Please help save our school!

If there is anybody out there who has been through a similar situation as this then I would appreciate some advice on what we can do to stop it.

The UK government has decided that small schools in Cheshire, UK are to be amalgamated to cut costs (to help fund invading some other country that is nothing to do with us no doubt) and my childrens school (Kingsley St Johns Primary School) is one of those. We are a small rural village in Cheshire and the school is the centre of the community providing excellent education for our children as well as extra curriclar activities.

The proposal is to merge Kingsley and Norley resulting in the closure of one of the schools. This means that the children from the school that gets closed will have to travel further to school making walking impossible So now we all have to use our cars and burn more fossil fuel because of the distance and unsafe road - no pavement for a good chunk of the way.

And what about those children who's parents do not own a car?

There is little public transport available, and none between the two villages, so how are these children expected to get to school? Young primary school children are far too young to be put on any school bus so the use of a car will become mandatory.

Some of the problems this merger will cause are:

Larger classes will result in the children getting less of the attention they need to progress,
The loss of a successful and caring school with a broad and balanced curriculum
As mentioned above road traffic, pollution and parking difficulties will increase.
Once a school has been closed and the land used for building (more houses no doubt) there is little chance it will ever be re-opened in the future. Plus, new houses will probably mean more future pupils!
I could rant a little more because I really am woried about the future education of my children and I really do not understand this government. On the one hand they are telling us that children are failing to learn to read and write properley and to sort this out they decide to close a number of schools that are successfully addressing this issue!

Anyway, enough ranting. If anybody anywhere has successfully fought a similar situation then please could you contact me (leave comments here) so that we can try some of the things you did.

Thank you.