Small rural schools have been a target for cutbacks for years and parents, staff and pupils are often fearful for their future. But now one group of Herefordshire schools, including two in the Ross area – Kings Caple Primary School and Llangrove Primary, is bucking the trend. Four schools, nine assistant heads and two headteachers could be a recipe for disaster but instead Peter Box and Paul Whitcombe have shown what can be achieved when schools join together.

Kings Caple had just 29 pupils when the headteacher retired in 2009 and had been threatened with closure for years. Now numbers are increasing and there is an air of optimism that can also be felt at Llangrove School.

They are both part of a goundbreaking collaboration which began when Kings Caple joined forces with Lord Scudamore Foundation School, a city school with 629 pupils and Sutton St Nicholas Primary, which has 80. At the end of last year Llangrove Primary School joined the federation, which had already made history by being the first in the country to be inspected. Read the full report in this week's Gazette.