£1 A WEEK TO SAVE SMALL COMMUNITY SCHOOLS FROM CLOSURE

Donate £1 a week to help save village schools throughout Wales from closure - and you could also win up to £500, Farmers' Union of Wales vice president Glyn Roberts revealed today.

Speaking on the FUW stand at the National Eisteddfod in Bala, Mr Roberts welcomed the Association of Communities in Wales with Small Schools (ACWSS) decision to set up a partnership with a new group "Hyrwyddo Ysgolion Bach - Promoting Small Schools" (HYB).

"With local education authorities and the Welsh Assembly Government devoting huge sums of money to closing small schools, it is important that we fund an independent piece of research that campaigners can use to show hard facts for keeping open small schools and not just anecdotal emotional evidence," said Mr Roberts.

"The HYB group will focus initially on raising funds to carry out a pilot review to identify research already carried out in support of small schools and identify areas for further research in a bid to strengthen the argument for retaining small schools. This may include research on areas where communities have experienced school closure."

The FUW is a member of ACWSS together with the Small Schools Fund, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW), Merched y Wawr, Wales National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI); and Wales Young Farmers Clubs (YFC).

ACWSS chairman Cris Tomos, of the Small Welsh School Fund, said £1 a week from fund members across Wales had now enabled ACWSS to work in partnership with HYB.

"The partnership is utilising the money raised from the £1 a week fund to commissioning an independent expert to carry out research on the effect of education, parental involvement, community services and total taxpayers cost of closing small schools. The details of the research work can be found on the ACWSS website www.acwss.org.uk

"It is great to see people willing to put £1 a week into the draw fund to save small schools but also it is important to note that people can and have won a substantial amount of prize money.

"Since launching the Small Schools fund in 2005 we have paid out prizes worth £12,600 to the members of the fund which is run as a local lottery.

"We now wish to encourage new groups and areas to be part of the fund and groups drawing in new members will get £5 commission per person, so 20 new members by a community group will give them £100 commission as well as helping to obtain research evidence to support small schools.

"The Small School fund is a worthwhile cause to be involved with and we hope the research document will be regarded as independent evidence when communities conduct consultation exercises to save small schools."

Prospective new members need to print off a membership form from the above website address to contribute a £1 a week collected every 13 weeks via standing order. People can also pay by cheque.

For a chance to win ACWSS lottery prizes, and support efforts to save small schools, join the Small School Fund by contacting Cris Tomos on 01239 831962 or see www.acwss.org.uk

For further information about the work of ACWSS contact the secretary, Deb Wozencraft, on 01938 552525.

NOTE TO EDITORS: A picture is attached of the prizewinners of the last Small Schools Fund lottery drawn at the FUW pavilion during the Royal Welsh Show.

CAPTION: The top three winners of the draw - in which 26 people won prize money to the value of £1,400 - were Julie Davies, a housewife from Hermon, who won £500; Gerwyn Jones, head master of Hafodwenog Primary School, who won £300 and Denzil Davies, a farmer from Llanfyrnach, who won £100. All the other winners of this draw and previous draws can be viewed on the ACWSS website