Angry parents fighting to keep Queen Anne School open launched an attack on York education chiefs in a heated debate about its future.

Concerns over classroom bullying, teacher job losses, over-crowded class sizes, parental choices and the future of pupils half-way through their GCSEs were all voiced by concerned parents, staff and school governors.

More than 100 people attended the consultation exercise at Queen Anne School following plans to close it and expand the nearby Canon Lee School with extra classrooms and facilities.

Parents expressed fears that animosity between the two schools could lead to bullying and fighting if pupils were brought together.

One parent, who addressed the meeting, but who asked not to be named, said: "The children have not been given enough time to get used to the idea. Dealing with the fact that the school is closing is enough for them without the extra worry of joining other pupils at another school, which is quite frankly cruel and at worst dangerous."

The idea behind plans to close the city centre school is to tackle the high number of surplus secondary school places in the city. Queen Anne School is less than half full with 314 pupils in a 724-place school and Canon Lee, which has 500 places, is full.

However, parents last night attacked education chiefs for not promoting Queen Anne School enough to prospective parents and "juggling with the futures" of hundreds of children in the city.

Jenni Smith, who spoke on a number of occasions during the three-hour meeting, attacked the council for wasting taxpayers' money after it was proposed that the Canon Lee extension would cost about £2,500,000.

She said: "This isn't a consultation exercise, the decision has already been made. But what happens if parents don't want to send their children to Canon Lee, where are they going to go?

"All the schools in the city are full, and what happens to parental choice?"

Parents, staff and school governors are all being asked about the proposals as part of a consultation exercise, which ends on December 2.

A consultation document about the plans will be going out to all parents this week.

Councillor Janet Looker, chairwoman of the council's education committee, who also addressed the meeting, said the council had the best interests of the city's children at heart.

"Year after year I have watched the pupil numbers at Queen Anne slide down.

"North Yorkshire County Council could not turn this around and nor could York."

She added that as a result of the dropping figures the curriculum at the school was not as varied and was suffering because of the small numbers.

There will be another consultation meeting at Canon Lee School on Wednesday, November 18, at 7pm.

The consultation document is available to other residents from the council's educational services office, council department receptions and libraries.

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