THE children's author behind the international bestseller The Gruffalo has joined the campaign against the closure of her local primary school on the outskirts of Glasgow.
Julia Donaldson, Britain's children's laureate, said there would be a terrible impact if East Dunbartonshire Council closed Bearsden Primary School.
The popular children's writer, who sent two of her children to the school, spoke out after the council brought forward plans to merge Bearsden Primary with another school as part of a wider shake-up.
Last month, Mark Knopfler, former singer with the rock group Dire Straits, and Darius Campbell, a platinum-selling singer-songwriter and actor, also backed the campaign to save the school.
The author said: "I am concerned about the possible closure of Bearsden Primary School, not least for the children, teachers and parents who will be affected, but I also worry for the wider community here.
"Closing the school will have a terrible impact on the amenities that are based at Bearsden Cross, where the local shops will no doubt lose trade. I'm concerned too that there will be more traffic on the already busy roads, with parents driving their children who might otherwise walk to and from school."
Wendy McLaren, from the action group Save Bearsden Primary, welcomed the author's support.
She said: "Our school is situated in the heart of Bearsden and plays a major role in the life of our vibrant and close-knit community.
"It has a healthy and increasing school roll with fantastic teachers and support staff, and our children's attainment levels are above average.
"We can see no educational or social benefit for moving our school from its current site.
"We can't believe that there is only one option on the table being considered for Bearsden Primary. We want the council and councillors to stop this consultation and have a proper and meaningful discussion with parents."
In December, councillors voted to go to public consultation on a set of plans for school closures and mergers which currently affects 24 out of the 36 East Dunbartonshire Council primaries.
Under one package of measures Bearsden Primary would be moved and merged with Castlehill Primary, more than a mile away, and there is the option of a merger of Westerton and Colquhoun Park primaries.
East Dunbartonshire says it needs to reduce the number of its primary schools because they are operating well below their capacity and some of the buildings are in need of refurbishment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article