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<h1 class="entry-title">Bangor Primary School Closures Confirmed</h1>
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<p>Posted by <a href="http://www.thebangoraye.com/author/badmin/" class="gmail-url gmail-fn" title="Posts by The Bangor Aye" rel="author">The Bangor Aye</a> | <span class="gmail-updated">Nov 6, 2018</span> | <a href="http://www.thebangoraye.com/category/bangor-news/" rel="tag">Bangor News</a> | <a class="gmail-comments-link" href="http://www.thebangoraye.com/bangor-primary-school-closures-confirmed/#comments">0 <span title="comment count" class="gmail-comment-bubble gmail-post-meta-icon"></span></a> | <span class="gmail-rating-stars" title="Rating: 0.00"><span class="gmail-post-meta-icon gmail-rating-star gmail-rating-star-empty gmail-rating-star-1"></span>
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<img src="http://www.thebangoraye.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ysgol-Glanadda.jpg" alt="Bangor Primary School Closures Confirmed"> </div>
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<p>Gwynedd Councillors have voted unanimously to close Ysgol
Glanadda and Ysgol Babanod Coed Mawr primary schools in Bangor and for
the building of a new Ysgol y Garnedd, which will accommodate up to 420
pupils.</p>
<p>Cabinet member for education, Cllr Gareth Thomas, said: “Ysgol y
Garnedd is over capacity and the building is not fit for purpose. They
find it hard with a lack of space and facilities which has a detrimental
effect on staff and pupils, so a new school was one of the main
objectives.</p><div id="gmail-ad-inline">
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<p>“There’s a lack of space to build in Bangor so it was difficult to
find a suitable site but thankfully we found one. Its been very
difficult to appoint headteachers to Glanadda and Coed Mawr, which has
also formed part of the decision process.”</p>
<p>Cllr Gareth Thomas also referred to the new Ysgol Glancegin in
Maesgeirchen, which he said had “state of the art facilities, and has
already proved its worth in the city.”</p>
<p>The main objections raised were the concerns about the increase of
traffic and safety of children on an already busy Penrhos Road, which
serves several schools in the area and Ysbyty Gwynedd.</p>
<p>The council were informed that the new school is double the size of
the existing Ysgol y Garnedd but will provide an additional 30 parking
spaces for staff and visitors and that traffic management will also be
in place to improve the process of dropping children off and collecting
them from school, easing congestion along Penrhos Road.</p>
<p>Cllr Thomas added: “I understand the concerns over Penrhos Road and
we could also look at the possibly staggering opening and closing times,
which could improve the traffic situation, but that would be down to
the individual schools.”</p>
<p>Concerns were also raised by local residents about the use of Penrhos
Avenue during the construction of the new school, Cllr Dafydd Gibbard
confirmed that heavy vehicles would only use the main entrance to the
site and only workers vehicles will use Penrhos Ave.</p>
<p>Councillor Elin Walker-Jones for Glyder Ward in Bangor, supported the
plans for the new school but said: “There are concerns regarding
shutting Glanadda and Coed Mawr and I’m aware that the chair of
governors has asked to keep Glanadda open.</p>
<p>“Concerns have also been raised over Welsh medium education at Ysgol y
Garnedd due to the change in demography, despite the efforts of other
Bangor schools in terms of the Welsh language, I’d want to see y Garnedd
given the support it needs to continue offering this Welsh ethos, even
with greater pupil numbers.”</p>
<p>Cllr Gareth Thomas noted that all schools in Gwynedd should adhere to
the same language policy, but accepted the feeling that Y Garnedd has a
stronger emphasis for providing Welsh medium education.</p>
<p>Calls had been made to delay the decision on the closures but Cllr
Gareth Thomas added that the deferring the decision would delay the
construction of the new school and disrupt the funding from the Welsh
Government, requiring the whole process to start again.</p>
<p>The proposal was carried unanimously which means that Ysgol Glanadda and Ysgol Babanod Coed Mawr will close in August 2020.</p></div></div>
<br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div></div>