PARENTS at local school have mounted a campaign to save a nearby primary because they fear closure will mean massive class sizes for their own children.

Governors at High Lawn CP in Astley Bridge are "amazed" at a plan to increase the school's intake to 40 pupils per year.

They say facilities such as toilets and dining areas are too small to take in extra children from the closure threatened Oldhams CP and the proposals will create real health and safety problems.

But their greatest fear is that standards of education will be eroded if the successful school has to increase the junior class sizes to 40 pupils.

Education chiefs say an extra classroom combined with existing mixed age classes should enable the school to meet the government's infant class size targets of 30.

However, the school say mixed age lessons only work now because class sizes are kept small - about 24 pupils - but will rise to about 30 children under the present proposals.

They also say a lack of extra classrooms for the juniors will mean 40 pupils in each year group forced to squeeze into one class once they enter Year Three.

GOVERNORS have branded the proposals "educationally unsound" and are organising a campaign to block the plans when they go before the education committee next week.

They will also oppose any suggestions to build classrooms for the juniors because it will force the school to introduce mixed age classes at Key Stage 2.

A school spokesman said: "We are amazed at the recommendation to increase our intake to 40 as at no stage in the consultation process has this been raised as a possibility.

"As a school we wanted to take the opportunity to reduce our intake to 30 in line with government thinking and to provide an even better level of education for the children of High Lawn - not to increase our numbers.

"We can get no response from the local education authority as to how we would be expected to organise classes with additional numbers of children. This ill conceived idea has never been thought through.

"The only definite information the governors have received is that no change will be made before September 2000."

A SPOKESMAN for the education authority said it was not appropriate to comment on individual working proposals before the education and arts committee make their final decisions next week.

But they said the fine detail about each recommendation made by the committee will be included in a legal statement of case which has to go to the Department for Education and Employment.

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