PROTESTORS are stepping up their campaign against the possible closure of a primary school.

Demonstrators, who have held a protest outside the school, are rallying local MPs and councillors to save Tedder Primary School, south Thornaby.

Stockton Borough Council claims that there has been a dramatic drop in the number of pupils attending Bader, Tedder and Thornaby Church of England primary schools, in Thornaby.

It says that it will have a surplus of 500 primary school places soon, after a fall from 2,043 pupils in 1996 to an estimated 1,543 in 2006.

As a result, three options are to be considered by councillors.

One is to close both Tedder and the Church of England school and move pupils to Bader. Another is to close Tedder and distribute pupils between the other two schools, while the final option is to keep all three schools open.

Diane Marley, a member of a group of parents who are campaigning to keep Tedder open, claims class sizes will swell to between 30 and 35 children if a school is closed.

She said: "The government wants to reduce class sizes to 30, and I read in a national newspaper that some children might need to be moved down a year to do this.

"We do not want this to happen to our children. My daughter is eight, and she is very intelligent and top of her class.

"She is at a crucial age and I do not want her to have the disruption of moving school."

Mrs Marley said that a protest had been staged outside the school, and more would follow.

"The problem with amalgamating the schools is that the other two schools look down on Tedder, and we do not want our children to have to put up with that environment," she said.

"Some people say that the school's closure is a foregone conclusion, but we want to show as much opposition as possible."

A consultation exercise has already been held in the three schools by Stockton council.

The council claims falling pupil numbers means less Government cash for the schools