Parents and governors at two schools claim Bradford Council is wasting their time by making them choose middle school places - which might not exist by next September.

And they have called for a delay in the procedure for transferring pupils to middle schools until the fate of the proposed education shake-up is known.

If the schools review is approved by Education Minister David Blunkett in December all the district's middle schools will have closed by the start of September 1999.

And children who would have been due to make the move from first school to middle school will be taught in new primaries, catering for four to 11-year-olds, instead.

But Bradford Council's education directorate says parents should still make a list of three preferred middle schools, in case the scheme is rejected or delayed.

In a letter sent out this week to parents of youngsters transferring schools in September 1999, principal education officer Jennie Sadowskyj says: "Until the decision is made by the Secretary of State, the LEA continues to make arrangements for pupils to transfer to existing middle schools."

Chairman of governors at Bolton Woods First School, Elvira Grisag - whose eight-year-old son is due to change schools next year - says that is just wasting the time of parents and teachers.

She said: "Parents are being asked to spend time setting up interviews and tours around schools which will probably close. It wouldn't do any harm to delay this procedure."

Ray Shilling, chairman of governors at Tong Park First School, said: "Parents are being asked to tell children who like a particular middle school they may not be going - and if they do, they'll only be staying a year."

A spokesman for the Council's education directorate said: "It is a legal requirement to ask parents to express their preferences for schools and, unfortunately, we cannot delay this procedure ."

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