recently had a new starter, Lerryn now has 18 pupils and hopes its efforts to grow will cement a future for the school. As it stands, the school, and community are having ongoing meetings with the academy trust to do what they can. 

On Saturday, December 9, the school is hosting a Christmas fair, between 11am and 1pm, which hopes to bring more people to the area and raise funds. 

To find out more about the school and donate to the cause, visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lerrynschool