WORRIED parents hit out at Education yesterday for considering closing any primary school. La Mare de Carteret is thought to be one of the prime candidates for closure if Education decides the island has too many primary schools.

The department is currently conducting a review of all States primaries.

Parents collecting their children yesterday were unanimous in their dismay at any suggestion the school could face closure.

Lisa Bourgaize, who has a four-year-old and a 10-year-old there, said she would be angry if the school was shut.

‘My eldest son might be going to La Mare Secondary next year and we live close by so I would not like having to go to two different schools because my youngest had been sent elsewhere,’ she said.

And she did not think Guernsey had too many schools.

‘Not at all. Where could the kids from La Mare be sent to? Castel would be pretty full already because it’s a good catchment and people want to get their kids in there. It would not make any sense to me at all to close any school.

‘A lot of parents don’t drive either. They walk their kids to and from school, so it would be a complete nightmare for them.’

Michaela De La Mare has two children at the school and questioned the sense of sending them elsewhere.

‘Where would they go? Other schools are either too far away or full,’ she said.

‘I think the number of pupils in each class varies from year to year at La Mare. One of my kids is in a class of 12 but the other has 19 in his.

‘I do not see how they could combine two schools and would be really upset if La Mare was closed because I live really close by. I usually walk to pick them up.’

She said a lot of parents did not have cars and would find it impossible to drop off and collect their children if they were moved to another school.

La Mare currently has 320 pupils and nearly 40 staff.

Sharon Alabaster, whose twin boys attend the school, said it would not affect her because her sons are about to complete their 11-plus.

‘But if it had happened earlier I would have been very upset about it,’ she said.

‘The boys’ class is quite small and I think that has been of benefit to them because they have had more one-to-one teaching.

‘I don’t think the island has too many primary schools and I think most parents would be absolutely furious if La Mare closed.’