PEOPLE fighting for the long term future of Ysgol Dewi Sant packed out another public meeting on Thursday night (February 5).

The meeting was chaired by Councillor David Lloyd, who began by congratulating everyone who took part in the mass protest outside County Hall ahead of last month’s extraordinary meeting, during which a last minute amendment was made to retain YDS for 11-16 year olds.

“On the Wednesday night I was perfectly aware that the school was closing,” said Cllr Lloyd, “and my heart was broken.

“Thursday morning’s protest reminded me very much of the 80’s miners’ strike, when it was the women who came out and fought the campaign. They found a voice which they are never going to give up and that’s exactly what’s going to happen here.”

But the celebrations proved short lived when Cllr Lloyd claimed the retention of the sixth form would be “highly unlikely.”

He said: “It’s been suggested by some of the more cynical friends of mine on the council that the amendment was a last minute throw away by the leader to possibly save his seat at Keeston, but knowing full well that retaining YDS without a sixth form would be even less sustainable.”

Cllr Lloyd said the best chance of saving the school would be to merge it with the primary school at Ysgol Bro Dewi and re-designate it to a Church in Wales school. That, he said, would be a “lovely and wholly appropriate progression.”

But not everyone agreed. Vicki Skeats said she was really disappointed that Cllr Lloyd was almost resigned to losing the sixth form.

“I think it’s absolutely vital to the school,” she said, “and without it, funding will gradually go down until it’s unsustainable financially and then they’ll close it anyway.”

Former YDS teacher Dai Davies agreed. He said: “Sixth forms are not only about academic qualifications, they are about other opportunities as well.

“In Gwent, eight secondary schools lost their sixth form - that’s eight first rugby teams, eight first hockey teams, eight senior orchestras and eight drama clubs, all gone.”

Jane Booth comes from a Borough of London where the authorities got rid of all the school sixth forms. She said: “When I left five years ago they were actually looking to bring them back, because they realised that with one central college parents who felt it wasn’t right for their children were moving out of the area.

“My worry is, if we lose the sixth form in St Davids, it will be gone forever.”

Canon Dorrien Davies is a firm supporter of YDS and was at the protest. He said: “After an initial sense of elation, I’m starting to fear the lifeline that has been thrown to us is a rather frayed one.

“Why can’t they not carry on and do what they propose to do for Haverfordwest and Fishguard and just leave us alone to do as much as we possibly can, offering as many A Levels as we possibly can, and then those things we are not able to provide for our sixth formers, send them to Haverfordwest, which is what we’ve been doing.”

The Labour Candidate for Preseli Pembrokeshire and County Councillor Paul Miller was also in attendance. He warned people to think very carefully about the decision made at the extraordinary meeting.

He said: “What they’ve effectively decided to do is leave Ysgol Dewi Sant as a school in isolation in St Davids. The idea of the recommendation was to tackle surplus places, nothing in that recommendation has done any of that, so that issue is coming back one day.

“Let’s work with people in the know to come up with a model which sustains rural service provision. You allow that first battle to be lost around sixth form provision, and the next battle is right around the corner.”

One lady, who did not wish to be named, provided a little bit of controversy towards the end of the meeting. She said: “I personally don’t see the problem of closing the sixth form. My son is in the sixth form at YDS and he had very little choice of what he did for his A Levels. If it means my daughter will have more choice, then I’m for it.”

Around a dozen members at the meeting put their names forward to be on a steering group, which will meet again next week to decide their aims and objectives, the most obvious being to secure a sustainable future for Ysgol Dewi Sant.