1	Please reconsider the closure of this important village school.  I believe that you have not taken into account the 7 children who would be starting in 2025, and siblings. Parents of potential pupils have been deterred from enrolling because of this threatened closure. This school is very well run and a happy educational place for all pupils. Also it would have detrimental impact on Daisy Day Care as parents will take nursery aged children to the other feeder facilities. This closure will also rip the heart out of the village community. I understand your objective is to save money but I feel you should place more importance on the well being of young children and the quality of their education.	Grandparent
2	Dear Sir or Madam. I am the Nursery Manager of Daisy Day Care, a private Nursery based in Ampleforth. We at Daisy Day Care have serious concerns about the intended closure of St Hildas. We have provided wrap-around care for most of the children at St Hildas since 2009 and know these children and their families very well. This proposal is creating immense upset and stress to the children and their parents. We have seen the recent decline in numbers at the school and have witnessed first hand the reason for this, bad leadership by the previous head, he made no attempt to reassure and keep families from leaving, most of which went to St Benedicts in Ampleforth. The children who did not leave are the ones who need to be in a smaller school, who need the extra one to one which St Hildas provides. Not all children can cope with big class sizes which the other schools have. There needs to be a local school for children with additional needs. Also, the document is misleading, there are actually 5 Nursery children presently attending St Hildas nursery school, not 2 as stated. All of these will be starting in Reception in 2025, there is also another family who have just moved to Ampleforth and wanting their child to attend. So there are at least 6 children in the pipeline who have a right to go to school in the village that they live in, not be transported 6.5 miles away on narrow country roads, which are hazardous in winter. Amplefoth is a service village and we know there are proposed future housing developments being applied for, which will bring more families to the village. Most of the present children at St Hildas will go to St Benedicts if St Hildas closes because they want to go to School with their fellow Ampleforth children and they should have a right to do that! At Daisy Day Care, we currently have 9 children who will start at St Benedicts in 32025 (that's not including the St Hildas children and any that we aren't aware of) I believe their intake is 15 per year group, so what will happen to the non-Catholic children when St Benedicts becomes full?? St Benecicts will use their Catholic policy and give places to Catholic children first. This, of course, is their right, but what will happen to others, they will be taxied out of the village, where are their rights!! Also, at Daisy Day Care with the new funding for 2 year olds and in September funding for 9 month olds, we are getting more and more requests for younger children. Because of this it has got to a point where we are now restricted to how many 3 and 4 year olds we can take. We can't physically accommodate any more, so there is a demand for more Nursery places who would go to St Hildas Nursery and then feed into the School St Hildas has a fantastic Nursery attached but these children will have no local Nursery provision if St Hildas closes. We know that St Hildas can be a viable school again, it just needs to be given the chance to ride this storm, my children attended St Hildas and myself and all the parents are very passionate about keeping it open. These childrens needs are so important and their future should be at the heart of this, not money!! Please take into account our comments and just give this lovely school a chance.	Daisy Day Care
3	Dear North Yorkshire Council, The closure of St Hildas primary school would have a huge effect on businesses and the residents of Ampleforth. I have lived in Ampleforth for 30 years and was a former pupil at St Hildas. It's always been a smaller school. However, this meant the pupils got help when they needed it. In a larger school, for example; my younger brother and sister, who are both dyslexic could have been missed, luckily St Hildas didn't and gave them both the support they required. My brother now runs his own building business in the local area, and my sister has a childcare qualification and works at a local nursery. Which then brings me on to businesses that would be affected. With the new government funding for 9 month old children coming in, places at Daisy's / other nursery's that provide care will start to have fewer places available. However, St Hildas provided a nursery setting for 3 year olds, which would benefit the children and also stop nurserys having to make a decision which children they can and can not take. This then becomes a huge issue for parents like myself who have to travel to work. A lot of parents in Ampleforth rely on Daisy's for before and after school care with wrap around. If St Hildas is to close, it's going to affect not only the parents but their businesses or their employment due to having to only be able to work school hours. Which in the current financial climate will affect many of us. I have a 3 year old son who attends the nursery at St Hildas and absolutely adores the setting and staff. This is the primary school he will be attending in September 2025. I would also be using Daisy Day Care for wrap around care so I could still go to work and afford to pay my mortgage, etc. Therefore, if St Hildas were to close, that's two childcare settings that will be affected by the closure. I really hope you take these matters and others into consideration. I know if at least 6 children would be due to start St Hildas in September 2025 and many more after this.	Parent of 3 year old
4	To whom it may concern. Dear Sir/Madam, Our Grandson was born in 2017, in Scarborough. Our son and his wife began casting around for potential schools in Scarborough, however, they were less than satisfied with those in their catchment area and,,just before the first COVID lockdown, decided to move to Ampleforth, our Daughter-in-Law's 'ancestral home, to allow him to attend St. Hilda's, where she had been educated. After all of the upheavals and all the lockdowns, caused for the children, our grandson eventually came of age to attend school and settled into St. Hilda's system. The school is now threatened with closure and I believe incorrect details of numbers have been used in the equation put forward to push this through. At least 3 families of children attending this school have moved their offspring to the local Catholic school in an endeavour to limit their disruption, on the back of the first rumours of closure, reducing numbers for this year. There are presently 13 children attending the school and 5 potential students in the nursery class, 7 wanting to start at the school in 2025 with a further 3 siblings to feed into the system there.  At least 6 families have visited St. Hilda's recently but have been put off by the threat of closure. Should this closure go ahead there will be much more strain put on the other local schools and longer commutes which will lead to longer days for the children and difficulties for families in transporting them to new schools, which will be an upset for them being uprooted from a fantastic school to new surroundings at a tender age.	Grandparent