A failing village school was forced to keep open for a single pupil at a cost of more than £18,000 to the council. Barnsley MBC spent £1,400 a day for 13 days last September to keep Worsbrough St Mary's CE Primary School open, providing a teacher and two ancillary staff, because an eight-year-old's mother did not want to move him. A council spokesman said: ‘We had a legal obligation to provide education for this boy.'
