Parents have been plunged into uncertainty over the future of a Baildon school which could face the axe after education chiefs admitted they got their sums wrong.

Governors at Ferniehurst Primary School fear it could close under a NEW schools review which the Telegraph & Argus can reveal is being proposed for primary schools in Baildon.

A leaked document from assistant education director Dennis Williams says a mini-review could be necessary after Council chiefs admitted they had overestimated the number of places at schools in the village. The schools sub-committee is to consider the reduction of places in Baildon at its meeting on Thursday, October 14.

If councillors approve the plan, the whole proposal will have to be sent out to full consultation at all schools in the Baildon area - which could take months to complete.

Education chairman Councillor Susanne Rooney would not confirm any closure decision but added: "If Ferniehurst is to stay open and be viable it may need to put other education provision in the school, such as making it a base for an educational support team."

She said the miscalculation of the number of pupils was due to parents taking their children out of Baildon towards Guiseley for their education, which meant birth rates used to estimate class sizes were thrown out.

"We hope once the school system begins to work and they see the excellence of primary teaching the schools provide, these pupils who go out of the authority will return to Baildon schools. That's why we are reluctant to take any extra provision out. We hope that with restored buildings and with excellent staff they would come back to the authority. I only wish the parents would recognise that."

But Stuart Carr, a parent governor at Ferniehurst, in Cliffe Lane West, said parents were furious at the ongoing uncertainty.

"Ferniehurst is under threat and our parents are very angry. They are concerned it will push Ferniehurst towards closure."

Under the agreed reorganisation, Tong Park First in Baildon will close and five others, including Ferniehurst, will remain open. They were planned to cater for eight forms of entry, each consisting of 30 pupils. But now it has been accepted there will only be enough new starters to fill seven forms - a vital deficit since school funding is directly related to numbers of pupils.

Ferniehurst is already critically under subscribed with 125 pupils in a school that caters for 210.

One suggestion is for Baildon CE Primary - which was to have expanded and moved from Jenny Lane to a new site on the closing Ladderbanks Middle - to stay put on its existing site. In the past, Baildon CE governors have said they would be prepared to remain in the Jenny Lane building which has undergone a great deal of renovation in the past decade.

If Baildon CE remains on its current site it would solve the deficit, but not the problem for Ferniehurst.

"We are not sustainable or viable and have no chance of becoming so in the near future," said Mr Carr. Concerned parents have formed an action group and are calling on the Council to guarantee the school will have a future.

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