CELIA WIGG Save Our School was the message from Brandon parents who on Saturday demonstrated against Suffolk County Council's controversial proposals to scrap middle schools.

CELIA WIGG

Save Our School was the message from Brandon parents who on Saturday demonstrated against Suffolk County Council's controversial proposals to scrap middle schools.

About 50 people gathered outside Breckland Middle School which will be one of the casualties if the council carries through its plan to switch from three-tier to a two-tier system.

Linking arms and waving banners they chanted "Save our School" in a show of solidarity with other campaign groups across the county who are urging the education authority to think again.

District councillor Eddie Steward said: "I love this school and I am here because I believe passionately that the three tier is a better system. I feel children of 11 going into an environment of up to 19-year-olds can be intimidating and I am not convinced by the statistics that are being quoted."

Bill Bishop added: "I am a school governor and a county councillor and I am very much against closing middle schools... I have been in local government for 40 years and I have never experienced such a tide of people protesting."

The Brandon campaigners criticised the lack of consultation by the county council, a concern also raised by Suffolk National Union of Teachers, whose members oppose the scheme.