MEMO TO MR BLAIR: I AM devastated to hear that Hurworth School may close. Both myself and husband received a high standard of education at Hurworth School.

We have our own children now and have specifically moved back to Hurworth, so that our children could be educated in a smaller school, where they can walk to school, and receive a high standard of education.

Within a village you tend to hear of any trouble, ie bullying, poor behaviour sooner rather than later and staff are more aware of what is going on and know the children as individuals.

I am dismayed that anyone can think merging Eastbourne School and Hurworth School will be to the benefit of our children. Hurworth have worked hard to achieve the pass rate they have, the villagers have raised money, to enable it to become a Maths and Computing College.

In my opinion, in larger schools the children become just numbers, there is a higher risk of peer pressure and bullying. The class numbers could be larger which means the individual children do not receive the same amount of attention.

Does Mr Blair honestly think that by having a state-of-the-art school, that the children who currently truant and misbehave at Eastbourne will all of a sudden want to learn? Their example could affect our children's performance.

I would rather have old equipment and smaller classes than a large state-of-the-art school. Look at private education, their classes are small and they have excellent results.

Mr Blair goes on about the importance of education, but at the end of the day it all boils down to money. Mr Blair should be proud of Hurworth and be using it as an advertisement for his Government. Why change something that is working so well?

I feel that the heart and soul will be taken out of the village and we will end up just a large housing estate.

Mr Blair goes on about parents having choices and rights re their children's education. We have not been included in any consultation process and the only choices I feel I personally have, is to whether we move away from our family and friends to an alternate village that still has a village school or will it be financially viable to send our children to private education.

These are decisions we should not have to make and if Mr Blair had any consideration for the education of our children he would not have put us in this dilemma.

To add further insult, they are proposing to call the new school, Hurworth School, when it is not in Hurworth, this is a misadvertisement and they are going to build it near one of the busiest roundabouts in the town, the children will have to leave at 8am if they are to reach school on time! I cannot think of anything positive about this proposal.

I hope Mr Blair and the council will listen to the opinions of those that matter, the parents and children and rethink their decision and look at other ways of turning Eastbourne around and leaving Hurworth in the village where it belongs. - Mrs Wilson, Hurworth.

COURAGEOUS CHANGE: I FEEL the proposal to close both Eastbourne and Hurworth Schools and to create one school for both to be a very courageous one.

No one likes change. I have total respect for the views of the people of Hurworth. However, if one believes that it is a right of every child to receive a first class education where they can reach their full potential, irrespective or where they live, then this proposal is the right one.

The teaching staff from Hurworth will be transferring to the new school so the high standards and ethos will be carried into the new school It is not educational vandalism.

The new school will have facilities which are badly needed by both schools and the technology in the new school will enable each and every child to receive a first class education.

The only worry I have is access to and egress from the proposed school on Yarm Road.

I do not feel Darlington Borough Council fully appreciates or has any viable solutions to the traffic congestion which Darlington faces - but that's another story - Alan Macnab, Darlington.