Baby-boom village mothers win their battle of the bulge

A GROUP of mothers in Warwickshire have helped to save their village school by increasing the birth rate in their area. Parents from Napton on the Hill have produced 18 new babies and expected arrivals in the past year.

In April the mothers announced that they had set a 'quota' of 13 babies a year for the 1,000-resident village after its primary school was targeted for closure. They were already expecting six children, and now a further 12 are on the way.

This week Napton on the Hill Church of England First School was told the local diocese had decided to build new premises in the rapidly growing village.

Helen Eadon, who led the campaign, said: 'The first thing was to get recognition of the need for a primary school in our area, and secondly we wanted recognition that a school should be in the same place as the community that it serves.'

Marion Gilbert, headteacher of the school, said she was delighted by the news but doubted that many families had decided to have babies purely to save the school.