14/05/2025
We thought we should give you an update on the future of Ysgol Sul.
With dwindling numbers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue to run Ysgol Sul every Wednesday afternoon in term time.
Ysgol Sul has been running a very long time in the village and was started by Howard and Mima Morse early in the 2000’s. Richard and Fiona Parsons took it on from 2012 with assistance from Dawn Miles and Dionne from 2013. Richard and Fiona left the village in 2016 and handed the reins to Dawn and Dionne. Dawn then left the village in 2018 and in order to keep Ysgol Sul running David agreed to help and we have been running it from that time.
We have had up to 16 children coming to Ysgol Sul, but our membership is currently down to 10. They are a great bunch of kids and we do enjoy their company, but two more will leave us in the summer as they go to Henry Richards.
With only 8 children on the books and usually two having to leave early for other activities, it becomes more difficult to arranges activities for the children. There are of course times when others can’t be there for other reasons which then makes it even more difficult.
We believe that Ysgol Sul is important to the children. However, we both work full time, and have to take time out of work to run Ysgol Sul as well as spend time in the evenings preparing stories, craft and games.
This seems to be a natural watershed for us to step down. Dionne has been doing it for 12 years and David for 7 but if there are any volunteers that want to take it on, we would be happy to assist in any handover and sharing the significant resources we have.
One of the other issues is that the hall has significantly raised their prices and financial reserves are dwindling. Previously Ysgol Sul had fund raising events to try and keep the costs of attending down for all children, but we do not have the additional time to fund raise. Going forward with just 8 or fewer children and no fund raising would raise the price to £3 per child per week.
We have been thinking and praying about this for a long time and the conclusion we have reached is that Ysgol Sul will not continue after the end of the school year without new leadership.
Our ethos has been to encourage the children to behave with love, kindness and respect for each other and all people through the teachings of the Bible in a manner that is fun and engaging.
We are sure you will be disappointed by our decision but unless there is a significant increase in numbers and some more volunteers, we do not feel able to continue with Ysgol Sul.
If you have any thoughts, ideas, questions or think you are the people to take this on, please do contact us.
